Home ›› 30 Mar 2023 ›› Editorial
The World Bank in the month of December of 2022 in a report said from 2018 to 2021 Dhaka was ranked as the second most polluted city in the world. The western regions (Khulna and Rajshahi) are more polluted than the eastern ones (Sylhet and Chattogram). According to the report, high air pollution level is creating physical and mental health hazards in Bangladesh.
Environment pollutions are in many ways causing havoc on the lives of people. Exposure to high level of pollutions significantly raises the risks of breathing difficulties, cough and lower respiratory tract infection as well as depression and other health conditions. We have so far talked about a lot about reducing such pollutions in the country, especially in the metropolitan cities where it is getting worse and worse with each day passing. It is not that, initiatives have not been taken. They have been taken many times in the past but those initiatives have never been carried out.
After a few days into the initiatives they have fallen flat. No matter who is to blame for that, the problems have remained the same as it was in the past. A report ran by The Business Post on March 28 said a new decision on compensation for road diggings and frequent excavations of different types would be taken soon. It aims to reduce air pollution by stopping unnecessary digging of roads as it contributes hugely to the air pollution in the cities across the country.
The Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives on February 23, after a meeting, sent a proposal to the Finance Ministry for approval to raise the compensation to two to five times higher than the existing fees in city corporations outside Dhaka. This new initiative by the LGRD Ministry has been taken to strengthen the policy taken last year to prevent unplanned excavations of roads.
The major service providing agencies – Dhaka Power Distribution Company (DPDC), Dhaka Electric Supply Company Limited (DESCO), Bangladesh Telecommunications Company Limited (BTCL), Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA) and other gas distribution companies are mainly responsible for road diggings. We don’t say road diggings are not at all necessary. They are obviously necessary but when roads are dug in unplanned ways and without issuing any prior notice to the people concerned it causes sufferings to them.
Not only sufferings, this type of unplanned diggings also pollutes environment and they involve unnecessary spending of people’s money. Of course, they will get the roads dug and excavated in the interest of city dwellers but sometimes they are seen getting it done just before Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Adha. Why should they necessarily have to do them during the month of Ramadan and just before Eid-ul-Fitr or any major national festival is not in the knowledge of anybody?
It is a welcome decision to raise the compensation fees for road digging and excavations to reduce pollutions. But can this decision put a rein on the unnecessary and unplanned diggings in the cities across the country? We have doubt about it because those service providing agencies are not going to spend their own money. It is the money that comes from the pockets of common people in the form of taxes.
If the government fails to monitor them to make sure transparency then this decision to raise the compensation fees may turn otherwise. Things might remain the same as it was. Rather people’s tax money may go down the drain. The government must ensure that it will not happen.
