Livable city-- no longer an agenda!

Residents of Dhaka city should be rewarded for their patience and tolerance shown on the streets every day! Spending hours in traffic congestion, inhaling dust and polluted air, facing hassles in public offices and extortion, consuming adulterated foods, suffering from transport crisis, deficiency in utility services, absence of recreational facilities and innumerable barriers to doing business - all have failed to stop life in the mega-city.
It's not that the people are unaware of problems and prospects of Dhaka and other cities and towns in the country; rather they are tired of discussing the urban issues seeing no end to the maladies. Dhaka's ranking as one of the most unlivable cities in the world could not even generate angry reaction that could impel stakeholders to look for improvements in the living conditions. Our policymakers, too, should be praised for their resolve to ignore the urban issues!
Looking at clumsy buildings, tailback of vehicles, maddening crowds and smog, who would believe Dhaka, once surrounded by rivers and crisscrossed by canals and lakes inside, was supposed to have offered serenity and tranquility to its citizens?
Although modern Dhaka began its journey without proper planning of urbanisation, an illusion of dazzling urban life did prevail in the minds of many. A popular Bangla song in the 1970s summed up the illusion about the city:  Dhaka shohor aiysha amaar aasha furaichhe (my dream has come true coming to Dhaka city).
It symbolised the people's tendency to migrate to Dhaka, which was then glorified mainly for availability of electricity and water supply through pipelines and other civic amenities. "Lifestyle factor or the attraction of city life has brought in some of the urban residents," economist Hossain Zillur Rahman wrote in a 2012 book titled 'Bangladesh: Urban Dynamics'. He pointed out that the city life lure is relevant to over 22 per cent of the Dhaka residents.
Once built and mostly maintained as political capital of different regimes, Dhaka has continued to see influx of people from different parts of the country, so much so that around 70 habitations (jonopod) around Dhaka have almost disappeared by way of losing their distinct character. The capital city has also stretched further over the years into the neighbouring districts. "Dhaka's inexorable growth as a primate city is mirrored in the extreme centralisation of decision-making and political authority," added Hossain Zillur.
With considerable economic growth in recent decades, Bangladesh is still faced with a development paradox - increasing urbanisation without facilitating various essential services for the urbanites. As a result, the trend sees complex problems and sufferings in urban life instead of easy access to services required to make life better and comfortable. A dream city, be it Dhaka, remains elusive as ever in spite of the public demand for development that leads to rise in the number of urban population.
The problems of urbanisation are not unknown to people in other cities and towns as well. The issues that came from Jessore residents, during a study conducted by this author, include: township master plan, proper education and healthcare, improvement of municipal governance, opportunities for the poor and the middle class for generating income etc. Some of the suggestions that the community members of Narayanganj came up with are: development of model town plan, addressing health and education problems, construction of parks and playgrounds, improvement of transport and communication and incentives for the well-off people to stay in the town.
Whether we like it or not, it is undeniable that the entire country is getting urbanised as the people are desperately looking for a city or town to live in better civic atmosphere. And despite all odds, almost 45 million people are living in towns and cities in Bangladesh and the number is expected to exceed 80 million by 2030. The population in Dhaka alone is estimated to be 46 times higher than the number of people living in Melbourne, one of the top ranking livable cities on earth by international standards.
A near-collapse of mass transit system, severe environmental degradation, growth in the number of floating people, crisis of housing for the middle class and the poor, insufficient utility services, regulatory barriers, inadequate and low quality education and healthcare facilities and drug menace have all posed serious challenges to urban life in Dhaka and also in other cities and major district towns.
In fact, the country is yet to define the basic parameters for a livable city or town for its citizens, let alone international visitors and investors. In our case, the major reason for 'urban attraction' is economic: more than 70 per cent residents of Dhaka and Chittagong say they are there for employment and 21 per cent for business purposes, Hossain Zillur noted. While conducting a study, he also found that over 23 per cent citizens of the two metropolises migrated there for better education of their children and more than 15 per cent of migrants are students.
However, we have historically witnessed policy hypocrisy in matters of urbanisation- even school boys and girls joined debates on whether a city or a village is better and superior. There has been an anti-urban bias in the government's avowed development policymaking as reflected in the tendency to glorify, at least publicly, only the villages and vilify the urban culture. But conspicuously, the policies are not pro-village (pro-rural areas) either, as proven in the lack of efforts to improve delivery of modern services to the people there.
 Dhaka City Corporation, the main centre of urban focus, has been literally orphaned in the absence of elected representatives. There is none to look after the well-being of the city dwellers, who have many things to say to make a beautiful, livable city. Who will listen to them?
Khawaza Main Uddin is Executive Editor at ICE Business Times. khawaza@gmail.com