With 11m population, Dhaka is one of world's fastest-growing cities
Thursday, 28 June 2007
FE Report
Dhaka is one of the fastest growing cities in the world with over 11 million people and, like many Asian countries, more than one third of the urban population in Bangladesh live in congested or slum areas.
"They also live in poverty. Inadequate shelter is at the core of urban poverty. Left to them in a disorganised and merciless land market, the poor occupy available land and put up with whatever shelter they can find and with minimum of urban facilities," said representatives of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Pornchai Suchitta while releasing the State of World Population 2007 report at a press conference Wednesday.
"Formulation of a proper policy guideline for land use in urban areas is urgently needed," said the report.
The UNFPA launched the report titled 'Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth', simultaneously across the world.
In Bangladesh, the UNFPA representative said, about 27 per cent of the total population live in the urban area. The country experienced phenomenal increase in urban population and urban population growth rate is projected to be 3.5 per cent per year up to 2010, he added.
While focusing on the current and future scenario of urbanisation of the world, he said in 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of the world population -- 3.3 billion people -- will be living in urban areas.
"This number is expected to swell to almost five billion by 2030. In Africa and Asia, the urban population will double between 2000 and 2030. Many of these new urbanites will be poor. Their future, the future of cities in developing countries, the future of humanity itself, all depend very much on the decisions made now," he added.
Urbanisation - the increase in the urban share of total population - is inevitable, but it can be positive, he said adding that no country in the industrial age has ever achieved significant economic growth without urbanisation.
The report states that today's urbanisation is characterised by its scale and its concentration in developing countries. Between 2000 and 2030, Asia's urban population will increase from 1.36 billion to 2.64 billion.
"The battle to reach the Millennium Development Goals, halving extreme poverty by 2015 will be waged in the world's slums. A billion people live in slums, 90 per cent of them in developing countries," the report said.
Assistant representative of UNFPA Tahera Ahmed and joint secretary of the Health and Family Welfare Ministry Ayubur Rahman Khan, among others, were present at the press conference.
Dhaka is one of the fastest growing cities in the world with over 11 million people and, like many Asian countries, more than one third of the urban population in Bangladesh live in congested or slum areas.
"They also live in poverty. Inadequate shelter is at the core of urban poverty. Left to them in a disorganised and merciless land market, the poor occupy available land and put up with whatever shelter they can find and with minimum of urban facilities," said representatives of the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) Pornchai Suchitta while releasing the State of World Population 2007 report at a press conference Wednesday.
"Formulation of a proper policy guideline for land use in urban areas is urgently needed," said the report.
The UNFPA launched the report titled 'Unleashing the Potential of Urban Growth', simultaneously across the world.
In Bangladesh, the UNFPA representative said, about 27 per cent of the total population live in the urban area. The country experienced phenomenal increase in urban population and urban population growth rate is projected to be 3.5 per cent per year up to 2010, he added.
While focusing on the current and future scenario of urbanisation of the world, he said in 2008, for the first time in history, more than half of the world population -- 3.3 billion people -- will be living in urban areas.
"This number is expected to swell to almost five billion by 2030. In Africa and Asia, the urban population will double between 2000 and 2030. Many of these new urbanites will be poor. Their future, the future of cities in developing countries, the future of humanity itself, all depend very much on the decisions made now," he added.
Urbanisation - the increase in the urban share of total population - is inevitable, but it can be positive, he said adding that no country in the industrial age has ever achieved significant economic growth without urbanisation.
The report states that today's urbanisation is characterised by its scale and its concentration in developing countries. Between 2000 and 2030, Asia's urban population will increase from 1.36 billion to 2.64 billion.
"The battle to reach the Millennium Development Goals, halving extreme poverty by 2015 will be waged in the world's slums. A billion people live in slums, 90 per cent of them in developing countries," the report said.
Assistant representative of UNFPA Tahera Ahmed and joint secretary of the Health and Family Welfare Ministry Ayubur Rahman Khan, among others, were present at the press conference.