Dire Straits

I was in a queue at Delhi airport for transit to London. The queue was moderate but the processing slow. As my turn came, I faced the friendly officer. Casually I remarked, "The queue at London will be enormous in comparison and yet move fast". He smiled and said they were different. Yes, they were different. They were our rulers for two hundred years.

Dhaka is now a least liveable city in the world. It has not been like that earlier, less than half a century ago. Population pressure is blamed. Yet there are cities with higher population density that perform better. Even simple pleasures of life such as walking on the road are almost non-existent in this city. Once I could walk to my office, about five km away, during the days of hartal that were very frequent at the time. That is not possible today with consequent effects on purse and health. The better-off, not necessarily rich, age quickly. The effect can be seen in the increasing number of ambulances that ply the road, mostly driving along wrong side of road with blaring sirens. It is their privilege as well as few others.

It is amazing how the quality of life has deteriorated in this city within a period of less than thirty years. Back in those days, freshly liberated, the country had dreams. Some plans were drawn up to create a dream city. A notable plan of the period was the Metropolitan Development Plan of 1995 under the aegis of UNDP. Divided into three components, an important part of the plan was categorization of land use. There was an emphasis on horizontal growth of the city through satellite towns connected through rail roads, mostly existent at the time. The road traffic was to be rationalised through a national bus company where the private sector operators would be shareholders. It would bring in sanity on the roads through eliminating jockeying of the buses for passengers. These were some of the lofty goals that were binned as Dhaka was allowed to grow vertically causing serious strain on the utilities besides road traffic. Earlier restrictions on high rises were relaxed. Quickly the water usage crossed the replenishment level. And then there was pollution of the river from all kinds of waste. Further aggravated by indiscriminate land grabbing from the public sector such as railways, the water bodies in the city were filled up for land development. The consequence was waterlogging. These are some of the consequences of planning shelved to serve the greed of powerful few.

The city got overburdened with concentration of government offices, many of which were previously located elsewhere. Having failed in the lofty goals of the plan, there was even a suggestion to move the capital. Again, this was not feasible for obvious reasons of convenience of the few. The situation as precarious today can still be repaired. Talking about the West, consider the transformation of London. The population of London has reduced through use of measures such as satellite towns. The water of Thames has gotten clean again. It shows how sincere effort can deliver the desired results. Perhaps we can start thinking afresh now that the role of politicians is minimized with the failure of successive elected regimes. Accountability has to be set in all walks of life including those who wield the baton. Obama is rich today from the sale of books and lecture tours, not from acquired resources when he was in office. Unless the lessons are learnt, the country will be in dire straits sinking further. Already we are under an enormous debt burden as graft money has been siphoned off. This is a catch 22 situation where a loan is used to pay-off the loan.

Assuming the repairing is doable, it will be the first step in the process of an overhaul. A repair needs sustenance. Consider the road transport. Back in those days a study on traffic count showed that the then roads could comfortably handle all the vehicles. Since then, there has been enormous changes in the road system, for the better. Unfortunately, this was not enough for the rising number of vehicles on the road, creating the worst kind of mess as we are in today. It is the user's indifference in the main; that has to be tamed. This may be a reason why the development goals of the UNDP for the year 2030 have a tag line of Sustainability. This is in reference to the millennial goals of poverty reduction and improved health services of the earlier period that ended in 2015. In a similar manner, for Bangladesh sustenance will be a more important part when the job is done. An impossible task but doable. Need the courage to act fearless as we have seen in the likes of freedom fighters during the days of British Raj and Pakistan subjugation. Difficult but doable. Like it is said in films, difficult can be done immediately though impossible will take longer. Let it be! That will be one step forward towards the country of our dreams back from the days of fifties and seventies and countless sufferings.

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