1001 Smart Cities
🇧🇩 Dhaka

CAMS Air Monitoring and the Degraded Air Shed Rule

🤖 AI-generated summary of the sources below · 🔎 Last verified · ◆ 17 sourced claims, none individually verified yet

This overview was generated with AI from the public sources listed below and checked against them before publication. It has not had a complete human fact-check — treat it as a starting point and follow the sources.

How this atlas is made · What “last verified” means · What “source-checked” means · The full record behind this page

The Department of Environment, a national agency, runs Dhaka's air monitoring: four of the country's sixteen continuous stations stand in the city, and their readings become the daily Air Quality Index the department publishes. Bangladesh's first continuous station opened at Sangsad Bhaban in April 2002. What the index does not do is oblige anyone in Dhaka to act. The Air Pollution (Control) Rules 2022 give the department's director general one lever, declaring a 'degraded air shed', and he signed the first such declaration on 17 August 2025 for Savar upazila next door, whose dry-season smoke the wind carries into the capital. The country still has no school-closure guideline for an extreme pollution episode.

Live 📅 since 2002
Outcome🔄 Ongoing
Evidence📊 Independent
what does this mean?The strongest source is an independent non-academic evaluation: an audit office, a government or EU review, or an NGO. It grades who did the looking — not how well the project went. All four grades →
Run byDepartment of Environment (DoE), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
Scale🏙️ City-wide
FundingStations installed under the government's World Bank-backed Clean Air and Sustainable Environment (CASE) project; the roadside expansion put to ECNEC in April 2025 is a Tk 68 crore JICA grant alongside government money

📊 Impact

The first time a reading carried a legal consequence anywhere in Bangladesh was in Savar, in Dhaka district, where the department's own stations put annual average pollutants at nearly three times the national standard: from September 2025 every brick kiln except tunnel and hybrid Hoffman types was barred from firing, open burning of solid waste was banned, and clearances for new polluting industries were stopped. By March 2026 a deputy director of the department said 30 to 40 kilns were running again on High Court permissions, and in June 2026 The Daily Star called enforcement lax. Bangladesh still has no roadside monitoring at all: a Tk 103 crore project, with a Tk 68 crore Japanese grant, to install 24 roadside stations - 19 of them in Dhaka - went to the national economic council in April 2025.

🎓 Lesson

Nobody in Dhaka is short of readings. What is missing is the sentence saying what must happen when a reading is bad. The one legal lever the rules provide runs on an annual average, so it can close the kilns that smoke into Dhaka each winter but has nothing to say about a single hazardous day; and when it was finally pulled, dozens of the closed kilns came back on court orders. A published index is a warning, not a decision.

🌱 EnvironmentAir qualitySensors & IoT

Sources

↗ The Daily Star / ICDDR,B and Bengal Institute - Dhaka's deadly air: what we know and what we can doPublished 16 March 2025 · updated 21 June 2025Joint report by researchers at ICDDR,B and the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements, published in The Daily Star's In Focus section. Carries the network's size and origin - the DoE installed 16 CAMS in eleven cities under the CASE project, of which Dhaka has 4 - the statement that the daily AQI is derived from those stations, the judgement that four stations cannot represent Dhaka, the NAQMP 2024-2030 targets, and the finding that the plan sets out suggestions without strict obligations. Fetched with a browser user agent; the site returns 403 to WebFetch.
↗ BSS - Govt declares Savar upazila as 'degraded air shed'Published 18 August 2025State news agency report on the declaration. Supports Rule 5 of the Air Pollution (Control) Rules 2022 as the legal basis, the circular signed on 17 August by DoE director general Dr Md. Kamruzzaman, the September 2025 prohibitions (all brick kilns except tunnel and hybrid Hoffman kilns, open burning of solid waste, clearances for new polluting industry), the CAMS finding of annual average pollutants nearly three times the national standard, and the dry-season winds that carry Savar's pollution into Dhaka.
↗ The Business Standard - Explainer: Savar declared a 'Degraded Air Shed': what does it mean?Published 19 August 2025Explainer confirming the same measures independently and stating that the designation is made under Rule 5 of the Air Pollution (Control) Rules, 2022, that the action plan rests on CAMS data, and listing the national ambient standards the declaration is measured against (annual PM2.5 15 ug/m3, PM10 50 ug/m3).
↗ The Daily Star - Smoke fills the air we breathePublished 14 March 2026Reporting by Pinaki Roy. Supports the partial reversal: DoE deputy director Mohammad Abdul Motalib says around 30 to 40 brick kilns reopened on High Court permissions (Writ Petition No-15982/2025), and the open-burning ban is not holding at the Amin Bazar and Matuail landfills. Also recaps the Savar declaration and the September kiln halt. Its 'Switzerland-based Air Quality Index' rankings and the 90.35 ug/m3 annual figure are commercial-platform numbers and are deliberately not used in this entry.
↗ The Daily Star editorial - Govt must act now to curb air pollutionPublished 29 December 2025Editorial. Carries the load-bearing negative: Bangladesh still lacks clear, systematic protocols such as school protection measures or closure guidelines during episodes of extreme pollution.
Show 7 more sourcesShow fewer
↗ The Daily Star editorial - Failure to clean up Dhaka's air is costing livesPublished 11 June 2026Currency check and the enforcement verdict: despite the 2025 Savar declaration and the kiln restrictions, 'enforcement has been lax'. Also the model this entry follows for handling commercial rankings - the editorial attributes them to IQAir by name rather than asserting them.
↗ The Daily Star - Air pollution: Govt plans 24 roadside monitors in Dhaka and CtgPublished 19 April 2025Supports the network total (the DoE has 31 air quality monitoring stations, of which 16 function continuously, and publishes real-time data from them), the absence of any roadside monitoring in the country, and the Tk 103 crore proposal with a Tk 68 crore JICA grant for 24 roadside stations, 19 of them in Dhaka, put to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council.
↗ BSS - 'Degraded Airsheds' to be identified in Dhaka: RizwanaPublished 1 July 2025Environment adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan tells a meeting at the DoE in Agargaon that degraded airsheds 'will soon be declared to control air pollution in Dhaka city' and that a scientific expert committee will be formed. Establishes that a Dhaka-city declaration was announced as intended six weeks before Savar was declared instead, and that the DoE sits under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.
↗ BSS - PM outlines 12-point plan to build a clean and green DhakaPublished 29 April 2026The government's own most recent account of what it does about Dhaka's air, given by the prime minister in parliament: mobile courts against smoking vehicles and construction dust, tree planting, 250 electric buses, brick-kiln shutdowns, and the Savar degraded airshed named as the measure aimed at the capital. Nothing in the twelve points is conditioned on an air-quality reading, which is the corroboration for this entry's central negative.
↗ Begum, Biswas & Nasiruddin - Trend and spatial distribution of air particulate matter pollution in Dhaka city, Journal of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences 34(1)Published 2010Peer-reviewed. Supports the origin date: the DoE set up the first continuous air quality monitoring station in the country at the Sangsad Bhaban premises in Dhaka in April 2002, plus five satellite stations from 2005. Used only for that fact.
↗ World Air Quality Index project - Department of Environment Bangladesh station feedThe Department of Environment's own real-time feed as republished by the World Air Quality Index project, used here only to confirm that the Dhaka stations are reporting, not for any figure. Checked 27 August 2026: the DoE network page listed live readings from four Dhaka locations (National Institute of Mass Communication, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, the DoE's own Dhaka compound and BUET) alongside stations in Savar, Gazipur, Narayanganj and eight other towns. The page notes that Bangladesh's AQI breakpoints are the same as the USEPA's, per the National Air Quality Management Plan 2024-2030.
↗ Dhaka Tribune - Govt to set up roadside air monitoring stations in Dhaka, ChittagongCorroborates the roadside project and reports that ECNEC approved it, with Tk 35.51 crore from the government and Tk 67.84 crore as a JICA grant, 19 stations in Dhaka and five in Chattogram, covering DNCC, DSCC and Chittagong City Corporation. The host returns 403 to every automated request tried (WebFetch and curl with a browser user agent), so the outlet, headline and content were confirmed through search results only and no verbatim locator could be taken.

📅 How old is the evidence?

Two clocks, kept apart: when this entry’s sources were published, and what has happened to its record in the atlas. Documented span: since 2002. 10 of 12 sources carry a publication date, from 2010 to 11 June 2026.

When the sources were published

  1. Begum, Biswas & Nasiruddin - Trend and spatial distribution of air particulate matter pollution in Dhaka city, Journal of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences 34(1)
  2. The Daily Star / ICDDR,B and Bengal Institute - Dhaka's deadly air: what we know and what we can do · updated 21 June 2025
  3. The Daily Star - Air pollution: Govt plans 24 roadside monitors in Dhaka and Ctg
  4. BSS - 'Degraded Airsheds' to be identified in Dhaka: Rizwana
  5. BSS - Govt declares Savar upazila as 'degraded air shed'
  6. The Business Standard - Explainer: Savar declared a 'Degraded Air Shed': what does it mean?
  7. The Daily Star editorial - Govt must act now to curb air pollution
  8. The Daily Star - Smoke fills the air we breathe
Show 2 more dated sourcesShow fewer
  1. BSS - PM outlines 12-point plan to build a clean and green Dhaka
  2. The Daily Star editorial - Failure to clean up Dhaka's air is costing lives

Every source, with links ↑

What happened to this record

  1. Entered the record
  2. Sources last read

Every revision, permanent →

Show your work What this page rests on and what it can’t tell you · all 17 claims with their sources · the forensic record

Evidence Passport · public beta 17 addressable claims, 12 source dossiers, one permanent baseline. The passport is unreviewed — an AI-assisted structural migration, not a human or expert endorsement. Every revision keeps a permanent copy under revision history.

Inspect the claims, one by one — verbatim text, sources and caveats for all 17

The text below is copied verbatim from the published record. Each claim names the source dossiers that carry it; caveats stay attached to the claim they qualify.

Claim 1 clm-f2d6860521300a34 descriptive
The Department of Environment, a national agency, runs Dhaka's air monitoring
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Daily Star reports the department's own national footprint: 'Currently, the Department of Environment has 31 air quality monitoring stations, of which 16 function continuously. The department publishes real-time data based on readings from these stations.' The BSS report of the 1 July 2025 meeting places the department under a national ministry, naming Syeda Rizwana Hasan as 'Adviser to the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change' presiding over a meeting at the Department of Environment in Agargaon. Neither Dhaka North nor Dhaka South City Corporation operates the monitoring.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Daily Star - Air pollution: Govt plans 24 roadside monitors in Dhaka and Ctg
  2. BSS - 'Degraded Airsheds' to be identified in Dhaka: Rizwana
Claim 2 clm-239df2d7d43a2d01 descriptive
four of the country's sixteen continuous stations stand in the city
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim from the ICDDR,B and Bengal Institute report: 'the DoE installed 16 Continuous Air Quality Monitoring Stations (CAMS) in eleven cities: Dhaka has 4 stations, Chattagram has 2, and Gazipur, Narayangaj, Narsingdi, Khulna, Barishal, Rajshahi, Sylhet, Rangpur, Cumilla, and Mymensingh, each has one.' The Daily Star's April 2025 report gives the same continuous total from the other side: 31 stations of which 16 function continuously.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Daily Star / ICDDR,B and Bengal Institute - Dhaka's deadly air: what we know and what we can do
  2. The Daily Star - Air pollution: Govt plans 24 roadside monitors in Dhaka and Ctg
Claim 3 clm-a98bba1e15fdcf7f descriptive
their readings become the daily Air Quality Index the department publishes
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The ICDDR,B and Bengal Institute report: the CAMS record PM2.5, SO2, NO2, O3 and CO 'based on which daily Air Quality Index (AQI) data is provided'. The Daily Star adds that 'The department publishes real-time data based on readings from these stations.' The department's live feed, republished by the World Air Quality Index project, was carrying readings from four Dhaka locations when checked on 27 August 2026.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Daily Star / ICDDR,B and Bengal Institute - Dhaka's deadly air: what we know and what we can do
  2. The Daily Star - Air pollution: Govt plans 24 roadside monitors in Dhaka and Ctg
  3. World Air Quality Index project - Department of Environment Bangladesh station feed
Claim 4 clm-1ce3f93808257941 quantitative
Bangladesh's first continuous station opened at Sangsad Bhaban in April 2002
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Verbatim from the peer-reviewed paper: the DoE 'has set up the first ever in the country, the continuous Air Quality Monitoring Station (CAMS) at the Sangsad Bhaban premises located at the heart of capital Dhaka city, since April 2002'.
Caveat
The paper dates the station's start, not its present state. This entry does not claim that the Sangsad Bhaban station is still among the four now reporting; the department's live feed labels its Dhaka locations differently.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. Begum, Biswas & Nasiruddin - Trend and spatial distribution of air particulate matter pollution in Dhaka city, Journal of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences 34(1)
Claim 5 clm-31f95ca3a305d88f quantitative
The Air Pollution (Control) Rules 2022 give the department's director general one lever, declaring a 'degraded air shed'
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Business Standard: 'The designation of a "degraded air shed" is made under Rule 5 of the Air Pollution (Control) Rules, 2022.' BSS reports the instrument being exercised by the director general in person, through a signed circular.
Caveat
'One lever' is this atlas's summary of what the rules attach to a measurement, not a phrase from the rules. The rules also provide penalties for emitters and an air quality improvement plan for a declared air shed; what they do not provide is an index threshold that acts by itself. The rules themselves are published in Bengali in a legacy font encoding that could not be machine-read for this review, so the legal reading rests on the two press accounts.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. BSS - Govt declares Savar upazila as 'degraded air shed'
  2. The Business Standard - Explainer: Savar declared a 'Degraded Air Shed': what does it mean?
Claim 6 clm-c8bca475aeca852f quantitative
he signed the first such declaration on 17 August 2025 for Savar upazila next door
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
BSS: 'Under Rule 5 of the Air Pollution (Control) Rules, 2022, the government has declared the entire Savar upazila under Dhaka district as a "degraded air shed." The declaration was issued through a circular signed on August 17 by Dr Md. Kamruzzaman, Director General of the Department of Environment (DoE).' Global Voices, reporting the same declaration on 6 September 2025, calls it 'the first of its kind in Bangladesh'.
Caveat
Savar is an upazila of Dhaka district, not part of Dhaka city: it lies outside both Dhaka North and Dhaka South City Corporation. The declaration is a national department acting next to the atlas city, not the city acting on itself.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. BSS - Govt declares Savar upazila as 'degraded air shed'
Claim 7 clm-02a4eb80700c91d2 descriptive
whose dry-season smoke the wind carries into the capital
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
BSS: 'During the dry season, for nearly five months, prevailing winds from the northwest and northeast carry pollution from Savar into Dhaka, further aggravating air quality and creating grave health hazards for the city's densely populated residents.' The government states this as its reason for the declaration.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. BSS - Govt declares Savar upazila as 'degraded air shed'
Claim 8 clm-83c25faf3161d069 descriptive
The country still has no school-closure guideline for an extreme pollution episode
Published field
snippet · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Daily Star editorial of 29 December 2025: 'But Bangladesh still lacks clear, systematic protocols, such as school protection measures or closure guidelines, during episodes of extreme pollution.' Corroborated from the government's side: the prime minister's twelve-point account of what is being done for Dhaka's air, given in parliament on 29 April 2026, lists mobile courts, tree planting, electric buses, kiln shutdowns and the Savar declaration, and nothing conditioned on a reading.
Caveat
The editorial's statement is national in scope; this entry reads it as covering Dhaka, which is the city it is written about. It is an absence, established from two sources that would have had reason to mention such a protocol.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Daily Star editorial - Govt must act now to curb air pollution
  2. BSS - PM outlines 12-point plan to build a clean and green Dhaka
Claim 9 clm-c23fd6c0314df0e3 descriptive
The first time a reading carried a legal consequence anywhere in Bangladesh was in Savar, in Dhaka district
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
BSS names the area precisely - 'the entire Savar upazila under Dhaka district' - and states that the declaration rests on continuous-monitoring data. Global Voices, covering the same circular, records that 'This initiative is the first of its kind in Bangladesh.' The Business Standard confirms the same first use and the same CAMS basis.
Caveat
'First of its kind' is sourced for the degraded air shed instrument. Bangladesh has taken other legal action on air before - brick kilns shut for operating without environmental clearance, for instance - but those follow from a missing licence, not from a measurement. The Global Voices article carrying the 'first of its kind' wording is not listed as a separate source because everything else it says is already covered by BSS and The Business Standard.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. BSS - Govt declares Savar upazila as 'degraded air shed'
  2. The Business Standard - Explainer: Savar declared a 'Degraded Air Shed': what does it mean?
Claim 10 clm-ca69bc4d48aed484 descriptive
the department's own stations put annual average pollutants at nearly three times the national standard
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
BSS: 'Data from the DoE's continuous air monitoring stations show that the annual average concentration of ambient air pollutants in Savar is almost three times higher than the national standard, posing severe health risks to the population.' The Business Standard repeats the finding and lists the standards it is measured against (annual PM2.5 15 ug/m3, PM10 50 ug/m3, NOx 100 ug/m3, SO2 80 ug/m3).
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. BSS - Govt declares Savar upazila as 'degraded air shed'
  2. The Business Standard - Explainer: Savar declared a 'Degraded Air Shed': what does it mean?
Claim 11 clm-d000eb2149224f10 quantitative
from September 2025 every brick kiln except tunnel and hybrid Hoffman types was barred from firing, open burning of solid waste was banned, and clearances for new polluting industries were stopped
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
BSS: 'from September 2025 onwards, all types of brick kilns in Savar - except Tunnel Kilns and Hybrid Hoffman Kilns - will be prohibited from operating, including brick burning and production activities. In addition, open burning of solid waste, issuance of location and environmental clearance for newly established industries with potential to cause air pollution, and other activities outlined in the action plan have also been banned.' The Business Standard reports the same three measures.
Caveat
The number of kilns affected differs between accounts - The Daily Star writes 106, the departmental figure quoted by Global Voices is 107 - so this entry states the measure and not the count.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. BSS - Govt declares Savar upazila as 'degraded air shed'
  2. The Business Standard - Explainer: Savar declared a 'Degraded Air Shed': what does it mean?
Claim 12 clm-8ca6bd183e95c757 quantitative
By March 2026 a deputy director of the department said 30 to 40 kilns were running again on High Court permissions
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Daily Star, 14 March 2026, quoting DoE deputy director Mohammad Abdul Motalib: 'Additionally, around 30 to 40 brick kilns reopened as owners obtained permission from the High Court and restarted their activities last month.' The reporter found a notice citing a High Court directive in Writ Petition No-15982/2025 posted at a kiln in Savar's Bhakurta area, and an operator who said the court granted six months of operation after a petition citing financial losses.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Daily Star - Smoke fills the air we breathe
Claim 13 clm-c91fba5df9917d78 quantitative
in June 2026 The Daily Star called enforcement lax
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
Editorial of 11 June 2026: 'Despite the government declaring Savar a degraded airshed in 2025 and restricting kiln activities, enforcement has been lax.'
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Daily Star editorial - Failure to clean up Dhaka's air is costing lives
Claim 14 clm-b4da51bb715331c9 descriptive
Bangladesh still has no roadside monitoring at all
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Daily Star, reporting the project proposal: 'According to the proposal, although motorised vehicles are a major source of air pollution, the country currently has no roadside monitoring system in place.' The statement is the environment ministry's own, made in the document asking for money to change it.
Caveat
No claim-specific caveat recorded

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Daily Star - Air pollution: Govt plans 24 roadside monitors in Dhaka and Ctg
Claim 15 clm-f06cbe3dba8856b6 quantitative
a Tk 103 crore project, with a Tk 68 crore Japanese grant, to install 24 roadside stations - 19 of them in Dhaka - went to the national economic council in April 2025
Published field
impact · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Daily Star, 19 April 2025: the environment ministry 'will today place a Tk 103 crore project proposal at a meeting of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (Ecnec)'; 'the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica) will provide a Tk 68 crore grant, with the remaining funds to be covered by the government'; 'Nineteen of the stations will be installed in Dhaka and five in Chattogram.' The Dhaka Tribune reports the same project as approved, at Tk 103.35 crore of which Tk 67.84 crore is the JICA grant.
Caveat
This entry states only that the project went to the council, which is what the fetched source supports. The Dhaka Tribune reports approval, but that host returns 403 to every automated request tried, so its content was confirmed through search results and carries no verbatim locator. No station has been reported built.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Daily Star - Air pollution: Govt plans 24 roadside monitors in Dhaka and Ctg
  2. Dhaka Tribune - Govt to set up roadside air monitoring stations in Dhaka, Chittagong
Claim 16 clm-6c682fa9fc3d37c2 descriptive
The one legal lever the rules provide runs on an annual average
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The declaration rests on an annual figure, not a daily one: BSS reports the department's stations showing 'the annual average concentration of ambient air pollutants in Savar is almost three times higher than the national standard', and The Business Standard lists the annual national standards against which the designation is measured (PM2.5 15 ug/m3, PM10 50 ug/m3 annual; only carbon monoxide is given a one-hour limit).
Caveat
That a designation resting on an annual average cannot answer a single hazardous day is this atlas's inference from the standards quoted, not a statement made by either source.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. BSS - Govt declares Savar upazila as 'degraded air shed'
  2. The Business Standard - Explainer: Savar declared a 'Degraded Air Shed': what does it mean?
Claim 17 clm-b62f8bb68d30f913 descriptive
when it was finally pulled, dozens of the closed kilns came back on court orders
Published field
lesson · verbatim
Mapping
mapped · no interpretation or interpolation added by this passport
What the mapping says
The Daily Star's reporting of 14 March 2026 quotes the department's own deputy director on 30 to 40 kilns reopening on High Court permissions, and the reporter documents one such notice at a kiln in Savar. The editorial of 11 June 2026 adds the department's wider verdict that enforcement of the declaration 'has been lax'.
Caveat
'Dozens' is the range 30 to 40 in plain words; the entry avoids expressing it as a share of the kilns closed, because the two available counts of those kilns (106 and 107) disagree.

Sources carrying this claim

  1. The Daily Star - Smoke fills the air we breathe
  2. The Daily Star editorial - Failure to clean up Dhaka's air is costing lives
Forensic record — source dossiers, gaps, hashes and the exact revision this page renders

This layer records what is known about each source, what is still missing, and the exact snapshot this page is rendering. A missing date, archive or hash stays visible as missing.

unreviewed Revision 2026-08-26-dhaka-baseline effective 2026-08-26 · created 2026-08-26

Awaiting operator and domain-expert review; publication of this revision implies neither.

sha256:fd7221eb63918f37ba924a260f5af4597c2f77c6db4309b99eac601a1632ec73
Revision history → Permanent version link → Machine-readable record → Evidence Constitution →
17
of 17 claims mapped
12
source dossiers
9
publication dates recorded
0
archives linked
0
exact locators
0
content captures hashed

Governance facts carried by the record

Operator
Department of Environment (DoE), Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
Actor types
national-government
Funding model
mixed
Funding description
Stations installed under the government's World Bank-backed Clean Air and Sustainable Environment (CASE) project; the roadside expansion put to ECNEC in April 2025 is a Tk 68 crore JICA grant alongside government money
Cost
Not recorded
Ownership
Not recorded
Decision rights
Not recorded
Exit conditions
Not recorded

12 source dossiers

The Daily Star / ICDDR,B and Bengal Institute - Dhaka's deadly air: what we know and what we can do thedailystar.net · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-16c4ada012855864
Publisher
Name not classified · thedailystar.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-03-16
Updated
2025-06-21
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Joint report by researchers at ICDDR,B and the Bengal Institute for Architecture, Landscapes and Settlements, published in The Daily Star's In Focus section. Carries the network's size and origin - the DoE installed 16 CAMS in eleven cities under the CASE project, of which Dhaka has 4 - the statement that the daily AQI is derived from those stations, the judgement that four stations cannot represent Dhaka, the NAQMP 2024-2030 targets, and the finding that the plan sets out suggestions without strict obligations. Fetched with a browser user agent; the site returns 403 to WebFetch.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
BSS - Govt declares Savar upazila as 'degraded air shed' bssnews.net · 7 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-d48c4fd17b0454e1
Publisher
Name not classified · bssnews.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-08-18
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

State news agency report on the declaration. Supports Rule 5 of the Air Pollution (Control) Rules 2022 as the legal basis, the circular signed on 17 August by DoE director general Dr Md. Kamruzzaman, the September 2025 prohibitions (all brick kilns except tunnel and hybrid Hoffman kilns, open burning of solid waste, clearances for new polluting industry), the CAMS finding of annual average pollutants nearly three times the national standard, and the dry-season winds that carry Savar's pollution into Dhaka.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
The Business Standard - Explainer: Savar declared a 'Degraded Air Shed': what does it mean? tbsnews.net · 5 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-a9e3714eb4a42bc9
Publisher
Name not classified · tbsnews.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-08-19
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Explainer confirming the same measures independently and stating that the designation is made under Rule 5 of the Air Pollution (Control) Rules, 2022, that the action plan rests on CAMS data, and listing the national ambient standards the declaration is measured against (annual PM2.5 15 ug/m3, PM10 50 ug/m3).

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
The Daily Star - Smoke fills the air we breathe thedailystar.net · 2 linked claims

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-27e110ff2dc7b767
Publisher
Name not classified · thedailystar.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2026-03-14
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
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Reporting by Pinaki Roy. Supports the partial reversal: DoE deputy director Mohammad Abdul Motalib says around 30 to 40 brick kilns reopened on High Court permissions (Writ Petition No-15982/2025), and the open-burning ban is not holding at the Amin Bazar and Matuail landfills. Also recaps the Savar declaration and the September kiln halt. Its 'Switzerland-based Air Quality Index' rankings and the 90.35 ug/m3 annual figure are commercial-platform numbers and are deliberately not used in this entry.

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Claims linked
The Daily Star editorial - Govt must act now to curb air pollution thedailystar.net · 1 linked claim

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Stable source ID
src-879f571677eb96b1
Publisher
Name not classified · thedailystar.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-12-29
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
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Editorial. Carries the load-bearing negative: Bangladesh still lacks clear, systematic protocols such as school protection measures or closure guidelines during episodes of extreme pollution.

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The Daily Star editorial - Failure to clean up Dhaka's air is costing lives thedailystar.net · 2 linked claims

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Stable source ID
src-df923d4b2cde7ba5
Publisher
Name not classified · thedailystar.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2026-06-11
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
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Currency check and the enforcement verdict: despite the 2025 Savar declaration and the kiln restrictions, 'enforcement has been lax'. Also the model this entry follows for handling commercial rankings - the editorial attributes them to IQAir by name rather than asserting them.

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Claims linked
The Daily Star - Air pollution: Govt plans 24 roadside monitors in Dhaka and Ctg thedailystar.net · 5 linked claims

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Stable source ID
src-a23d2066911db59e
Publisher
Name not classified · thedailystar.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-04-19
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
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No archived copy linked
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Supports the network total (the DoE has 31 air quality monitoring stations, of which 16 function continuously, and publishes real-time data from them), the absence of any roadside monitoring in the country, and the Tk 103 crore proposal with a Tk 68 crore JICA grant for 24 roadside stations, 19 of them in Dhaka, put to the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council.

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BSS - 'Degraded Airsheds' to be identified in Dhaka: Rizwana bssnews.net · 1 linked claim

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Stable source ID
src-d8ee6428509ba8a8
Publisher
Name not classified · bssnews.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2025-07-01
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
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Environment adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan tells a meeting at the DoE in Agargaon that degraded airsheds 'will soon be declared to control air pollution in Dhaka city' and that a scientific expert committee will be formed. Establishes that a Dhaka-city declaration was announced as intended six weeks before Savar was declared instead, and that the DoE sits under the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

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Claims linked
BSS - PM outlines 12-point plan to build a clean and green Dhaka bssnews.net · 1 linked claim

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Stable source ID
src-2d3473306d508d90
Publisher
Name not classified · bssnews.net
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
2026-04-29
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
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No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
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The government's own most recent account of what it does about Dhaka's air, given by the prime minister in parliament: mobile courts against smoking vehicles and construction dust, tree planting, 250 electric buses, brick-kiln shutdowns, and the Savar degraded airshed named as the measure aimed at the capital. Nothing in the twelve points is conditioned on an air-quality reading, which is the corroboration for this entry's central negative.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Begum, Biswas & Nasiruddin - Trend and spatial distribution of air particulate matter pollution in Dhaka city, Journal of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences 34(1) banglajol.info · 1 linked claim

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Stable source ID
src-8844e38b7f4676fd
Publisher
Name not classified · banglajol.info
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
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Open the recorded source note

Peer-reviewed. Supports the origin date: the DoE set up the first continuous air quality monitoring station in the country at the Sangsad Bhaban premises in Dhaka in April 2002, plus five satellite stations from 2005. Used only for that fact.

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Claims linked
World Air Quality Index project - Department of Environment Bangladesh station feed aqicn.org · 1 linked claim

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Stable source ID
src-fb3e97d7b8f9ef29
Publisher
Name not classified · aqicn.org
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

The Department of Environment's own real-time feed as republished by the World Air Quality Index project, used here only to confirm that the Dhaka stations are reporting, not for any figure. Checked 27 August 2026: the DoE network page listed live readings from four Dhaka locations (National Institute of Mass Communication, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council, the DoE's own Dhaka compound and BUET) alongside stations in Savar, Gazipur, Narayanganj and eight other towns. The page notes that Bangladesh's AQI breakpoints are the same as the USEPA's, per the National Air Quality Management Plan 2024-2030.

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Claims linked
Dhaka Tribune - Govt to set up roadside air monitoring stations in Dhaka, Chittagong dhakatribune.com · 1 linked claim

Open original source ↗

Stable source ID
src-d7907eba2a249233
Publisher
Name not classified · dhakatribune.com
Type / language
web-page · language not classified
Published
Not recorded
Updated
Not recorded
Source last checked
No source-level check date
Record last verified
2026-08-26
Dossier created
2026-08-26
Retrieved copy
No local capture recorded
Archive
No archived copy linked
Content hash
No captured content hash
Locator
Open the recorded source note

Corroborates the roadside project and reports that ECNEC approved it, with Tk 35.51 crore from the government and Tk 67.84 crore as a JICA grant, 19 stations in Dhaka and five in Chattogram, covering DNCC, DSCC and Chittagong City Corporation. The host returns 403 to every automated request tried (WebFetch and curl with a browser user agent), so the outlet, headline and content were confirmed through search results only and no verbatim locator could be taken.

Descriptive only — not page/paragraph exact
Claims linked
Known limits of this passport
  • Publisher names and source languages have not yet been classified; domains are recorded without guessing.
  • Existing source notes are descriptive locators, not page- or paragraph-exact citations.
  • A missing archive, publication date or content hash is shown as null rather than inferred.
  • The project-level evidence grade ranks the strongest source in the entry; it is not a truth score for every claim.

Continue exploring

Compare this project

🇰🇷 S-DoT — Smart Seoul Data of Things Sensor Network · Seoul Seoul thickened its sensor grid until the map was continuous; Dhaka's four stations already say enough, and nothing is obliged to follow. 🇸🇪 Stockholm's City-Centre Zero-Emission Zone · Stockholm Two legal levers that missed: Stockholm's zone was halted before it began, Dhaka's was first used on the neighbouring upazila. 🇮🇳 Mumbai Climate Action Plan · Mumbai Both publish the numbers and staff the response thinly. The plan and the network are the easy half; the obligation is the missing one.

Explore the wider context

📟 A Reading Is Not a Decision🌫️ Air quality guide🏙️ Dhaka city profile🌱 Environment projects📖 Air quality index (AQI)📖 Low-emission zone📖 Urban sensor network
📎 Cite this project

1001 Smart Cities (2026). “CAMS Air Monitoring and the Degraded Air Shed Rule” — Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Smart City Atlas. https://1001smartcities.org/projects/dhaka-air-quality-monitoring/ (last verified 2026-08-26). Data: CC BY 4.0.

The underlying data is free to reuse with attribution — see the open data page.

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