ten directions
‘Dhaka city Aisa Amar Asha Puraiche’ – this popular song can be the heart of the new Nawab and Babubibis of Dhaka. But for everyone, Dhaka is a life-destroying capital. Dhaka no longer fulfills hopes, rather this Dhaka is the tomb of all hopes. But we have only one pride, we have made Asia’s largest cemetery in Rayerbazar, Dhaka. Just what? This metropolis is dying in its own chest. Dhaka’s rivers and canals are the first to die. Historic Buriganga and Turag with 26 canals are dying. Dhaka, the capital, was built facing the river. However, we have diverted the drain of excreta and toxic factory waste towards that river. In the arteries of this city flows not water, but a poisonous black liquid. The capital of the country which was named after the river is now the cremation ground of the river.
Dhaka’s air is terribly polluted – the champion city among the worst in the world. Life in Dhaka eats life. Accident and suicide deaths are also record in Dhaka. A 2018 study by BIDS shows that 68 percent of people in Dhaka are sick in some way. According to a study, 7.7 years of Dhaka residents’ life expectancy is lost while living in polluted air. But like Tokyo or Londoners, we have only one life. Despite all these developments, there is no conclusion to the story of Dhaka’s traffic jam. Dhaka is unashamedly ahead in water pollution, waterlogging, noise pollution, encroachment of open space and water bodies. Does anyone keep track of how many working hours are lost from life due to traffic jams?
Dhaka is like a box-box prison- everyone bows down and goes from the box-type house to the box-type workplace in a box-type bus like a tin of cloth, and again enters the box called the house after suffering all day long. The benefits of planned housing or metro rail do not reach the vast majority of poor people in Dhaka. Whether the work of the dozens of civic service agencies we have does not reduce the suffering of the city dwellers is also a complex question. Only 15 percent of people in Dhaka get WASA water, only 30 percent have septic tank facilities. But the cost of living in Dhaka is equal to New York. It’s not called living, it’s called survival.
There is a sore on the leg. Compared to its surroundings, Dhaka is like a hot island – Heat Island. In this concrete desert there is no soil to be seen, no grass to be seen; Just buildings and buildings. Summer temperatures in this capital of Dalandari exceed desert temperatures. Meanwhile, at the end of last year, Satmasjid road in Dhanmondi was deforested, Bashundhara residential area was deforested last week. Now it is being said that trees should be planted. Put that, there is so much space? Dhaka’s Detailed Area Plan, known as DAP, which had assurances for open spaces and water bodies, has been scrapped under pressure from real estate traders.
Dhaka has been the capital of independent country for 53 years. But rather than pride, the image of bitter disappointment floats in the eye. During the British period, Dhaka was planned as a plain rain forest, Ayub Khan also had some plans during the Pakistan period. But the plan remains at the level of imagination. Masterplanning was done even after independence. Where did they go?
The capital of a country is a reflection of the mind of the ruling class, the rich class of that country. How beautiful their nationalism is, Dhaka is brutally showing it.
Chinese rulers began building the Great Wall to protect their country from the fifth century BC. It ended in the 16th century. That is, they imagined the reality after 2 thousand years, they had such foresight. Sher Shah, the ruler of Delhi, built the Grand Trunk Road. Its benefits are still being reaped by people. Because, the creators of these not only considered their time, but also the next generations. They envisioned the future. But where is the foresight in our development plan? We don’t only remember the current generation, but the future generations. If it was there, the road would not have been built in Haor, and there would not have been the pleasure of drawing Alpana on that treeless road. Some of Dhaka’s flyovers will not only cause serious traffic problems in Dhaka in the future, urban planners are of the view that problems are currently being created. In fact, we are stealing future generations’ lives, time, wealth and potential for happiness. We are future-killers.
But very few capitals had such beautiful geographical and natural location as Dhaka. Major rivers of the country’s large river system such as Padma, Meghna and Brahmaputra flow near Dhaka. The tributaries of these river systems surrounded Dhaka like a net. Dhaka was a city of canals and water bodies. On one side of Dhaka is red soil and forest land, on the other side is extensive alluvial swamp. The air of Dhaka was supposed to be pure and pleasant as it was carried by the river. We now surround that Dhaka with burning furnaces of brick kilns and belching black smoke. The face of development is smeared in the ink of that smoke. It will not be covered by any disguise.
In order to survive in this city, people run out of vitality. People start behaving angrily. Air pollution is linked to depression. Earlier, the prevalence of depression was high among rickshaw pullers in Dhaka. Now it has spread to all walks of life. According to BIDS, 44 percent of the total population of Dhaka is suffering from depression. The city’s traffic jams, air quality, lack of clean water, evtigation and other problems have been cited as reasons for this depression. Mainly due to illness, poverty and uncertainty of standard of living.
So the main question is, whose city is Dhaka? Dhaka is no longer a dream city. Those who are growing up in this city cannot say like poet Shamsur Rahman that Dhaka is a city of memories. For our generation or the generations after, Dhaka is not a city of memory, but a damned hell. The memory of this city is rather painful.
Actually Dhaka is a transit city. It is a temporary employment colony for the poor across the country. Pre-migration residence of middle-class children. No one likes this factory of making wealth for the looters abroad. Dhaka is no longer able to bear the burden of the luxury of the rich, the bread and butter of the poor, and the pressure of arrogant politics. Nobody really loves Dhaka anymore. Dhaka is just a poor town to meet the needs. If you want to save Dhaka, you have to love it first. Those whose future is in this country, the responsibility is more on them.
Farooq Wasif: Author; contemporary
Planning Editor
