The cities of Bangladesh are overly congested, and nowhere is this fact more apparent than in our capital city.
Dhaka is bursting at the seams, and has been for quite some time, but in spite of various measures to improve the conditions of the capital, the problem never gets solved, because the population is simply too high.
In order to realistically combat this overcrowding, we must decentralize: Dhaka’s population is largely comprised of people from other districts who flock to the metropolis in search for jobs, or a better life.
At this point, it makes sense for those migrants to pin their hopes on Dhaka, because other places lack the modern amenities and infrastructure people need in order to improve their lives.
To that end, at the fourth Annual National Conference on Urban Resilience to Climate Change held on Thursday, it was good to see speakers give the opinion that urban facilities need to be provided to villages and municipalities, because continued migration to Dhaka is simply not sustainable.
If other areas had the right policies and the right planning, so many people would not have the incentive to leave for cities like Dhaka, where they end up having to live in pitiable conditions in slums -- Dhaka’s slum population is already dangerously high, and alarmingly, it keeps expanding.
Ultimately, for a country to move forward, development must be spread out, and not just concentrated in one or two urban centres; decentralization is a win-win, because it will increase opportunities in rural areas while easing the pressure on cities, improving the quality of life for all.
