Diesel-run vehicles responsible for 80pc air pollution in city

About 60 percent of city dwellers consider motor vehicles as the main source of air pollution, about 55 percent think that the diesel-run buses are the most polluting while 22 percent feel that diesel-run trucks cause the air pollution.

Nearly 60 percent of the dwellers stated that they suffer from disease due to air pollution and 88 percent believed smoke and dust are the main air pollutants.

This people's perceptions about air pollution were revealed in a recent survey titled 'Stakeholders Perception on Air Pollution by Diesel Vehicles in Dhaka City' jointly conducted by the Air Quality Management Project (AQMP) of Department of Environment (DoE) under the environment ministry and the World Bank.

AQMP Project Director Dr Mohammad Nasiruddin said they conducted a study titled 'Roadside Vehicle Emission Testing Programme in Dhaka' in 2004 where they examined 2140 vehicles to identify the principal contributors to air pollution.

"At the end of the study we found that 90 percent of human-haulers followed by 60 percent diesel-run minibus have failed to follow the approved emission standard as their smoke capacity is higher than 80 Hartridge Smoke Units (HSU)", he said.

The study suggested a set of actions, including retirement of old technology vehicles following a time bound roadmap, introduction of low sulphur diesel, imposition of ban on import of all types of old vehicles and switch over to natural gas as the main source of transport fuel.

Nasir said, "after the study we launched the survey, which was designed to understand the current perceptions of the public in general, stakeholders and interest groups on the issue.

The survey found that 68 percent of the citizens are willing to pay higher fares for cleaner non-polluting buses where 37 percent gave their support to CNG conversion and 27 percent to outright ban and aged based retirement of the diesel vehicles.

The level of knowledge and awareness about air pollution of bus and truck drivers are very low. On the other hand, nearly 74 percent truck and bus owners think that their vehicles' emissions are at acceptable level but 77 percent said their vehicles are fined sometimes for high smoke emissions.

About 84 percent of the owners are interested in buying CNG buses if diesel vehicles are banned, but 55 percent said the business is not sufficiently profitable, the survey said.

The survey recommended that the important governance issues, including yearly fitness certificates for commercial vehicles and the issue of driving licences for commercial vehicle drivers, have to be tackled.

The survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire among 842 people, including ordinary citizens, bus and truck drivers and owners, filling station attendants and automobile mechanics.