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Flawed vehicles make safe air a distant dream

STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Removal of two-stroke vehicles is yet to offer city dwellers respite from air pollutants as thousands of faulty vehicles and brick kilns are still emitting black smokes.
Officials of the Air Quality Management Project (AQMP) said with the removal of two-stroke vehicles, the city air does contain less gaseous pollutants but particulate matters have reached alarming levels and are increasing.
But no initiative towards stopping unfit vehicles plying the roads is being taken. When asked about the issue, Assistant Director of Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) official, Mahboob-e-Rabbani said they check the vehicle fitness once a year and that they do not allow any vehicle older that 20 years to ply. He said it is the traffic department's duty to nab unfit vehicles, not theirs.
However, Deputy Commissioner (South) of Traffic Department Abu Musa Md. Fakhrul Islam Khan said they apprehend lots of faulty vehicles everyday. "We do file cases against those vehicles, but the
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owners just pay Tk 200 fine and the vehicles hit the roads again" he said.
On March 27, 2002, the High Court ordered the installation of filters in the city's diesel-run vehicles within 6 months to stop particulate emission. But the directive is yet to be carried out as government has asked for a year's time to comply with the order.
Experts say, diesel-run vehicle exhausts are one of the major contributors to air pollution. Thousands of unfit vehicles with faulty engines, such as pickup vans, overloaded trucks, buses and government vehicles are constantly pumping oxides of carbon, sulfur oxide and other toxic components into the atmosphere.
Moreover, almost the entire government fleet of vehicles, particularly the ones run by diesel contribute to air pollution because of faulty engines.
Another major source of pollution is the hundreds of brick kilns around the city that burn coal, firewood and used tyres round-the-clock between September and April of each year.
Meanwhile, the particulate matter measuring equipment of the AQMP detected an extremely high density of pm10 (particulate matter less than 10 microns) and pm2.5 (particulate matter less than 2.5 microns) in the capital's atmosphere.
This winter particulate matter in
the air is very high -- an average of 140 micrograms per cubic meter and rising up to 300 microgram per cubic metre at times in the Sangsad Bhaban area.
Too much exposure to particulate matters has been linked to premature deaths from respiratory and cardio-vascular illnesses, higher rates of bronchitis and other chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases and respiratory tract infections.
Other impacts of air pollution include crops and ecosystem damage, degraded visibility, soiling of buildings and water quality deterioration because of pollutant deposition.
Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) officials said as many as 2,800 buses and minibuses are permitted to ply in the capital. Thousands other buses shuttle through the city from peripheral towns every day.
According to a World Bank report of Feb, 2001, as many as 15,000 deaths, a million cases of sickness requiring medical treatments and 8.5 million cases of minor illnesses can be avoided if pollution levels in the air of the four cities of Bangladesh is reduced to standards set by the WHO. The report says, the economic cost of these avoidable deaths and sicknesses is estimated to be about 200 to 800 million U.S. dollars every year in
Bangladesh.
Interestingly, it not possible to convert diesel engines to CNG engines.
When asked, Engineer Rezaul Karim, general manager of Rupantarita Prakitik Gas Company Ltd. (RPGCL) said the conversion is not economically viable.
Director Operation of Bangladesh Road Transport Corporation (BRTC) Dr. S. M. Salehuddin said some unfit dieselrun vehicles are plying the city roads illegally. It is very difficult to stop them.
DC Traffic (south) Abu Musa Md. Fakhrul Islam Khan said they need pollution detector machines to mark the faulty vehicles. He added that he could not understand how the BRTA officials give permission for the faulty vehicles to ply.