Tahjeeb Hossain Chowdhury: The Bangladesh Clean Air Act has been introduced and there are quite a few radical changes here of note. The well-documented issue of air pollution has come up again and again in the conscience of Bangladeshi Citizens and lawmakers. In recent years, Dhaka alongside New Delhi has been in the rankings as the top uninhabitable cities in the world. A major part of that can be chalked up to how much air pollutants have skyrocketed. The government has been taking isolated steps in order to reduce pollution. But this time it seems like the wheels have turned and the government has decided to concentrate their efforts into making air pollution reduced.
The Department of Environment along with The Bangladesh Environmental Lawyer’s Association have teamed up to draft the new Bangladesh Clean Air Act. This is in part done to help the preservation of air and reduction of Air Pollution across the regions of Bangladesh. This new set of regulations is a long time coming. It includes Jail time and Fines for violations of the clean air act regulations. With a varied set of rules, the act is said to have good provisions for encouraging preservation and threatening pollution activities
The Act has some notable highlights including:
- The Department of Environment will put together a National Air Quality Management Plan.
- The government can put out a declaration that an area is “critical” if the air quality deteriorates to an intolerable level, to deal with the restoration of the Air Quality
- Will initiate a 29-member advisory council with delegates representing different ministries and departments to monitor and recommend implementation of the National Air Quality Management Plan.
- A maximum jail time of 10 years or fine according to the severity or both as the punishments for violation of the law.
- In the case of faults and discrepancies by any government agency, the head of the said organization will be considered the guilty party for the violation. Further punishment measures will be dealt to the agency head.
The brick kilns, generators, and other sources of pollution have been recorded. It all comes down to the unchecked industrial work that goes into urbanization. But the Clean Air Act should bring order to the chaos and help in saving our citizens. Only time will tell if the execution is in line with the regulations.
(The writer is a marketing graduate, content writer, and data science enthusiast from Dhaka, reach him at [email protected])