Is it possible to make Dhaka liveable again?

Nagging gridlocks, traffic anarchy, dense population, waterlogging and unbridled pollution are some of the many dreadful hallmarks of Dhaka – dubbed as one of the least liveable cities on earth. But can it be redeemed?      

Dhaka, a city of over 20 million people, was the second least liveable city in 2018, third in 2019, and fourth in 2021. It improved in ranking but is still the seventh least liveable city in the world, according to the Global Liveability Index 2022.

The Global Liveability Ranking is a yearly assessment published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), where Bangladesh's capital has an average score of 39.2 out of 100. Last year, it scored 33.5 to rank 137th among 140 cities. The score was around 30 in 2018 and 2019 as well.

According to experts, the 2022 score has slightly increased due to the closures of Covid-19, but the improvement trend from Dhaka's current situation is minimal.

Austrian capital Vienna has been ranked the most liveable city in the world with 99.1 points, while Copenhagen of Denmark and Zurich of Switzerland ranked second and third, respectively, with 98 and 96.3 points. The top ten cities score more than 95 points.

World Cities Day brings Urban October to an end on 31 October each year and was first celebrated in 2014. 

With an area of around 300 square kilometres, the city is dogged by various problems including traffic congestion, waterlogging, mosquito problem, air pollution, noise pollution, and visual pollution. Every day, some 2,000 new people are being added to its already oversized population.

The scope of strolling across this city to evade its perennial traffic jams is slim as most of the sidewalks are occupied by hawkers. Besides, there are not enough open spaces, fields and parks for city dwellers and the availability of public toilets is surprisingly low. Besides, the city suffers from mosquito-borne viral disease dengue throughout the year.

A detailed area plan (DAP) for Dhaka has been undertaken by the two city corporations recently to make it more liveable in the coming days – a move experts say can improve the city's liveability from the ground up if implemented properly.

Experts, however, said no matter how many plans are made for Dhaka now, it is nearly impossible to take it to the list of the first-class liveable cities from its current state. 

Faizul Haque, a resident of Badda and a private employee, told TBS, "Every morning in Dhaka begins with struggles against a periodic outage of water, gas and electricity at home and traffic congestion and pollution of all forms on the road. We are deprived of civic amenities in every case."

Center for Urban Studies (CUS) Chairman Professor Nazrul Islam told The Business Standard (TBS), "Dhaka must be made liveable again. We have to make it happen if we want to save the city and the country. With the Implementation of DAP, it will be possible to a large extent and good governance is needed for that."

Khadija Begum, a resident of Old Dhaka who works in an NGO, said, "Leaving home is a scary thing to do every day as travelling by public buses is a hassle and there is no way to walk on the footpaths due to the hawkers and vagrants. In addition, there is a scarcity of public toilets in the city." 

Institute of Planning and Development (IPD) Executive Director Adil Mohammed Khan told TBS that the priority plan for Dhaka should be not making things worse than it is right now. There is no alternative to decentralisation and boosting connectivity to reduce pressure on Dhaka.

According to the latest census by the North and South City of Dhaka, the total population of the two city corporations is 10,278,882. But the actual number is almost twice as much. 

According to the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS), Dhaka's population growth rate in 2022 is 3.56%, which was 3.50% in 2021 and 3.39% in 2020.

According to the United Nations Population Fund (UNFP), Dhaka is the 11th most populous city in the world. But in terms of size and population, it is the most densely populated city in the world, with 43,500 people living per square kilometre.

According to a population density survey by the Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP), around 700-800 people live per acre in some areas of Dhaka.

But in terms of population, the largest city in the world, Tokyo of Japan, has a total of 33 million people but less than 90 people live there per acre of area. The number is 80 in high-rise cities like Singapore, 58 in Sydney and 112 in New York.

According to the United Nations, a healthy city should have a maximum of 120 people per acre.

According to UN-Habitat, an ideal large city should have at least 25% greeneries and 15% wetlands and there should be roads in 20% of the total area.

Dhaka has only 6% of roads in its area and only 0.9% of the city has open space. Hence, the long traffic jams.

According to a study published in the journal Environmental Challenges, around 82% of the total area of ​​Dhaka in 2020 is filled with concrete buildings and roads, which is almost twice as much as most major cities in the world.

Prof Dr Ahmad Kamruzzaman Majumder, founder and chairman of the Centre for Atmospheric Pollution Studies (Caps) told TBS, "At present, Dhaka cannot be called a liveable city in any way. But most of Dhaka's problems will be solved if gridlock, and air and noise pollution can be solved." 

"For that, the policies of the Department of Environment should be adopted for development work and traffic management. Concerned institutions should also take steps to control the use of polythene, and prevent sight and light pollution," he added.