The president of the Institution of Diploma Engineers, Bangladesh (IDEB) recently made comments during a seminar on water-logging, accusing every government in the history of our country of having failed in their duties regarding the management of our cities.
What might initially come off as yet another attempt at finger-pointing is actually a rather sobering admission of guilt. It is not only the government’s job to keep our cities clean and functional, but also a good part of that responsibility also falls on us as citizens.
Our cities have not been planned out to operate in the most optimised way possible. Dangerously frequent instances of unplanned urbanisation result in natural water bodies being filled up, giving way to water-logging; canals and rivers are made vacant for housing projects which leave construction material lying on the ground, posing a serious hazard to passers-by. These are everyday sights to the average city-dweller, but the ill effects they have on our metropolises are lasting.
For urban developers, it should be a point of reminder that being a deltaic country, our cities are already in a rather precarious geographical and topographical position. Careful planning is a necessity before further urbanisation can even be considered.
There is a very real, tangible toll being taken on our environment due to the haphazard way our cities are currently operating and expanding. Let us not make the same mistakes as our forebears, and move beyond political blame games to fix our cities.