Liveability of Dhaka

If Dhaka doesn’t receive proper attention now, after 20 or 30 years it will lose the quality to be even considered in the ranking. Many specialists of urban and regional planning expressed their concern that if the current situation of Dhaka continues for ten years, it will turn into an abandoned city, writes Asif Reza Akash

THE capital city of Bangladesh, Dhaka has a long history, dating back to 1606. It was first the capital of a province under the Mughal regime till 1717. It then became the capital of East Bengal and Assam in 1905, of East Pakistan in 1947, and finally of Bangladesh in 1971. The metropolitan area of Dhaka is 1,500 square kilometres and the area of Dhaka City Corporation is 360 square kilometres. The Bangladeshi capital, Dhaka, is thought to be the world’s fastest growing city. A BBC report in 2010 showed that it already has a population of 15 million, and an extra 400,000 people move there every year.

According to the latest global liveability survey from the Economist Intelligence Unit (August, 2011), Dhaka stands in the 139th place out of 140 cities. Australia’s second largest city, Melbourne, has been rated the best city in the world to live in, edging ahead of Canada’s Vancouver, and Harare of Zimbabwe is considered as the worst liveable city in the world. According to EIU, every city is assigned a rating of relative comfort for over 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. Each factor in a city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable. For qualitative indicators, a rating is awarded based on the judgment of in-house analysts and in-city contributors. For quantitative indicators, a rating is calculated based on the relative performance of a number of external data points. The scores are then compiled and weighted to provide a score of 1-100, where 1 is considered intolerable and 100 is considered ideal. The liveability rating is provided both as an overall score and as a score for each category.

Under the category of stability the factors considered were prevalence of petty crime, prevalence of violent crime, threat of terror, threat of military conflict and threat of civil unrest or conflict. In case of healthcare the factors were availability of private healthcare, quality of private healthcare, availability of public healthcare, quality of public healthcare, availability of over-the-counter drugs, general healthcare indicators (adapted from World Bank). The influential factors under culture and environment were humidity/temperature rating (adapted from average weather conditions), discomfort of climate to travellers, level of corruption (adapted from transparency international), social or religious restrictions, level of censorship, sporting availability, cultural availability, food and drink, consumer goods and services. In case of education the indicators were availability of private education, quality of private education, public education indicators (adapted from World Bank). The indicators of infrastructure were quality of road network, quality of public transport, quality of international links, availability of good quality housing, quality of energy provision, quality of water provision, quality of telecommunications.

By considering those factors, the position of Dhaka in ranking is clear to everyone. Now it is high time to think about Dhaka. If Dhaka doesn’t receive proper attention now, after 20 or 30 years it will lose the quality to be even considered in the ranking. Many specialists of urban and regional planning expressed their concern that if the current situation of Dhaka continues for ten years, it will turn into an abandoned city. Now it is the time to list the problems of Dhaka, find out the roots of those problems through fish-bone analysis and solve those as early as possible.

Why was Dhaka placed in 139th position out of 140 cities? Most likely the first answer is an uncontrolled and huge population. This is the mother of all problems in Dhaka as well as in Bangladesh. This huge population creates a huge pressure in every sphere of life in Dhaka. High population density always makes a crisis in hospitals, education sectors, transportation systems and other aspects of life. PricewaterhouseCoopers UK Economic Outlook November 2009 revealed in a research that Dhaka is in the 9th position with a 13.5 million people in 2007 out of top 30 urban agglomerations by population and their projected ranking for Dhaka in 2025 is 4th place with a 22 million population.

The second problem might be centralisation in Dhaka. Most of the main offices of government and non government organisations are here. Best hospitals and educational institutions are also here. So, people are compelled to come to Dhaka to take the better opportunities and fulfil their needs and usually when they settle here once, they are reluctant to move out. Unplanned infrastructure and town planning has added a new extent to this problem. The poor road and transportation system has lowered the liveability in Dhaka. The city dwellers are plagued with time consuming and monotonous traffic jams.

Public safety and political stability is also very low. Hartal and other strikes are burning examples. The law and order situation is not stable. Every day murder, suicide, hijacking, carjacking and various crimes are happening. The condition of healthcare is sometimes indescribable. Public hospitals are always filled up and service is awful. The costs of private hospitals are often so expensive that average citizens can’t afford. Recent scandals regarding some private hospitals have questioned their services. Water scarcity and mismanagement, load shedding and energy deficit, land grabbing, river grabbing, disposal of waste have worsened the condition of Dhaka.

It is the appropriate time for taking necessary steps to make Dhaka liveable. The population should be controlled or it will slower the development. The main challenge for the government is decentralisation and to develop the roads, highways and overall transportation systems. The education and public health sectors should be decentralised properly and effectively. Utility services should be improved. Proper urban planning must be recognised. If the government and citizens show strict concern and seriousness about these issues then we might hope for a better Dhaka, a better tomorrow and a better ranking, indeed.

This article was published in The New age, Op-Ed (10/9/2011). 

Link: Livability of Dhaka by Asif Reza Akash