How will moving eastwards address the existing inequalities between the wealthy and poverty-stricken in Dhaka?
I think there are inequalities in every city. There are inequalities in earnings, in access to services. Perhaps the biggest inequalities we have seen in cities are in lands and land prices. The owners of land in Gulshan are very rich while those having land in Gazipur are not. If East Dhaka city continues its development at the current pace, I believe the situation will not change much. In East Dhaka, private realtors are increasingly developing entire neighbourhoods which are more like gated communities, with more social segregation. We don't see such a thing in West Dhaka. There are more than a dozen big development companies in East Dhaka that are mainly focused on the upper-middle income group. Developing East Dhaka may not help reduce inequalities, but will push up business. If East Dhaka is well-developed, it will help cut pressure on West Dhaka as people will move to the eastern part of the capital. So, we expect to see the population density of West Dhaka decline.
How does the World Bank propose to deal with freeholders holding property in East Dhaka?
Due to development, the land prices will spiral upwards in East Dhaka, and who appropriates those gains is our concern. For example, a farmer who does have a property grows crops on other's land. When land prices shoot up, the owner sells the land at higher prices and the farmer loses the piece of land. So, we see that risk which is there in every process of rural development. I think this matter has to be addressed seriously, as private developers are always looking to start their projects. We hear stories that suggest that not everything happens (regarding land acquisition) in the proper way. To address the issue, we want a smart and digitized land administration in place. This may help us get information on how many property title holders and households are under a mouja. We'll then be able to know how many people are not actually entitled to a property. A digitized land administration may also facilitate the collection of information on holding tax, exact value of a property, cadastral record, good evaluation of land and other necessary information. So a modern land administration is a pre-requisite to a modern Dhaka.
None of the authors are water experts. Without this expertise, how can this proposed paradigm be considered meaningful?
Though the authors of the report are not water experts, they are well informed on what kind of water expertise is needed in Bangladesh. All of our water modelling came from a world-class institute and we used their simulation, not ours. Their simulations can be used in terms of floods, constructing embankments and regarding canals. As such, we are very confident of the analysis in the report.
Will further expansion of Dhaka draw more internal migrants? Is it desirable?
Migrants will come in anyway. We conducted a survey on households in Dhaka which shows that the inhabitants of slums in the city have higher living standards than that of the rural people. As such, it is very difficult to imagine that people will stop coming to Dhaka. In fact, even if nothing is done and business continues as usual, the population in Dhaka will be 25 million by 2035. In fact, this is a good thing since productivity, service delivery and access to healthcare is higher in cities. Cities generate a lot of revenue from the apparel sector, which can be used in infrastructure. Service delivery is much cheaper in cities.
Won't greater concentration of power and population in Dhaka further extend big business and big land owners?
We see possible transformations in these types of sectors. Of course, when you have urbanization, there will be changes taking place, as more manufacturing and less agriculture will be there. But if Dhaka continues business as usual, it will remain a manufacturing city. If a modernized Dhaka is built, it will be a city of great importance with high value added services. The distinctive feature of present Dhaka is the large investment groups. If the business goes on as usual, East Dhaka will be a series of small cities managed or designed by these groups.
