Dhaka’s worst traffic congestion, air and sound pollution
Z A M Khairuzzaman :
Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, has been dubbed as one of the least liveable cities on earth. According to the Global Liveability Index 2022, it is the world’s seventh least liveable city.
Traffic congestion, noise pollution and air pollution are major problems here. In this city, every morning begins with struggles against these problems.
According to UN-Habitat, there should be roads in 20% of the total area of an ideal large city. But Dhaka has only 6% of roads in its area.
Hence, the long traffic jams.
In an attempt to ease tailback in Dhaka, the government has spent millions of taka in various infrastructure and mega projects such as flyovers, metro rail and elevated expressway over the past decade.
But these projects are far from solving the city’s unbearable problem of gridlock. Recently, a study supervised by the US National Bureau of Economic Research found Dhaka to be the slowest city in the world.
The average speed of traffic here slowed down to 4.8km per hour in 2022 from 21km per hour in 2007. According to a survey conducted by the Centre for Policy Dialogue, on an average, commuters in the capital city remain stuck in traffic for 46 minutes every two hours, which leads to a waste of approximately 276 hours every year.
This results in serious air pollution and noise pollution and thus worsens the overall environmental condition.
According to Bangladesh Road Transport Authority, on an average 40 new cars hit city streets every day. Until 2010, the number of private cars on its roads was 160,000, which in 2023 has doubled to 336,000.
The flyovers and expressways built spending thousands of crores of taka are being filled with private cars to carry a tiny section of commuters.
As a result, traffic in the city is slowing down further. For example, the Dhaka Elevated Expressway is mostly used by private cars, and those cars and others experience severe traffic congestion on the streets near the landing points of the expressway.
To solve the severe traffic congestion and transportation crisis in the city, it is not enough to plan and build expensive flyovers, expressways, metro rail or BRT.
The public bus system that transports most of the passengers needs to be revamped. Public control must be established on the transportation system by breaking the clout of politically influential private bus owners.
According to a survey conducted by Japan International Cooperation Agency, 60 percent of travellers in this city use public transport. Of them, 67 percent use buses and minibuses.
If its public transport system is to be fixed, the bus-minibus management system must be improved first. Most of the running city buses and minibuses are unfit with malfunctioning brake and indicator lights.
The vehicles make the journey risky. Despite the fact, commuters travel by these buses with lots of hardship. But there is no guarantee of reaching the destination on time.
Travelling by buses is a horrifying experience, especially for women, children and senior citizens. This is what encourages affluent people to buy private cars.
This is what happens in the capital creating traffic congestion. So, the use of private cars on the city streets should be discouraged by providing proper alternatives.
A pro-people multimodal transportation system combining public bus, metro rail, BRT, bicycles and walking should be planned and implemented to get rid of the curse of traffic congestion.
Gridlock increases vehicle emissions and degrades air quality. Presently, Dhaka city is ranked among the world’s most polluted cities. It has long been grappling with the issue of air pollution, a silent killer.
Authorities concerned should act fast; otherwise they will take away people’s fundamental right, the right to breathe. There is doubt how much the government thinks about the matter.
But concerted steps on the part of government agencies are a must to tackle the city’s excessive air pollution.
It is possible to improve the situation if the two city corporations conduct regular monitoring and spray water on streets to control smoke and dust.
As the task has not been carried out regularly, the air pollution situation has deteriorated. A separate directorate should be established to prevent the menace.
Industrial toxic gas, smoke coming out of vehicles, brick kilns and infrastructural construction, especially in the winter, make Dhaka’s air dangerous and toxic for breathing. It is like a slow poison that the city residents inhale.
The battle for clean air can be fought by doing rooftop gardening. It helps enhance the air quality. It supplies oxygen well enough for the survival of lots of people. Dhaka city’s green roofs can help a lot in purging air pollution of the capital.
The gardens atop the roofs produce oxygen and serve as a filter to draw out the carbon dioxide and heavy metal particles in the air. More and more city residents should be encouraged to do rooftop gardening.
Cleaner buses should be introduced to win the battle for clean air. Air quality should be the priority of policymakers, because, we all want a city which can offer a better quality of life for its citizens.
Sound pollution, another invisible killer, is now wreaking havoc in Dhaka city.
A latest report of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has depicted this city as the noisiest city in the world.
The report stated that the average noise frequency here stood at 119 decibels, the highest among 61 major cities of the world.
According to World Health Organisation (WHO) guidelines, the permissible noise level is 55 dB (decibels) for outdoor residential areas and 70 dB for commercial areas and where there is traffic.
According to a report of UNEP, Dhaka is now the world’s noisiest city. Against the permissible limits of 55 dB (decibels), the city’s noise levels were found to be at least twice that level, at 110-132 decibels.75% of noise pollution.
In technical terms, noise above 50 decibels can adversely affect public health, especially those individuals who suffer from hypertension and heart disease.
WHO cautions that any sound above 60 decibels can temporarily make a person deaf and prolonged exposure to sound above 100 decibels can cause hearing impairments. Several studies have found sound levels ranging between 70 and 120 decibels in some Dhaka road intersections, which is alarming indeed!
Sound pollution from traffic, construction sites or loudspeakers poses a serious public health risk in Dhaka city.
It may cause hypertension, disrupt sleep, and/or hinder cognitive development in children. The effects of excessive noise could be so severe that it can cause a permanent loss of hearing and memory or psychiatric disorder.
Careless drivers of the city continue to use their car horns in an insensitive manner without thinking about the effects on elderly people, students, women, babies or sick people near hospitals, clinics and schools.
Car honking starts very early in the morning and continues unabated until midnight in many parts of the capital.
Many commercial and business activities are allowed to operate in residential areas of the city. In busy residential areas, loudspeakers are used for advertising purposes and other services.
Microphones are used during wedding or cultural functions where its organisers play music or popular songs through loudspeakers making public nuisance. Relevant authorities should take urgent measures to stop the bad practice.
In addition to banning horns in some selected areas, blaring of horns should be stopped near hospitals, educational institutions, inside residential areas and office blocks. Stern measures should be taken against the rule flouters.
A provision of fine may also be imposed upon the persons who create the public nuisance.
Besides controlling the honking of vehicles, fitness of all vehicles including buses, minibuses, trucks and three-wheelers, should be checked in the city on a regular basis. Other noise-polluting sources need to be identified and appropriate measures should be taken to control their noise levels.
The use of mikes should be limited in certain areas. Use of loudspeakers should be restricted in residential areas during social events like weddings and birthdays.
Regular awareness campaigns should be conducted, particularly targeting drivers and vehicle owners, to make them aware about the health consequences of noise pollution. It is imperative on the part of the administration to curb noise pollution. The citizens should also remain cautious to decrease sound pollution.
Taking help from traffic police, various ministries and the capital’s two city corporations, Noise Pollution (Control) Rules 2006 should be strictly implemented. Dhaka must be made liveable again by tackling traffic congestion as well as noise and air pollution.
(The writer is a journalist and columnist. Email: [email protected])
