OBHIZATRIK Foundation

Imagine living in one of Dhaka’s most crowded neighbourhoods, surrounded by tanneries, traffic, and brick kilns, breathing air that nobody has ever measured the quality of. You know it is bad. You can see it, smell it, feel it. But because there is no data, there is no official record. And without a record, there is no pressure to act. Breathing Dhaka is changing that. We are placing air quality sensors in Dhaka’s most overlooked communities: informal settlements, industrial zones, high-density residential areas. And sharing everything we measure, live and for free, with the world. Every reading goes online in real time, openly accessible to researchers, journalists, government officers, and anyone who cares about the environment. But data is only the beginning. Our real goal is to put that evidence in front of Bangladesh’s policymakers and make it impossible to ignore, so that the people breathing Dhaka’s most polluted air finally have a voice in the decisions that affect their health.

Dhaka is home to millions of people living in informal communities who breathe some of the most polluted air in the world, yet their neighbourhoods have never appeared on a single air quality map. With Breathing Dhaka, we want to change that. Our goal is not just to generate data, but to put that data directly in the hands of the people and institutions who can act on it: the government officers responsible for enforcing clean air rules, the researchers linking pollution to disease, and the communities themselves. If we succeed, Dhaka’s most overlooked neighbourhoods will be visible on the global air quality map for the first time, and that visibility will drive real policy change.

Mrs. Khadiza Tul Kubra Sarah, Director, OBHIZATRIK Foundation