Upazila master plan for land use

In a land-scarce country with an oversize population, the value of each inch of territorial area cannot be overemphasised. The country's incumbent prime minister has long been taking pains to drive home the message of making good use of land. Her concern was largely for bringing even fallow lands under cultivation or tree plantation. Now she qualifies her earlier stance by directing the authorities concerned to prepare upazila master plans for judicious use of land under each of the lowest administrative tiers. In a country with a population of around 1,200 living in a square kilometre, cropland has aggressively been brought under housing and development projects. Woodlands and forests have mindlessly been denuded until the nation became aware of the precarious environmental degradation and started creating social forestry. This initiative was further motivated by the timber value of particular species of trees, unlike the indigenous ones, that were introduced.

So, now is the time for introspection. With the country projected to suffer the worst adverse impacts of climate change and under the compulsion of feeding an increasing population with its home-grown staples and other produce, all the options open before the nation have to be explored in-depth. It is exactly from this perspective, a master plan drawn on land use for each upazila can be a clinching factor for the nation. Not all upazilas are equal in size, nor do they have similar geo-morphological conditions. So the master plans will have to be quite diverse but must suit each of their territorial areas. But about one particular point, there should not be two opinions and this concerns preservation of as much cropland, forest areas and water bodies as possible. Although 1,200 people live in a square kilometre area, the population concentration is not homogeneous. The likely migration of people from the coastal areas in case of inundation by the rising sea should also be kept in mind.

There are not many options open before the nation to meet the challenge posed by the shrinking and degrading lands. The first option ought to be a plan for reducing the rate of population growth still further. Villages with dense population may have to opt for taller buildings ---say three to four-storey – instead of building separate house on farmlands. In that case, the master plan might be of help with not only clear guidelines but also finance. Villagers have already found that the traditional tin-roofed houses are almost as costly as those made with bricks. Now the master plan can include some administrative entity that will serve as a counterpart to the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakhha (RAJUK).

True, there is a need for streamlining the house-building sector in villages but the infrastructure development under the ambit of the local government should also get regulated with both lower tiers of local government and the upazila administration collaborating with each other. Newspapers often publish pictures of and reports on roads and bridges built in the middle of vast rice fields coming to no one's use ever. The master plan should bring an end to such eccentric, freakish and useless development initiatives once and for all. Those who have already been responsible for waste of money on such infrastructure should be made accountable for their misdeeds.