Editorial
The need for good town planning
Citizens' opinions should be taken into account
A roundtable on urban planning in connection with the observance of World Town Planning Day in the capital the other day certainly made the right noises. And those noises were all related to the impediments that have increasingly hampered town planning in this country. Even without formal seminars and discussions being organised to highlight the issue, one surely understands the gravity of the situation. An observation of conditions in Bangladesh, especially Dhaka, is enough to make us realise everything that has been going wrong with town planning. Over the years, owing to a queer sense of commercialisation, residential areas in the city have been falling prey to depredations of various kinds.
A glaring instance of such conditions comes through looking at conditions in such areas as Dhanmondi, Gulshan and Banani. These were quiet residential areas, until the city corporation began to allow people to set up shops and other business establishments there. The extent to which citizens have remained uninvolved with town planning can be easily gauged from the rampant way in which parks and other open spaces in localities have disappeared; lakes have either been filled in or occupied by individuals of dubious character. Wholesale construction of high-rise buildings has only worsened conditions, owing specifically to the large-scale absence of such necessary additions as parking spaces. In yet another twist to the situation, pavements in large parts of the city as also other towns in the country have been commandeered by traders and hawkers, with the result that pedestrians are often forced to find other ways of negotiating the road.
Another significant aspect of poor urban planning relates to the loss of arable land to the extent of 2.1 per cent in Bangladesh annually. Obviously, such a situation is untenable because we cannot afford to give up, for all our zeal for urbanisation, land that is required for agriculture. With the population expected to go up in the coming years, pressure on land will without doubt increase. It is these aspects of the issue that need addressing. But solutions can only be credible and lasting if the opinions of citizens are taken into account. A top-down approach never works. We see proof of that in the mess we are today wallowing through.
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