Students, parents protest air quality degradation in Gaibandha

Several hundred schoolchildren along with their parents today demonstrated in Gaibandha’s Sadar upazila over air quality degradation.

A local contractor has been incinerating rubber and plastic articles as fuel to melt bitumen emulsion used for road construction in front of a kindergarten school in Fakirer bazar area for last three months, locals said.

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The pitch-black smokes and the acrid smell emanating from the hearths to melt bitumen emulsion have made it almost impossible for the students of the schools to stay in their classes.

The residents of the adjoining areas are also suffering to a great degree, flaring today’s protest.

Carrying placards and festoons, several hundred schoolchildren and their parents today took to the street blocking Dharmapur-Gaibandha road for an hour at Fakirer bazaar.

The protesters also brought out a procession and formed a human chain later, our Gaibandha correspondent reports.

Thick smoke spreading in the surrounding areas might lead to various health hazards, speakers at the protest programme said.

As part of the renovation work of a dilapidated road in Malibari union, the workers are randomly using tyres, rubber and plastic-made objects as fuels to the hearths made for melting bitumen emulsion degenerating the air quality in the area, they said.

Locals Mostafizur Rahman Raju, Mahbuber Rahman Khoka, Humayun Kabir, Faruk Mia, Nurunnabi and students Meem Akhter and Rima Akhter, among others, addressed the protest programme.