It may be an overstatement at the moment to say that Dhaka city with a population of over 16 million and destined to be recognized as one of the top ten mega-cities of the world in terms of population size only a few years from now, is unlivable. It is still livable except for times of special stress such as during heavy rains that shows up its marked deficiency in having an effective drainage system or during peak hours of traffic movement when even under normal conditions too many jams and for long harass the travelling people. Then, there are inadequacies in vital services that provide power and water.
The point is that the residents of the city have been somehow managing to cope with these growing difficulties. But it cannot go on like this. The label of ‘unlivable conditions’ could be pinned on this city sooner rather than later and that date is not far away unless plans and their execution start immediately to positively reverse the present trends of degradation. It is the challenge this government which has been elected to power massively by the people must address at the fastest. A major expectation of the people is a planned revival of the largest city of the country and its capital city.
Lack of planning has been at the root of Dhaka’s woes. The present very poor drainage system reflects the lack of enforcement of planning as all natural drainage systems were grabbed by various encroachers. The natural drainage channels need recovering under short and medium terms and restoring of their earlier functioning. Simultaneously, the network of man-made drainage system needs much expanding as well as ensuring the unimpeded maintenance of both systems.
The city’s water supply will have to be substantially augmented. The relatively cleaner surface waters from the Padma and the Meghna rivers will have to be piped to Dhaka for the purpose. The same will call for early planning, mobilsation of funds and timely execution of projects. These schemes must be expedited for saving Dhaka from serious mismatch between demand for water and its availability only some years from now. Some steps have been taken in this direction in recent years. But a great deal needs to be done at the soonest.
A master plan for improving the city’s traffic systems should be completed and its implementation attempted from right away. The plans should have building of some essential flyovers in the first phase to be followed swiftly by the gradual building of infrastructures such as elevated expressways, monorails, underground railways, circular river routes, etc. In the short term, government must go all out for improving traffic policing, keeping road spaces open to the maximum for vehicular movement, organizing proper parking of vehicles on the roads for the same purpose, ensuring proper signaling at intersections with automatic signaling devices, etc. All of these measures and more pursued on a sustainable basis are likely to considerably improve the traffic mess in the city even before big infrastructures are built with the same objective.
Government is understandably engaged at the moment with a comprehensive plan to augment power supply for the entire country. But considering the population concentration in Dhaka as well as its pivotal importance for industries and businesses, a short term special plan needs to be executed at the soonest for increasing uninterrupted power supply in the Dhaka area. Power supply position has no doubt vastly improved in the Dhaka area. But still load shedding is occasionally noted because some improvement works are needed in the old and worn put transmission lines and systems.