For the majority of its history the human race has lived a rural life and only after the dawn of 21st century, specifically in the year 2008, has the urban population crossed the rural population in overall number. The world population has increased more than threefold since 1950 from 2.54 billion to 7.71 billion in 2019. With this rapid growth in population, there has been quite a growth in the number of megacities in the world. According to the UN, a megacity is a conurbation that houses 10 million people or more. With number of megacities with population of more than 10 million rising from a mere 2 to 23 now, accounting for 9.9% of the total world population. This number is projected to be 37 by 2025 accounting for 13.6% of the world population, which is a ten fold increase in population living in megacities all over the world.

 

Though the growth has been slow for megacities like London or New York in the western hemisphere between 1970 to 2011, it has been the reverse in megacities of South Asia and South East Asia. Our capital Dhaka has experienced a massive boom in urban population from a mere 0.41 million in 1950 to more than 17.4 million currently. Dhaka has the highest population density among all megacities of the world at a whopping 47,400/sq km according to a statistic in 2018. But, unfortunately since the 1990s development and construction has taken place in an unplanned way. Which in result has made Dhaka one of the most unlivable cities in the world.

 

Dhaka, as the capital city of Bangladesh has extensive administrative and infrastructure facilities as well as extensive road and telecommunication networks compared to the rest of the country. This has made the capital the sole focus of major urban expansion and economic activities resulting in mass number of people flocking to it each year for better employment opportunities and life. But with a transport system that is in the brink of failure, unplanned construction throughout the city, air pollution at its peak and river and water pollution throughout the city, Dhaka has become unlivable by any standard. Dhaka suffers from massive congestion which is further deteriorating each day. This is the result of lack of development of proper public transportation system, deficient road networks and inefficient traffic management. Only recently has the construction of MRT started in Dhaka. Though there are quite a few number of flyovers throughout the city, some of them has major planning faults, resulting in more congestion even on the flyovers and some are barely used due to heavy road taxes and tolls, becoming a solution that did not fully work.

Our capital is also infamous throughout the world for its pollution both in terms of air and water. The air quality in Dhaka is one of the worst in the world. It has ranked 17th in the overall list of most polluted cities in the world and is the ranked the 2nd most polluted capital city after India’s New Delhi. Brick kilns sprouting around the outskirts of the city and inefficient old vehicles has been identified as the major reason of air pollution in Dhaka. Due to rapid expansion of the city which is stretching its border everyday in all direction in an unplanned way, greenery in and in the outskirts of Dhaka is also ever shrinking. Making it even worse for the air quality. There’s an increase in the number of patients suffering from respiratory illnesses, lung cancer and heart diseases, which is a direct effect of breathing polluted air.

 

Dhaka has also greatly polluted all the rivers through and around it. Due to high density of industrial development and growing number of industries on the river banks over the last 6 decades and lack of regulations, the rivers Buriganga and Turga have been polluted to the extreme with industrial waste along with the city’s sewage. Most of the canals and natural water bodies of the city has also been illegally land-grabbed and filled out or been polluted to the extreme. Which has created an added problem of water logging due to lack of planned drainage system in the city.  Rapid growth in the cities size has overran its pace in planning and construction of civic infrastructure of proper sewage and water lines. This has resulted in lack of drinkable water during summer and water logging in many parts of the city during the monsoon and even during occasional rains.

 

According to some projections, the population of Dhaka will reach 24 million and 35 million by 2030 and 2050. It is about time that Dhaka not only puts plans and guidelines on paper but start implementation in an orderly manner for it to survive the juggernaut of development and urbanization and there’s little scope for making any further mistakes for this city anymore.