Appropriate policy support and coordination between international donor agencies and the government can remove the housing crisis for the urban low- income group people, speakers at a roundtable said.
Currently large cities are receiving more migrants. Urban population concentration is largely in one city -that is Dhaka, which is 37 per cent. Formal housing sub- sector is 40 per cent and informal housing sub sector is 60 per cent in the capital. Most of the urban people still live informally.
These were revealed at a roundtable discussion in the city on 'Housing Land Tenure and Services to Low Income People' hosted by Habitat for Humanity Bangladesh on Wednesday.
National director John A Armstrong from Habitat for Humanity International- Bangladesh in his welcome speech said one cannot build a house if she or he does not own a piece of land.
Professor Nurul Islam Nazem from the department of geography and environment, Dhaka University as key note speaker has provided information from his study on five city corporations and 22 municipalities.
The study said about 44 thousand poor settlements with 5.52 million poor populations, 1.127million households and 0.67 million house structures are there in the areas surveyed.
Mr Nazem discussed the positive correlation between urbanisation and economic growth of the country.
Citing an example of Dhaka he said the cities with the highest urbanisation rate have the higher GDP growth.
Planner Professor Dr. Mohammad Golam Rahman, President of Bangladesh Institute of Planners, Mostafa Quaium Khan, National Policy Advisor, Bangladesh Urban Forum and Planner-Architect Khandaker M Ansar Hossain were present in the roundtable.
Planner-Architect Khandaker M Ansar Hossain said there should not be a permanent housing solution for slum people as there would be no option for shifting to a better place or going back to their villages or as they like.
The roundtable discussion was centered on decentralisation and its importance, regional disparity, tenure rights, issues of displacements and urbanisation.
Mostafa Quaium Khan said the government has finalised a draft urbanisation policy and it would be placed before the cabinet soon and after final approval the government would then formulate policy for different categories of housing in the urban areas.
Planner Professor Dr. Mohammad Golam Rahman said coordinated action policy may solve the housing problems of low- income group people and remove the current unhealthy living standards of the urban slum people in the cities of the country.
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