Who cares about the liveability of Dhaka City?

One of my acquaintances Sultan Ahmed, a retired government engineer, shared his experiences on his Bangkok tour in 2018. 

“I had to wander around some places in Bangkok. I heard sirens on the streets just three or four times in five days. All these were from police cars. I hardly heard any horn coming out of vehicles except the warning whistles blown by the police. Even I didn’t hear any siren generated from a single ambulance. No horn was heard either. In case of a traffic jam, they don’t think that road will be emptied by blaring a loud hooter. No one in the city probably needs emergency medical services, And there are plenty of hospitals”, he said.

Ahmed also recalled his memories when he went to study at the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Bangkok in 1979. During that period the city was not so much modernised. But he noticed that each place in the city he loitered was clean and tidy. Actually, the basic mind set of people was impregnated with discipline and patience.    

In this context, if you look at Dhaka City, what do you see? Among the major cities in the world in terms of air pollution, Dhaka occupies the first place. Let’s not talk about rivers, canals, or marshes for the time being. There are many scientific methods for the measurement of noise, air, and water pollution. The international organisations that make these indexes frequently place Bangladesh on the higher list of pollution levels. That is, we have been ranked in the top ratings of the least liveable cities in the world.

According to Economist Intelligence Unit’s Global Liveability Index for 2022 released on June 23, 2022, Dhaka is the 7th least liveable city in the world. It got a score of 39.2 out of 100 and was ranked 7th from the bottom among 173 cities. However, it received a score of 33.5 in the ranking last year.

There are only six less liveable cities than Dhaka, including Damascus and Tripoli where civil wars have been going on for almost a decade. Our only consolation is that Karachi, Algiers, and Tripoli have downgraded whereas Dhaka’s position improved three spots from last year. It was the 4th least liveable city in the world, as per EIU’s liveability index for 2021. But at the same time, Dhaka scores only 26.8, placing it last among the bottom 10 cities in terms of infrastructure.

The EIU index rates living conditions in 172 cities based on more than 30 factors. These are divided into five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure.

In this regard, The Economist published an article on 22nd June titled “The world’s most liveable cities” which states, “For the third time in the past five years, Vienna has come top of the EIU’s ranking. The city offers plenty of opportunities for culture and entertainment, as well as good infrastructure and overall stability”. 

Now, what about the mega city, Dhaka, which is believed to home to more than 22 million people? But the number of open spaces, parks, and playgrounds is very few in view of its population. In the past few decades, markets, garages for vehicles, parking lots, and commercial establishments have been built on parks and open spaces by public and private organisations.

Recently, the construction work of a police station in the Kalabagan area of the city has is one example of the occupation of a playground that has been used by the local children for the past five decades. Thankfully, in face of protests from the people of the neighbourhood the police backtracked from its decision.

There are very few playgrounds in our capital city. Most of the existing ones are now in an abandoned state. Criminal gangs or land robbers have occupied most of these grounds.

Adil Mohamad Khan, former general secretary of Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) says 30 per cent of wards in Dhaka city do not have any open space that can be used as a playground or park, subsequently hampering the mental and physical growth of children in those areas. As per the detailed area plan for Dhaka city, there should be two to three playgrounds of about 3 acres in a locality of 12,500 people. The number of total playing fields in Dhaka was around 230 a few years back. Now there exist only 24 fields in public spaces in the city. Children are no longer permitted to play in many of the private fields as construction works are going on in those places or they are now restricted facilities. But no visible initiatives have ever been taken. 

Apart from that, Uttara Model Town stretching many kilometres to the north of Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport has no theatre stage, probably not even a single cinema hall. At least, I haven’t yet heard of cultural events organised there. Badda-Rampura, Khilkhet, Old Dhaka, Dhanmondi-Lalmatia-Mohammadpur, and the vast area of Mirpur or the more posh locality Gulshan - there is no permanent facility for cultural entertainment.

In addition, the best universities in Dhaka city are struggling to be placed in the top 1000 world best universities. Recently Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Ranking 2023 revealed that no Bangladeshi university, be it public or private, has obtained any place at the top tier. Dhaka University and Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) remain in the third-lowest bracket (801-1,000) of the QS World University Ranking.

As per the observation of Syed Manzoorul Islam, a former professor of English at Dhaka University, “Research is the key when it comes to securing a good position in the rankings. Our quality of research is poor. That is why the research we produce fails to meet international standards”.

Certainly, we have qualified urban planners, environment researchers, and specialists, engineers, academics, doctors who are abundant in number. We have to utilize them for proper urban planning.

In addition, those who sit in air-conditioned cars or board in first class cabins of airplanes, or go abroad for vacation or to Bangkok-Singapore for medical treatment and enjoy the most privileges from the state, have to think about the state of 1.5 million rickshaw-pullers. Because, they are the worst victim of air, noise, and water pollution. Children and teenagers who are growing up in a toxic world without playgrounds should not be overlooked rather some effective measures should be taken immediately.

The writer is a freelance contributor. He can be contacted at rana.edru@gmail.com