Air and water pollution in Bangkok, Bangladesh and Log Angeles Recently, not only industrialization and advancing

technology have contributed significantly to world economic growth, but also couple with increasing population they have brought about serious pollution impacts. It is the fact that air and water pollution problems lead to many effects on human health issues including asthma, chronic, gastrointestinal and neurological illnesses. According to Anand( 1998, cited in UAE, 2000:30) there have been approximately 10,000 people die prematurely in Delhi due to air pollution. This essay will compare the problems and examine the different solutions in Bangkok, Bangladesh and Los Angeles in order to decide the best strategy to reduce the human health impacts. These three cities share several similarities in general pollution and health impacts, however, air pollution is a major negative influence on Bangkok and Los Angeles, whereas, water pollution has brought serious impacts on Bangladesh. Firstly, Bangkok and Los Angeles have experienced many challenges in air pollution problems. More specific, the greatest source of air pollutant in Bangkok is transport. According to Unhabitat (2010:22), the number of motor vehicles registered in Bangkok dramatically increased from 600,000 in 1980 to over 5,600,000 vehicles in 2007. As a result, the growing number of motor vehicles has produced a great amount of emission which results in extremely high concentrations of air pollutants. Especially, the most significant pollutant of concern in Bangkok is particulate matter (PM). Similarly, Los Angeles also have been facing a major difficulty from PM( PM10, PM2.5). From the EPA (2010:6), PM( PM10) leads to heart or lung diseases, such as asthma and chronic. In addition, PM also results in increasing in cardiovascular mortality and morbidity (Zhu, Fung,

Kendy, Hinds and Enguren-Fernadez, 2008:1). Although Bangladesh also has many effects from air pollution problems which are caused by the use of bio mass, water pollution issues have brought enormous impacts on human health due to the lack of water supply and sanitation. According to World Health Organisation

Bangladesh(2003:26) arsenic which is contamination of ground water has directly influences on the health of some 30-35 million people in Bangladesh. As a consequence, air and water pollution issues have been affecting a great number of people in three cities and the whole world as well. In order to mitigating these problems in these three cities have adopted a great number of measures which have contributed a vital role to improve air and water quality as well as health quality. In Bangkok, the Royal Thai government has revolutionised to reduce the lead from gasoline in 1996, therefore, the ambient air lead concentration in Bangkok is near zero( Un Habitat, 2010:22). Furthermore, the Thai government has introduced great strategy to alleviate air pollution that is sky train( Un Habitat, 2010:23) in Bangkok. Sky train, which is extremely effective public transport, has reduced a vast number of private cars and helped improve air quality, so that health quality improves significantly. On the other hand, in Bangladesh, the government has been attempting to overcome the health consequences of the arsenic crisis, the lack of effective water supply and sanitation . Therefore, several solutions implemented in Bangladesh include: a large number of capacity building, continued monitoring, and improvement of safe alternative sources( WHO Bangladesh, 2003:25). As a result, the impacts of arsenic crisis have decreased. In other case, Los Angeles has made great solutions in order to tackle air pollution, such as energy efficiency ,renewable energy and alternative fuels.

For

instance,

according

to

NRDC(

2006:1) reducing

electricity

consumption

approximately 15% equivalents to mitigate 575,000 passenger vehicles. Hence, the strategies are crucial to avoid the air quality problems and improve the environment in Los Angeles. Although all the strategies have played an essential part to manage air or water pollution impacts, the most effective strategy implemented is the using of sky train in Bangkok. Firstly, there has been a significant drop in the number of vehicles, because a large number of Thai people have chosen this train instead of using private car. As a result, the mass-rapid-transit system( Un habitat, 2010:23) has contributed considerably to reduce a considerable amount of emission due to the rising number of people using sky train. Furthermore, sky train also has resulted in eliminating the lead from gasoline which is cause of production of PM, so the ambient air lead concentration in Bangkok has been significantly reduced. Hence, the strategy has become the greatest effective measures. This essay has pointed many serious air and water issues which result in a plenty of health effects, and also introduced a great number of strategies to reduce the issues, especially Bangkok strategy by using sky train. It is believed that everyone should raise awareness and contribute responsibilities for reserving the natural environment. For instance, each person may plant some of trees. If everyone together protects the environment on the earth, the quality of life will be much better. (Total 803 worlds)