Dhaka City in Crisis: Unraveling the Impact of Bad Governance, Written by Md Ashikul Islam Arin, ID: 23126078, Date - 15th August,2023.

Dhaka is the most important city of Bangladesh which is suffering terribly from various crises including overpopulation, environmental pollution and severe traffic jams. The inefficiency of the government is largely responsible for these problems which make Dhaka unliveable. Although the government talks about development in the name of construction of flyovers, highways, metro rail, their contribution towards making Dhaka livable is questionable. The government does not realize that the development of people's quality of life is more important than infrastructural development. Despite repeated development slogan from the responsible level of the government, according to the Economic Intelligence Unit report (2022), Dhaka ranks 165th out of 172 cities in terms of liveability. In this blog I will highlight some of the crises, show how they are putting Dhaka in crisis and also mention the extent of the government's responsibility behind this crisis.

Government's contribution to Dhaka's environmental pollution: Dhaka is suffering from severe level of environmental pollution which is crippling Dhaka. Air pollution has reached extremes, water is not safe to drink, rivers are depleted by pollution and encroachment, rainfall is decreasing at a significant rate, temperature is increasing drastically, skies are covered with dust and many more. However, for the sake of development, the government often cuts trees, which causes serious damage to the environment. According to Netra News (2023), Dhaka South City Corporation Mayor Fazle Noor Tapas said, “See, the capital is like a jungle. Too many trees everywhere. They are occupying too much space and this is resulting in low amounts of air and wind. We need bigger spaces for air and wind to pass through, and cutting the trees will give us that space.” Yes, sad but true, this is the statement of a city father of Dhaka. Another sad thing is that the government is creating eco-friendly fields and parks in elite areas like Gulshan, Banani or Dhanmondi, while in other areas, they are filling up fields and ponds and building factories or doing some other kind of projects. Why these two policies towards citizens of the same country? Who knows! The rivers around Dhaka have become so polluted due to the waste products of the factories that the rivers have become reservoirs of waste. The funny thing is, when my nose smells bad and the clear water of the river turns black during launch journey towards Dhaka, I realise that the launch will dock in Dhaka shortly because the bad smell comes from the Buriganga river. There are thousands of examples, in which it can be seen that due to the government's indifference, rivers and canals are being encroached upon, wastes from factories are being dumped into rivers, vehicles are emitting harmful fumes and many more.

 

Overpopulation of Dhaaka and the government’s indifference: The trend of people moving towards Dhaka is increasing which is taking the population of Dhaka to the point of explosion.

The current population of Dhaka is about 2.3 million which makes Dhaka the fourth most populous city in the world (Macrotrends, 2023).Speaking from my own experience, Dhaka city is so densely populated that I often have to hang on to the door of the bus while going to university because every bus is full of passengers.This excess population of Dhaka is accelerating many more crises but there is no action taken by the government to control the population of Dhaka. The government is giving permission for the construction of various factories, garments, government offices, educational institutions, residential areas in and around Dhaka, as a result of which the tendency of people to move towards Dhaka is increasing.

If the government had taken the initiative to spread offices, courts, educational institutions, factories and garments in different parts of the country instead of being concentrated in Dhaka, then there would not have been so much pressure on Dhaka and Dhaka would not have had to suffer under the burden of overpopulation.

Terrible traffic jam and the government: Dhaka's traffic jam is a curse and a nightmare for the people of Dhaka. A huge life time of Dhaka residents is wasted while sitting in traffic jam for hours. According to Nambeo Traffic Index (2023), Dhaka is fourth in the world in terms of the severity of traffic jams. Although the government has taken some initiatives to resolve the traffic jam, it is not giving enough benefits. However, roads are blocked hour after hour for VIP passes or roads are closed for political programs, especially government party programs.From my own experience, while coming from my home district Bhola to Dhaka, it takes 6 hours to travel 199 km. On the other hand, it takes me at least 2.5 hours, sometimes 4-5 hours to reach Bashundhara residential area, which is only 15 km away from Dhaka Sadarghat. An effective initiative to reduce traffic jams can be to reduce the number of private vehicles on the roads of Dhaka. Governments of Delhi and Mumbai had taken such an initiative and achieved considerable success in de-congesting traffic (Hindustan Times,2023). However, no such initiative is seen by our government, instead, for years, they have been carrying out reparation work on roads, bridges, flyovers, which have taken the traffic jam to a terrible level.

Dhaka's crises have reached a peak which has turned Dhaka into a sick, crippled city. The government is still apathetic about this which is pushing Dhaka towards destruction. We don't want to see our capital die like this. We want Dhaka to become a prosperous, livable and world-class city and the government must be keen to play an effective role in making it happen. The government should take quick action so that it is not too late and we do not lose Dhaka.

Written by, 

Md. Ashikul Islam Arin

Md. Ashikul Islam Arin was born on 9th June 2001 in Bhola District. He passed SSC exam from Bhola Govt High School and HSC exam from Bhola Govt College. Later, he enrolled in BRAC University's microbiology program in the spring 2023 batch to complete his bachelor's degree.