The recently completed Country Environmental Assessment (2006) conducted jointly by the Government of Bangladesh (GOB) and the World Bank identified air pollution as the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in Bangladesh. It is estimated that if the exposure to urban air pollution were reduced by 20% to 80%, it would result in saving 1,200 to 3,500 lives annually and avoiding 80 to 230 million cases of disease. GOB recognizes the need to address the problem of urban air pollution because of its wide ranging adverse impacts. To facilitate the adoption of sustainable environmental initiatives in the key polluting sectors (urban transport and brick making) with a focus on reducing air pollution and improving safe mobility, GOB has developed the ‘Clean Air and Sustainable Environment (CASE)’ project with proposed World Bank financing. The proposed CASE project aims to demonstrate innovative approaches to addressing the problem rather than the traditional regulatory approach. A “co-benefits” approach to help reduce urban air pollution would be demonstrated in the project. This would include mitigation of GHG emissions from key polluting sectors, as well as addressing traffic management and safety issues in the transport sector. The major two components of the proposed project are – (1) environment (which includes addressing brick kiln emissions in Bangladesh); and (2) transport (which includes addressing traffic management and safety issues in Dhaka). Recently, a World Bank team conducted an appraisal of the proposed project during which a World Bank team and government counterparts reviewed the progress of the project preparation. The proposed CASE project builds on the experiences and lessons of two past Bank-supported projects in Bangladesh, namely the Air Quality Management Project (AQMP) and the Dhaka Urban Transport Project (DUTP). Both the AQMP and DUTP projects had a major impact on improving Dhaka’s air quality. Through its portfolio of Global Environment Facility (GEF) projects, and more recent projects under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), the World Bank has a rich experience in designing and implementing projects that reduce local and GHG emissions from urban transport and small industries. For more project information, please visit: http://web.worldbank.org/external/projects/main?pagePK=64283627&piPK=73230&theSitePK=40941&menuPK=228424&Projectid=P098151 |
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