Dhaka second dirtiest city in the World & Earth Award 08 to BD Environmentalist

All cities are positioned against New York, the base city with an index score of 100. For the Health and Sanitation Rankings, the index scores range from the worst on the list–Baku, Azerbaijan, with a score of 27.6–to the best on the list–Calgary, Canada, with a score of 131.7.

The World’s Dirtiest Cities No. 2: Dhaka, Bangladesh

Mercer Health and Sanitation Index Score: 29.6

Located in southern Asia, between Burma and India, Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh battles with the constant threat of water pollution. Surface water is often thick with disease and pollutants from the use of commercial pesticides. With an estimated 150 million people living in a relatively small area, cleaning up the problem won’t be easy.

Addressing air pollution is the easiest way to be able to fix someone’s well-being because we’re always breathing, and there are all sorts of harmful particulates in the air," says Richard Fuller, founder of the New York-based Blacksmith Institute, a nonprofit dedicated to solving the pollution problems of the developing world. "In fact, the biggest pathway for lead poisoning is particulates in the air. So in areas with a lot of air pollution, shutting down the worst forces of these types of pollution really does make a difference.

Compare to Dhaka The World’s Cleanest Cities No.10 (Tie) Lexington, KY

Population: 260,512

Metro area: 73 square km

Lexington is known as the Athens of the West and as the Horse Capital. It has moved on from there with some manufacturing, a concentration on technology and considerable educational services. It has a public transit system that is mainly buses, a full range of highways and considerable traffic for a clean city.