Monsoon showers clear Dhaka’s air

Monsoon showers brought much-needed relief to Dhaka residents on Friday, significantly improving the capital’s air quality as rainfall washed away dust and airborne pollutants, pushing its Air Quality Index (AQI) into the “good” category.

Dhaka ranked 93rd among the world’s most polluted cities, recording an AQI score of 33 at 9:40am.
On Thursday morning, the city’s air quality was classified as “moderate”, with an AQI score of 66.

Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, topped the global pollution list with an AQI score of 206, followed by Kampala in Uganda with 156 and Jakarta in Indonesia with 142.

According to AQI standards, a reading between 0 and 50 is considered “good”, while 51 to 100 is “moderate.”

A reading between 101 and 150 is regarded as “unhealthy for sensitive groups”, 151 to 200 as “unhealthy”, 201 to 300 as “very unhealthy”, and above 301 as “hazardous”, posing serious health risks.
The AQI, updated daily, measures how clean or polluted the air is and indicates the potential health effects associated with current air quality.

In Bangladesh, the AQI is calculated based on five major pollutants: particulate matter (PM2.5 and PM10), nitrogen dioxide (NO?), carbon monoxide (CO), sulphur dioxide (SO?) and ozone.

Dhaka has long struggled with air pollution, with air quality usually deteriorating during the dry winter months and improving during the monsoon season.

According to the World Health Organization, air pollution causes an estimated 7 million premature deaths worldwide each year, mainly from stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and acute respiratory infections.