25 years of clean air projects and the worst air quality in the world

Infograph: TBS

The World Bank recently pledged $300 million to support Bangladesh's clean air project. The goal is to strengthen air quality management and reduce emissions from key sectors.

The same agency has been funding similar air pollution prevention projects since 1998. Today, Bangladesh ranks among the lowest in the air quality index worldwide.

According to the State of Global Air 2024 report, air pollution caused over 235,000 deaths in Bangladesh in 2021 alone, underlining a significant public health challenge. The report also found that children under five years old are especially vulnerable, with health effects including premature birth, low birth weight, asthma and lung diseases.

This begs the question: After years of effort and initiatives, and spending billions of Taka, why has the country failed so miserably at fighting air pollution? And why will it be any different this time? 

It would appear the biggest problem lies with the vehicles that ply the streets of Dhaka. 

In 1998, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) initiated the Air Quality Management Project (AQM) with "the ultimate goal of reducing human exposure to vehicular air pollution in a cost-effective manner."

Under the project, in the early 2000s, two-stroke three-wheelers known as baby taxis were banned and replaced by four-stroke CNG auto rickshaws. This move was praised as a positive initiative towards reducing urban air pollution and associated health impacts. 

The World Bank funded this project. 

Ironically, during the appraisal of the next project – also funded by the World Bank – Clean Air And Sustainable Environment Project (CASE), it was noted that the primary sources of urban air pollution in Dhaka were still vehicles (43.0%), followed by small brick kiln industries (37.5%).

In fact, the project completion report by WB mentioned that while PM10 and 2.5 were initially reduced by 30% and 40% respectively thanks to the ban on baby taxis, since 2003, the PM levels (particulate matter) have risen again and are almost as high as pre-December 2002, at the end of the AQM project.

A 2021 study by the Chemistry Department of Dhaka University found that vehicles powered by fossil fuels account for 50% of the contributors to air pollution in the capital city, according to an earlier report by TBS.

In 2022, IQAir, a Swiss air-monitoring organisation, noted that most public vehicles in Bangladesh are used for prolonged periods without proper engine maintenance, intensifying the level of emissions into the atmosphere. These old engines discharge significant volumes of black soot, sulphur and other harmful substances and gases, contributing to the high levels of year-round ambient pollution.

While one after another project arrives to clean up Dhaka's air, the biggest culprit - unfit vehicles - continue to dominate the streets. So what exactly did these projects do or achieve?

With the funding of the next project - the Clean Air And Sustainable Environment Project (2009-2019) - the government began constructing the new 12-storey building of DoE. The project was implemented by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Department of Environment and Dhaka North and South City Corporations.

Under the AQM project, five CAMS (Continuous Air Quality Monitoring stations) were installed. Under the CASE project too, 11 CAMS were installed in different places. 

Today, three CAMs in Dhaka, two in Chattogram, and one each in Gazipur, Narayanganj, Sylhet, Khulna, Rajshahi, Barishal, Savar, Mymensingh, Rangpur, Cumilla, Narsingdi help publish the daily Air Quality Index (AQI) report on the DoE website.

Project documents show that under both projects, vehicular emission inspection equipment was purchased. The project also had a roadside emission testing programme. However, buses and trucks in the streets spewing black exhaust gas paint a pretty clear picture of the effectiveness of the purchases. 

Replacing traditional fixed chimney kilns with zigzag kilns was also a critical pilot component of the CASE project. The promotion of relatively modern brick kilns and alternatives to bricks has been going on ever since, but the actual implementation did not amount to much change, with brick kilns still a major source of air pollution across the country, including Dhaka.

Project activity-wise, many things have been done over the period of the last two decades and half, such as publishing a draft Clean Air Act in 2019 which never came to reality, updating vehicular emission standards, workshops and training and capacity building for the entrepreneurs, stakeholders, technicians and GoB officials (including a lot of foreign tours), brick technology exhibitions etc.

But when it comes to tangible outcomes of the projects, it is hard to feel any from the citizens' point of view. Of course, as one completion report by the World Bank mentioned, the pollution levels could have been higher had the rising trend not been arrested.

Last year, the government undertook another project titled "Environmental Sustainability and Transformation Project for Bangladesh (BEST)" with an objective to strengthen the capacity of the government of Bangladesh in environmental management, which also has an air pollution control component.

Earlier this month, the Environment Ministry under the interim government requested Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) not to allow buses and minibuses older than 20 years to ply the roads, and to remove trucks and covered vans older than 25-years from the roads.

It also asked BRTA to make emission testing mandatory during the issuance of fitness certificates for old diesel-powered buses and trucks.

With the new pledge of $300 million in loans from the World Bank for the clean air project, we contacted officials at the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to understand what will be different this time.

Md Ziaul Haque, the Director of the Air Quality Control Unit at the Department of Environment (DoE) said, "Under the BEST project, we will provide improved cook stoves and cleaner fuel such as LPG to the people living in the villages around the capital, so they stop using wood-burning stoves which are inefficient and environmentally harmful, as well as unhealthy for the users."

He mentioned that the government is setting up four new vehicle inspection centres (VICs) for BRTA to control emissions under the project.

"This will enable BRTA to test emission levels of vehicles before issuing them fitness certificates," Ziaul Haque said, adding that there are more programmes that will try to help mitigate air pollution.

Time will tell whether this latest project bears any fruit for Dhaka residents.