Md. Jashim Uddin,
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg,
CANADA

Air pollution in Dhaka: a horrible episode
Md. Jashim Uddin

Respiration is the fundamental biological process that keeps the metabolic machineries of living organisms, eventually their lives, functioning. Every living system requires oxygen, and to terrestrial systems the amount required is relatively voluminous. Human beings intake oxygen directly from air which usually comprises 20.946% oxygen. This oxygen keeps our metabolic machineries steady and purposeful. Apart from oxygen, air usually contains about 78% nitrogen and trace amounts of argon, carbon dioxide, neon, helium and methane. With the advent of civilization and all-around mechanization, scientific development has however turned around as a boomerang, as the developments in agricultural, industrial and transportation arenas have perturbed the natural balance and disarrayed the composition of air in the global scale. But nevertheless, the intensity of air perturbation in Dhaka is catastrophic, as the air pollution in Dhaka has recently surpassed most, if not all, of the cities’ in the world: Dhaka is now regarded as one of the most polluted cities in the world! My recent exposure to the air in Dhaka has catapulted immense concerns in me about the coming-day lives in Dhaka. The indiscriminate development in conjunction with poor civic practices and improper municipal management has polluted the air in Dhaka alarmingly. The intensity of air pollution in Dhaka has reached to such a level that, to my perception, it has eventually depauperated the city as a place to reside.

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