Second dirtiest city?
Dhaka gets the dubious distinction of being the second dirtiest city in the world according to the Forbes magazine.
Lead-poisoned air lands Dhaka, Bangladesh, at the No. 2 spot on the list. Traffic congestion in the capital continues to worsen with vehicles emitting fatal amounts of air pollutants daily, including lead. The World Bank-funded Air Quality Management Project aims to help.
The top slot as the dirtiest city in the world is taken by Baku in Azerbaijan for having life-threatening levels of air pollution emitting from oil drilling.
All cities are positioned against New York, the base city with an index score of 100. For the Health and Sanitation Rankings, the index scores range from the worst on the list--Baku, Azerbaijan, with a score of 27.6--to the best on the list--Calgary, Canada, with a score of 131.7.
Dhaka's Mercer Health and Sanitation Index Score is 29.6.
Located in South Asia, between Burma and India, Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh battles with the constant threat of water pollution. Surface water is often thick with pollutants from the use of commercial pesticides. With an estimated 150 million people living in a relatively small area, cleaning up the problem won't be easy.
Addressing air pollution is the easiest way to be able to fix someone's well-being because we're always breathing, and there are all sorts of harmful particulates in the air," says Richard Fuller, founder of the New York-based Blacksmith Institute, a non-profit organisation dedicated to solving the pollution problems of the developing world. "In fact, the biggest pathway for lead poisoning is particulates in the air. So in areas with a lot of air pollution, shutting down the worst forces of these types of pollution really does make a difference.
The World's Cleanest Cities No.10 (Tie) Lexington, KY, Population: 260,512
Metro area: 73 square km.
Lexington is known as the Athens of the West.
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