| Need for Planned City
Historically, towns and cities in Bangladesh have been few in
number, and until recently, the country was largely rural. In 1961,
slightly more than 5% of the population lived in the urban areas.
During the last decade, Bangladesh has experienced severe problems
related to urban growth. According to the 1991 census estimate, 22%
of the country's population was urban. The urban population had
grown at a rate of 4.67% per annum during 1981-91. This rapid
urbanization in Bangladesh, unlike in developed countries, has been
occurring almost independently of any overall improvement in
the socioeconomic conditions. Thus, rapid urbanization in
Bangladesh, instead of being a sign of economic progress, has led to
considerable urban poverty.
Current trends indicate that urbanization is inevitable and
unavoidable in most developing countries, and brings substantial
negative consequences. Problems occur especially when the rate of
growth of the urban population is too fast and exceeds the capacity
of the infrastructure to absorb and support it. Urban growth has
been concentrated only in a few centers in Bangladesh, which has led
to a frantic competition for land and access to development and
other basic facilities and privileges. Cities and towns are classic
cases of the unfair distribution of resources and facilities not
only in comparison to villages but also between the privileged and
the deprived.
Of the four metropolitan cities (Dhaka, Chittagong, Rajshahi and
Thulna), Dhaka is the largest. The tensions generated among groups
contending for limited resources are all too evident in a city like
Dhaka. The United Nations for the first time classified Dhaka as one
of the megacities of the world in 1987. The City has been declared
as a megacity ranking 18th among the largest megalopolises of the
world. Dhaka is now home to approximately 10 million persons.
Approximately 40% of this population are housed in temporary
shelters.
The lack of an adequate industrial base and surplus labor in the
agricultural sector have pushed many from rural to urban areas in
search of livelihood. All classes of people are lured to the city
because it offers better opportunities for education, health, and
employment. However, due to lack of proper manpower planning and
since most of the migrants have limited skills, they are often
unable to gain entry into the formal sector job market and hence,
have to remain satisfied with the informal sector jobs, if they are
able to find such jobs. The high rate of such rural- urban migration
has contributed to the adverse environmental impacts of unplanned
urbanization.
A major problem has been the explosion of slum and squatter
settlements amidst mass poverty and gross inequality regarding basic
amenities provision. As the center of power Dhaka is also critical
for financial investment and profit. The resulting pressure has
contributed to an astronomical escalation in land values and induced
investors to use different means, legal and illegal, to acquire land
and to invest in land development. In such a situation the urban
poor bear the brunt of insufficient resources, unemployment,
substandard housing and an inadequate supply of clean water and
sanitation, high incidence of diseases and insufficient health care.
Some of these problems have reached very critical proportions.
According to a survey conducted by Asian Development Bank (ADB) and
Planning Commission, Government of Bangladesh (1995- 96), 61.30% of
the urban population in Bangladesh falls below the absolute poverty
line while 40.20% falls below the hard-core poverty line. In urban
areas 60% of the houses are owner occupied, but the figure drops to
30% in metropolitan centers such as Dhaka City. The majority of the
urban poor live in slums and squatter settlements. On the whole only
18% of the urban poor have been found to own the plot of land they
are currently occupying. The situation is extreme in the case of
Dhaka with only 3.2% owning their plots, with the reverse situation
in the small towns where nearly 90% own their plots. A higher
portion (26%) of households own the house they live in, the reason
being many have built their houses on land they do not own. At least
90% are out right squatters, their proportion for Dhaka is 18.5% .
Dhaka 'the capital city' is today one of the fastest growing
metropolises of the world, with one of the highest rates of
urbanization and an annual increase of 1.5 million people,
generating 300,000 new households every year and creating an
estimated demand for 200,000 new dwellings every year. A tenfold
increase in the population of the capital city, Dhaka has
drastically overstretched the capacity of the city in terms of
space, resources and services such as sewerage and water. In Dhaka
alone, 54.85% of the population are below the poverty linewith31.88%
below the hard-core poverty line. There has been widespread media
coverage on the city's slums many of them reflecting an attitude of
resentment and intolerance. The slums have been accused of being
"ugly symbols of shame of the capital" (Sangbad October 1992) and
the capital is said to be turning into "a city of slums" (Janakantha
27.5.95). It has been estimated that by 2025, nearly 35% of the
landmass will be required to meet the demand for human settlements.
The demand for housing will be much more acute in urban areas where
3 million households live below the poverty line. Much of this
demand arises from workers employed in urban-based industries which
foster growth of urban slums in cities such as Dhaka.
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