Making the metropolitan city liveable

According to a recent survey carried out by Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), a prestigious research wing of the London-based weekly Economist, Dhaka was placed at 139th position out of 140 countries surveyed and identified as the second worst city to live in. The criteria of the standings were based on the factors like stability, healthcare, environment and culture, education and infrastructure. Out of 100 points at stake Bangladesh could earn only 38.7 points just beating Harare marginally at 37.5. Karachi and Colombo are other two Asian cities that make the last 10. Last year, Dhaka held the same position. Canadian city of Vancouver scored 98 points out of 100 to secure the top position as most liveable city in the world. Melbourne has been voted as second most liveable city. Indeed, the people migrating to the city from other parts of the country with dreams of a better life are increasing at a rate of 6.0 per cent per year and the rate of growth of population, belonging to such families, is also contributing to the increased city population. This is creating a significant pressure on the city. Despite development and other related issues taking the centre-stage, the concern over demographic explosion appears to have receded to the background. But the air of nonchalance, notwithstanding, the population bomb, is ticking away all the same as before. The average rate of population growth in the city is now 3.0 per cent against 7.0 per cent growth in city slums. This is also contributing to 1.4 per cent average growth rate of population over the country. About 40 per cent of city-dwellers live in slums and the rate is expected to rise in the future. There was a time when the authorities used to hang advertisements for population control all over the city in billboards and posters. Television channels and radio stations used to broadcast these as well. These are now seen nowhere. Is it then assumed that the nation is less concerned about the hyper increase in population today? The question is now creeping in everybody's mind whether we have knowingly abandoned it or not. City's environment is already threatened as a consequence of excessive population. Pollution is increasing and water supply and sanitation facilities in Dhaka might collapse under the fierce pressure of city-dwellers. If population growth continues unabated, a decade from now, it will be hard to walk on the city streets. The unhindered growth of population in Dhaka is set to increase social inequality significantly over the course of the next decade. It will bring about tremendous problems in areas of provision of basic services including heath, education and food. About 60 per cent of total city-dwellers, who are from lower and lower-middle class, will be deprived of those services. Dhaka city has become one of the world's truly hopeless urban cases. Fleeing droughts, floods, and starvation, people have been streaming into the city from the countryside, making it distressingly sick. The capital city is now bursting with people of all categories looking for jobs. In recent times, agitation by garment workers, street fights among rival groups of students on tender dropping, and traffic congestion at every road intersection have brought the city to a standstill. Apart from people living on jobs in government and private agencies, at least 2.0 million people working in different garment factories and other industries in and around the city find it extremely difficult to get a shelter in the confines of the city. The way poor income people living in slum areas of different parts of the city beggars' description. Unhygienic condition leaves scores of them to suffer from many chronic diseases. The situation in Dhaka city is becoming alarming day by day. Joblessness, oversized population, noxious emissions and toxic effluents from smoke belching vehicles have made city life choking. Conscious citizenry have been focusing on human factors responsible for deterioration of environmental quality in the city life. These are: population growth incompatible with development of resources, lack of adequate environmental considerations, poor management of waste generated through the production-generation process. Environmentalists have expressed concern about the environmental degradation of Dhaka city that evidently manifests its decline. Dhaka's air pollution scenario through vehicle emission, despite changeover to CNG-driven vehicles, is still the worst. Dhaka's sky is no longer blue, it is grey. Health experts claim that the air in this rapidly growing city will soon become impossible to breathe. Dhaka city dwellers are, thus, being subjected to slow murder. The city's vehicle population has almost increased ten times since 1992 as a result of the successive governments' failure to introduce mass transport. Unless migration from the countryside is checked, Dhaka will turn into a city of ruins, where people will risk losing their living environment. Without political commitment and its implementation, reform of any kind is, indeed, virtually impossible to achieve. To arrest the 'decline of Dhaka,' the country needs political will, public advocacy and civic pressure to create sustained awareness through the media. The road surface, according to an estimate, is 8.0 per cent of the total surface area of Dhaka. In an integrated system, with waterways and metro-rail, the need for roads will not be that great. Still it is estimated that the road surface in Dhaka should be more than 15 per cent. Before the work for metro-rail gets started, the main task facing the relevant authorities is to build the already proposed link roads and by-pass roads. The major defect in the transport network is the absence of link roads between eastern and western part of Dhaka. And the by-pass roads that are in the pipeline must be implemented very rapidly. Only way to make the city livable is to make outskirts of Dhaka and other towns the epicenters of growth, create employment opportunities through setting up of more SMEs, opening of educational institutions, medicare facilities, entertainment outlets like parks, cultural rendezvous of different denominations. Decentralization of the administration has been long over due with self-contained zones of habitats so that people do not have to travel long distances. Dhaka's civic governance should be radically improved by bringing into being a unified city authority. szkhan@dhaka.net