Planners stress inclusiveness in dev plans to make Dhaka livable

Institute for Planning and Development (IPD), an organisation of town planners, underscored the priority on livability, equality, and inclusiveness in development planning rather than the infrastructure to make Dhaka livable. 

"The policymakers should find out the exact reason why Dhaka's position in terms of livability is repeatedly found in the bottom row despite taking various expensive development projects including infrastructure in the past years to make Dhaka city livable," IPD Executive Director Professor Adil Mohammed Khan, in a media statement, said.

Then they should formulate effective plans and undertake sustainable development activities.

"While prioritising investment in big projects to make Dhaka livable, we gave less importance to good governance, coordination between service agencies while taking development projects, transparency and accountability of service agencies, and community participation in development planning are crucial," reads the release.   

Out of 173 countries, Dhaka ranked 166th position on the global liveability ranking, published recently by the Economist Intelligence Unit. That means, Dhaka stands as the seventh least livable city on the list, which is very frustrating, the statement added.

IPD believes that significant development of Dhaka's livability is not possible if priority is not given to issues such as the accessibility of various civic services, including civic amenities and parks and playgrounds, area-based equality in urban development and giving priority on environmental protection and public health while implementing the development projects.

Besides, Dhaka will not be liable if cost-effective, effective, and sustainable solutions are not found for Dhaka's traffic congestion and environmental pollution including air, water, and waste management, the IPD added.

"Development projects are still being implemented in Dhaka by destroying the environment and cutting down trees which is regrettable.  The development is going on by filling the ponds, reservoirs, and wetlands. The involvement of private institutions, vested individuals as well as government institutions is found in such wrongdoings," reads the statement. 

Citing that overpopulation and overcrowding are responsible for Dhaka's non-livability, IPD said the policymakers have to be accountable for why the pressure of the increasing population in Dhaka and the rate of migration towards Dhaka from across the country cannot be reduced and why decentralisation policy as per the five-year plan has not been implemented so far.