Staff Correspondent

OBHIZATRIK Foundation has launched a new environmental initiative titled "Breathing Dhaka: Open-Access Hyperlocal PM2.5 Monitoring in Underserved Communities" to expand air pollution tracking across the capital, particularly targeting vulnerable and low-income areas.

The foundation organized the project's inception meeting at the Department of Environment (DoE) headquarters in Agargaon on Tuesday. 

Supported by the Air Quality Fund 2026 of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC), the initiative aims to deploy a network of hyperlocal PM2.5 monitoring devices to generate community-level data.

Department of Environment Director General Dr Md Lutfor Rahman attended the event as the chief guest, while OBHIZATRIK Foundation President Ahmed Imtiaz Jami outlined the project's objectives and operational framework. Dr Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder, Chairman of the Center for Atmospheric Pollution Studies (CAPS) and technical lead for the project, detailed the scientific aspects of the monitoring system.

Addressing the gathering, DoE Director General Dr Md Lutfor Rahman emphasized that the initiative would play a crucial role in tracking Dhaka's atmospheric health, expressing optimism that data-driven efforts will assist in removing the capital from the list of the world's most polluted cities.

OBHIZATRIK Foundation President Ahmed Imtiaz Jami noted that underprivileged populations remain disproportionately vulnerable to the adverse health impacts of air pollution. He stated that the foundation intends to use the collected data to collaborate with governmental and non-governmental stakeholders, inform policy formulation, and execute social and behavioral change campaigns.

Providing technical details, Dr Majumder explained that specialized PM2.5 monitoring units will be installed across eight designated low-income, industrial-adjacent, and environmentally fragile locations in Dhaka. The sensors will gather continuous data over a 12-month period, which will be routinely cross-validated with official DoE baseline metrics. The findings will be made available to the public and utilized for academic research publications.

The inception meeting featured discussions on sensor installation parameters, location selection, and long-term data integration strategies.

The event was attended by senior government officials and experts, including DoE Dhaka Metropolitan Office Director Farid Ahmed, Air Quality Management Division Deputy Directors Dr Mohammad Abdul Motalib and Begum Shahnaj Rahman, Assistant Director Tanjina Akter, Deputy Secretary Tapan Kumar Nath, Bangladesh Land Port Authority Assistant Engineer Ruhul Amin, and Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission Chief Scientific Officer Dr Mohammad Safiur Rahman. Representatives from non-governmental development organizations and faculty members from Stamford University Bangladesh and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) were also present.