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Urban
air pollution: Economic
value of health costs $240m per year
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March
7, 2000 Economic
value of health costs incurred from urban air pollution in Bangladesh is
between 60 and 240 million US dollars per year, says UNB. World
Bank Country Director Frederick Temple gave the estimate at a global
workshop in Dhaka on Sunday on the problem of air pollution. “The
poor are particularly affected by air pollution. They are more exposed
because they work on the street for long hours and at times live and die
by the side of the road,” he said. He
observed their poor nutrition and general health meant they have less
resistance to disease, which is compounded by their limited access to
health care. “With
little or no savings, a day lost to ill health can mean a day lost to ill
health can mean a day without meeting ‘basic needs, further contributing
to a vicious cycle of sickness, reduced productivity and lower income.” In
general terms, the donor representative said, the health costs associated
with air pollution slow the economic growth that is essential if
Bangladesh is to significantly reduce poverty. The
World Bank country chief attributed Dhaka’s air pollution problem partly
to economic reason and partly governance. “I
can summarize much of what I have said by saying that the solutions to
Dhaka’s air quality problem have to be partly economic and partly
governmental,” Temple said focusing on various aspects of the
environmental problem in the workshop’s technical session. “Improving
air quality requires good economics and good governance,” said the World
Bank Country Director. He
said the economic solution lay mainly in closing the gap between petrol
and kerosene price. “This
gap provides an incentive all down the supply chain for people to make by
adulterating petrol and kerosene with disastrously polluting
consequences.” The
solution is either to close the price gap or improve enforcement of fuel
quality. Regarding
good governance the WB country chief said even if the country got its fuel
prices right, enforcement of fuel quality and vehicle-emission standards
would still be necessary to encourage improved engine maintenance and to
get the wrong types of vehicles off the streets. He
said: “In Bangladesh regulations usually provide opportunities for the
enforcers and those being regulated to strike corrupt deals. “This
kind of corruption will only disappear when there are pressures on the
regulators to perform honestly.” Temple
said the success of efforts to curb air pollution would depend on
collaboration among the policymakers and the stakeholders from
environment, transport and energy sectors, and dynamic partnerships among
the government, private sector and general pubic The
global workshop on curbing air pollution was organized by the forum of
Environmental Journalists of Bangladesh (FEJB). Environment
and Forest Minister Begum Sajeda Chowdhury earlier inaugurated the
workshop. FEJB Chairman Qaumrul Islam Chowdhury presided. Inaugurating
the programmed she said rapid urbanization and increase in emission of
black smoke from the automobiles, industrial boilers and brick burning –
is making the situation worse. “In
capital Dhaka, the situation is alarming, mainly due to vehicular and
industrial emissions. In Chittagong city, vehicular and industrial
emissions almost equally contribute to air pollution.” Exhausts
from brickfields widespread in the countryside also keep polluting air,
Sajeda added. But,
said the environment minister, the air pollution situation was not yet
acute in other smaller towns rural areas. Source: The Bangladesh Observer |