Dhaka ranked sixth on the list of the world's most polluted cities on Thursday, November 12, 2026, recording an Air Quality Index (AQI) score of 158, which classifies the capital's air as "unhealthy" for residents. The data was published by the Switzerland-based air quality monitoring organization IQAir out of 126 tracked global cities.
According to IQAir's Thursday index, Pakistan’s Lahore topped the global pollution chart with a "hazardous" score of 344, followed by India's New Delhi in second place with a "very unhealthy" score of 284. Mongolia’s Ulaanbaatar (169), Algeria’s Algiers (167), and China’s Beijing (166) occupied the third, fourth, and fifth positions respectively.
Read nextFive More Witnesses Testify in Graft Case Against Fugitive Former IGP Benazir AhmedIn Bangladesh, AQI readings are calculated based on five criteria pollutants: particulate matter (PM10 and PM2.5), nitrogen dioxide ($NO_2$), carbon monoxide ($CO$), sulfur dioxide ($SO_2$), and ozone ($O_3$). A joint report by the Department of Environment (DoE) and the World Bank previously identified brick kilns, vehicular exhaust, and construction dust as the three primary contributors to Dhaka's air pollution. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), ambient air pollution causes an estimated 7 million deaths globally each year, largely due to stroke, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lung cancer, and acute respiratory infections.
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Reported by Staff Reporter • Edited by the Daily Best News desk. Send corrections to [email protected].
