Dhaka is the home to millions of warm-hearted and hospitable people. With the booming businesses and increasing population, the once serene city has turned into one that is forever awake, bustling, and busy with everyone racing with a strict schedule.
In a city where the majority of the people are already struggling to survive poverty, issues such as the proliferating number of multiplexes and high-rise buildings, increased automobiles on the road, and the escalating population are most likely to result in further problems of accountability and inadequacy in meeting basic human needs. Without a clear steer towards improvement, is it possible that our beloved Dhaka city will become crippled in the next five years?
Oversaturation is a consequence of the lack of planned decentralisation. As the capital of the country, it is the main concentrated region for most of the political, administrative, and economic operations. A city that was designed to accommodate about a million people now harbours about 12 million individuals.
The population of Dhaka is growing at a dangerously increasing rate. It is the migration magnet for various reasons. Being the capital, it is the centre for economic investment, the industrial foci, and the nerve centre for political and administrative functions – offering more job opportunities, lucrative markets, advanced living and health care facilities, and so on.
The RMG sector, which plays a vital role in the country’s economic development, has most of its factories near or around Dhaka, which is yet another reason for migration. Students leave their hometown for admission in the academic institutions in Dhaka, which are considered better in standard.
Such factors resulting from centralisation has added to the complexities causing Dhaka city to be vulnerable with regards to functionality, economic development, and environmental sustainability. Dispersed reallocation of major operational factors throughout the country is needed urgently to avoid future dysfunction.
The unplanned and haphazard construction of the city’s infrastructure is also adding to the predicted meltdown. In almost every corner you look, there is something under construction. Multiplexes, high-rise buildings, schools, and factories are being built in unauthorised places with disregard to safety issues and without concern for proper planning.
Dhaka, which was once lush green, is now an image of small brick boxes smashed together in a congested manner. A tenant disapprovingly stated: “Most houses are built so compactly that the view from one window is usually another window of the next building – a front yard or a lawn has started to become a rare sight.” Dhaka city has already suffered the adversities of fatal earthquakes. The disorganised infrastructure makes the city even more at risk of the consequences of future earthquakes.
The chaotic construction works in almost every residential area create annoyance through noise and air pollution. Disregard to safety issues in such construction sites often causes sudden accidents to the labourers and even to the passers-by. The highly compressed infrastructure is resulting in numerous civic problems such as pollution, shortage of water, gas, and electricity and hence hinders the degree of livability.
In addition to the inability to provide job opportunities for the substantially increasing number of migrating people to Dhaka, the city faces the crisis of populating slums. The city has 3.5 million slum-dwellers living in poverty with lack of access to clean water, sanitation, proper food, and health care. The city is becoming inadequate in providing basic necessities while the job market is becoming highly saturated resulting in lower wages.
Major problems also include the transportation system, which largely obstructs the city’s operation. The chronic traffic on the road hampers productivity and efficient operation. A student stated:“The journey of an hour to my academic institution lasts for four or more hours, only due to traffic. It is frustrating and extremely tiring. By the time I reach home, there is little energy left in me to study.”
In addition to the continuous roadblocks, the city’s means to treat industrial, domestic, and medical waste are also issues of concern. The city’s waste is not being properly treated, and is increasingly causing environmental problems such as river pollution, air pollution, ground water depletion etc.
Among other obstacles of Dhaka city, a major one is the unstable political condition, which hinders the education system, business operation, foreign investment, and tourism, and poses a threat to citizens’ safety. Disorderly function of vehicles on the road, the unplanned construction of buildings, ignorant ways of treating wastage – all show a deficiency of rules.
Dhaka is already the world’s most unliveable city, according to a recent study by the Economic Intelligence Unit. If the city collapses, how will the millions of people of Dhaka survive? Where will they go?
