A city we call home

Dhaka has been ranked as the second-most unlivable city in the world by a survey conducted over 140 cities by the London based Economist Intelligent Unit in 2013. The yardsticks of the survey were political and social stability, crime rates, access to quality healthcare, natural environment, education, and the standard of infrastructure including public transport. Dhaka is not livable by any standard, and it is the net result of the failures of our successive governments.

With over 15 million people living in the city, urbanisation experts, city planners, environmentalists, and other conscious members of the society have identified a number of problems these city dwellers are facing:

Overpopulation

With the population increasing by 1 million every three years, Dhaka will become the 4th most populous city in the world by 2015. At present, over 15 million people live in Dhaka. The influx of rural people into the city must be stopped.

Unplanned expansion of the city and illegal structures

Dhaka is now best known for urban indiscipline. The norms of organised civic life continue to be violated with impunity. Illegal encroachment and unauthorised constructions have become rampant.

The law and order situation

The credibility of those responsible for maintaining law and order has eroded as they have failed to uphold the rule of law. City-dwellers do not feel secure because of mugging on the streets, robberies in relatively secure apartments, mob-lynchings, pick-pockets, and so on.

A poor economic base

Widespread poverty and unemployment engulf our lives. Some 19% of the population lives below the poverty level and about 15 million of our educated youths remain unemployed.

Lack of civic amenities

There has been rapid expansion of the city as its population has increased by leaps and bounds over the years. People are deprived of basic civic amenities. Short supply of water, frequent power failure, low-voltage of power, exorbitant prices of daily necessities, rise in house rent, lack of recreational facilities, air pollution, and deteriorating law and order situation have made Dhaka life miserable.

Poor traffic management

What worries the city-dwellers most is the outrageous traffic. Traffic congestion has reached nightmarish proportions. It eats up the valuable time of office-goers, students, and other commuters. The traffic situation worsens during monsoon when many streets become flooded.

Housing problems and sprawling slums

There is an acute housing problem in the city. Until now, about 30% of the people live in their own houses. Seizing this opportunity, our developers have started housing businesses and now there is a craze of high-rise buildings. In the absence of housing policies from the government, the real estate business companies are constructing high-rise buildings with little regard for the city’s beauty. It is reported that the number of slum-dwellers in Dhaka city will cross 10 million in the next five years as the rural poor are continuously pouring into the capital city.

Inadequate facilities for education and health care

Our entire education system is in shambles. The number of quality educational institutes is low. Our government educational institutes cannot provide quality education to its students and they mostly remain closed due to political violence. Although there has been a rapid growth of private educational institutions including universities in the city, these are beyond the reach of common people because their tuition fees are extremely high. Although there has been a mushroom growth of private hospitals and clinics in the metropolis in recent times, low income groups have to depend solely on government-run hospitals for treatment because the private clinics are beyond their reach.

Political violence

Politics have become very confrontational in Bangladesh. Today’s decaying politics is very different from its extraordinary past. Today’s politicians do not always deserve high public esteem. Highly confrontational party politics often erupts into bloody battles causing deaths and injuries. Our domestic politics is marked by money and muscle power.

Environmental problems

Although age-old vehicles have been banned, many unfit vehicles with a facelift are running through the city streets. These vehicles emit black smoke polluting the air. Moreover, with about 300 factories disposing in toxic waste and rubbish in the open rivers, surface water has become extremely polluted. Besides air pollution, another environmental hazard the city dwellers have been facing is noise pollution. Many students are victims of noise pollution which causes deafness, heart disease, high blood pressure, headaches, and other complexities. Encroachment of lakes, rivers, parks, and government land and the destruction of trees are causing serious environmental problems.

Our government may consider the following steps to make Dhaka more livable. Firstly, we need comprehensive policies for a decentralised administration, education, commerce, and industry so that other towns and cities around the country can offer livelihood for common people. Such policies will make other cities and towns more attractive and reduce the influx of people coming to Dhaka. Besides, we need to save the villages by saving agriculture and increasing civic amenities there.

Secondly, the transportation system of Dhaka has to be overhauled. Currently the focus is on building flyovers and making travel by car easier and faster although only a small percentage of the population has access to cars. We need long-term strategic planning that focuses on an energy-efficient mass transit system based on a network of boats, trains, and buses. Road facilities need to be improved so that all vehicles can move freely. One-way roads must be kept one-way.

Thirdly, we need clean, safe, and accessible public spaces in the form of parks, playgrounds, and public squares. Hanging wires and cables all over the city look very odd. These should be removed. All electric, telephone, cable TV, and internet wires should be underground. There should be no posters on walls, and construction materials on the roadside should not be allowed.

Investment is required to address key infrastructural issues in providing better healthcare, education, population control, and environment control, or Dhaka will continue to be at the bottom of such surveys. We must maintain Dhaka’s dignity as our capital city. It is our earnest appeal to the major political parties to include in their next election manifesto the pledge that if voted to power, they will make Dhaka livable for all.