Md. Asadullah Khan in The Daily Star Point Counterpoint
The overall situation in Bangladesh is highly alarming. Poverty, over-population, over exploitation of scanty natural resources, noxious emissions and toxic effluents from factories and smoke-belching vehicles, coupled with natural disasters, are the major causes of environmental degradation in the country.
Population growth incompatible with development of resources, lack of adequate environmental consideration in the development processes, poor management of waste generated through the production/consumption processes, consumption of both renewable and non-renewable resources without substitution strategy, and inability to adopt cleaner technology and processes are responsible for the environmental degradation and deterioration of the quality of life in the country.
Dhaka city captures the minds of the people living in it, and of those streaming into the city in ever increasing numbers — about 4,00,000 each year since 1991. Dhaka’s population has now swelled to about 1,45,00,000. With the city’s skyline thrusting up aggressively and the sprawling market places bustling with activity, people seem to be getting drunk with opulence.
But behind the blinding glitter in some posh areas, the city is failing its citizens on major issues. The pavements on both sides of the railway line from Kamalapur to Tongi have become semi-permanent homes of the floating population. One can hardly believe that humans can live in such appalling conditions.
Most shockingly, largely due to management failure and greed, Dhaka has become one of the world’s truly hopeless urban cases. Fleeing droughts, flood and starvation, people pour into Dhaka city from all over the countryside, making it distressingly sick.
The city and its adjoining areas are now bursting with people of all categories looking for some avenues of income. Agitation by garment workers, extortion, hijacking and murder, compounded by street and campus fights between rival groups of students on tender dropping and admission business, have vitiated the once tranquil environment of the city.
Apart from people with jobs in government and private agencies, at least 30 lakh people, mostly female, working in garment factories and other industries in and around Dhaka, find it extremely hard to get a shelter in the city.
The way people are living in some slum areas near Amin Bazar in Mirpur, Ashulia, Tongi, extending up to Kamalapur, Basabo and Narayanganj, beggars description. They have no drinking water or toilet facilities, no electricity or fuel, and some five to six persons live in one-room shanties in submerged land.
But even with its filth, dirt and squalour, Dhaka city remains a beacon for the brightest and the bravest from all over the country. Finding no avenues of income and no job and no business in the countryside, people stream into this city for income, medical attention, education and commercial activities in a bid to test themselves against the toughest competition.
Each immigrant, whether from a village or small town, is bursting with ambition. Each harbours a plan for a better life. More by default than by design, Dhaka is emerging as the dream city of the country, a city that can provide people with jobs and homes.
Dhakaites now tend to believe that the city has spun out of control and the deadly violence, once mostly confined to certain crime-ridden zones, is now lashing out randomly at anyone any time, even in areas once considered relatively safe.
On the transportation side things are in a pretty bad shape. The public buses that wind through the city streets have come to be known as “savage lines.” They are battered, cramped and dingy. Despite the stern warnings issued by the law enforcement agencies that buses 20 years old would be banned from the roads, there has been no improvement in the situation.
Most old buses have again appeared on the roads with a new coat of paint. Most of these buses are overcrowded at all hours of the day and night. With about 2,250 km of roads available for the roughly 1,50,00,000 crore city population the number of registered vehicles is about 5,27,000 including 4,25,000 private cars and motor cycles, according to BRTA.
The bus terminals at Saidabad, Gabtali, Mohakhali etc. appear to be a collage of disorder and lawlessness. Certain intersections have turned into “drive-thru” — allowing buses, cars, and three-wheelers to make turns in any direction they choose. The police and traffic sergeants are but mute spectators to all these vicious games.
The traffic jams sometimes brings the city to a grinding halt, causing annual loss of about Tk.20,000 crore, as revealed by research findings. Without the city growing in a planned way, and without the highways and railways functioning effectively, and city zoning done through proper planning, there is very little chance that the traffic management activities will bear any fruit.
Environmentalists have expressed concern about the environmental degradation of Dhaka, which may spell the death of the city in the long run. The encroachment on the river Buriganga, the lifeline of Dhaka city, traffic congestion, pollution and diseases are turning this majestic capital city into a choking hell.
Once sources of sweet and pure water for the bustling cities of Dhaka and Narayanganj, Buriganga and Shitalakhya rivers are now lifeless receptacles of human wastes and toxic industrial effluents.
The encroachers first dumped waste on the riverbed and then raised unauthorised structures on the reclaimed land. And it has proved to be a very lucrative business! There is no need to buy the land and pay any tax, just encroach. Even the H.C. rulings on eviction of such illegal grabbing have very little effect.
Md. Asadullah Khan is a former teacher of physics and Controller of Examinations, BUET. e-mail [email protected]
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