Editorial
The cost of traffic jams
No time to lose on mitigation
In an unusually candid manner, the government has virtually admitted that the biggest culprit of air pollution is the result of long hours of excruciating traffic jams. A joint study by the government and the World Bank has found that the pollutants from vehicles stuck in gridlock along with brick kilns are creating havoc with the health and wealth of the capital.
According to the Ministry of environment and Forests, vehicles move at a snail's pace of 14km on average and if things do not improve, by 2025 it could go down to about 4km. With many unfit, diesel-run vehicles, well past their expiry dates, stranded on Dhaka's streets for hours on end, the effects of the fumes they emit are disastrously long term.
When people are stuck in these jams they inhale these toxic fumes which contain harmful gases and metal, some of which are carcinogenic. The rate of respiratory diseases has increased manifold along with the deepening of the traffic crisis. The ministry says that if this pollution can be reduced by even 20 percent then at least 1200 to 3,500 lives can be saved and 80 to 230 million cases of respiratory diseases can be avoided each year.
Apart from the cost to health and general wellbeing, a huge amount of fuel is lost while vehicles trudge along in traffic jams with the engines running. It is appalling that while cities all over the world are trying to reduce their fuel emissions, we in the country's capital have allowed the city to be engulfed in a shroud of polluted air, thanks to the everyday traffic gridlocks.
The latest World Bank-supported project of the government called clean Air and Sustainable Environment (CASE) to reduce the capital's brick kilns and vehicles which have been steadily increasing over the years is in place.
How such miracles will occur will of course depend on the sincerity of the government to enforce regulations and adopt the clean technologies promoted by the project.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments