Once a lovely place, Dhaka has steadily become an ugly city. One comment is common about Dhaka: it has become dirty. Few would disagree. Dhaka city is grappled with all kinds of problems one can name. The sewerage system is one of the worst in the world and it is collapsing with the mushrooming growth of multistoried apartment buildings. In many cases, the high-rise buildings are being constructed with disregard to rules and the availability of utility services.
There has been a rapid expansion of the city as its population has increased by leaps and bounds over the years. Over 10 million people are now living in this burgeoning metropolis and they are being deprived of basic civic amenities. Short supply of water, frequent power outage, low voltage of power, exorbitant prices of essentials, rising house rents, lack of recreational facilities, air pollution and deteriorating law and order situation have made the city life miserable.
The sewerage system in capital Dhaka is considered to be the worst in the world. In terms of area-wise coverage, only 30 per cent area of the city so far went under the WASA sewerage system while the rest still remained out of the WASA network.
Besides, there is a chaotic growth of the capital's skyline. Life in the city appears to be revolving around urban housing and plots for housing in suburban areas. We are passing through a phase in which high-rise buildings seem to take priority over not-so-tall buildings. As a result, old buildings in many localities are being demolished to give way to high-rise ones. But for lack of appropriate plans those buildings do not increase the beauty of the city rather turned it into a jungle of bricks. The city is expanding by leaps and bounds. In this process of rapid expansion, the concept of new civic spaces hardly gets a chance to develop. During emergency needs, ambulances of hospitals and fire-service vehicles cannot drive into many places of this city.
Many historic landmark establishments are on the verge of collapse for lack of proper care or being demolished to construct high-rise buildings. In construction of these high-rise buildings, earthquake factors are rarely taken into account.
Power outage and low voltage are the problems that the city dwellers have long been facing. As a matter of fact, they have become habituated to live with these problems. There are areas in the city where people have long been experiencing seven to eight hours load shedding everyday. The areas include Khilgaon, Mohammadpur, Basabo, Arambag, parts of Dhanmondi, Mirpur, Badda, Old Dhaka, Mirpur and parts of Gulshan. What worries the city dwellers most is its traffic jam. It eats up valuable time of office goers, students and other commuters. Successive governments carried out various experiments to rid of the city dwellers of the vexing traffic congestions. Nothing has worked. The traffic situation worsens during monsoon when many streets go under rainwater. Automobiles hardly can move on when monsoon shower swamps roads. Those who live outside Dhaka think twice before coming to the capital city on any important business. There was a time when rural people used to come to their relatives living in Dhaka for vacationing. Now they ask Dhakaites how they live in Dhaka. Air pollution, mainly caused by huge traffic fumes, has virtually made the Dhaka inhabitable, particularly for children. Although the government has withdrawn two-stroke three-wheelers, which were largely blamed for air pollution, experts think there are still many things to do to tackle air pollution. The government also banned 20-year-old automobiles early this year but most of the outmoded vehicles returned with facelift, making the government decision a farce.
