How compromises to city plans entrap the underprivileged in climate hazards
Rapid unplanned urbanisation has led to a localised climate crisis in the cities with the underprivileged suffering the brunt of it
A narrow alley named Khankar Goli - linked to Pakka Road in Narayanganj city - gets surprisingly inundated even during a 30-minute-long heavy rain, despite being next to a 1.8 square kilometre pond.
The surrounding locality is crammed with residential buildings on all sides, and the privately owned hyacinth-covered pond has been turned into a dumping ground for municipal waste.
Two decades ago, this water body had a direct link to the River Sitalakkhya just 800 metres to its east, and elderly locals can still remember a country boat ferry service that ran along the channel back in the 1990s.
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Habiba Begum, a 48-year-old mother of three children, assists her ailing husband Marfat Ali run a small grocery shop beside the pond. The rusted floor of the tin-made shop, set on a raised platform, highlights how frequently the establishment is in contact with water.
"Even a decade back, there were only a few buildings scattered across the vast wetlands. Rainwater would recede fast. The alley was developed on a box culvert. But it remains clogged most of the time and the pond has lost the capacity to carry excess rainwater," Habiba said.
Whenever the affected dwellers go to the city authority, they are advised to elevate their houses at their own cost. "Is this possible for an insolvent family like ours?" Habiba questions.
Habiba first arrived in the area 28 years ago when she got married to Marfat. The tin-shed house they live in, near the pond, was erected at a corner of a 66 square metre plot of land that Marfat inherited.
His siblings, who took a 200 square metre plot of land split amongst each other, have already built multi-storey buildings on bank loan. But after suffering a brain stroke, Marfat could not follow suit, as his treatment costs left him deeply in debt.
Habiba and Marfat spend most of their time at their shop, not to earn more, but to enjoy the open space provided by the pond. The tin-shed house amidst congested buildings often feels like an oven.
"We spent the hottest April nights at our shop," Habiba recollected, talking about the recent heatwave.
For the last couple of years, the greater Dhaka area has been experiencing longer summers with mild to severe heat waves, followed by weaker monsoons and shorter winters, an indication of climate change.
An analysis of Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) records between 1989 and 2023 suggests that the frequency, as well as the duration of heatwaves over Dhaka is on an increasing trend, especially since 2014 (the hottest year of Bangladesh so far).
BMD Meteorologist Dr Muhammad Abul Kalam Mollik recently told The Business Standard that the trend of five-day-long heatwaves in all formats (mild, moderate and severe) is increasing. "Usually, we consider April as the hottest month. But recently, we have recorded high temperatures in May also," Mollik said.
Climate change is a global phenomenon. But its harmful effects become severe when some anthropogenic factors exacerbate the impacts. A 2021 study finds land surface temperature (LST) for the Dhaka Metropolitan area recently increased by 2.48˚C, 1.01˚C, and 3.76˚C in the months of March, April, and May.
Land cover and its changes are considered one of the major reasons behind the increase in the temperature of Narayanganj city. A study measures that the mean LST for the city went upward by 1.86°C between 2011 and 2019 due to the degradation of vegetation and water bodies.
The Gazipur district also witnessed a rise in temperature, particularly in the southern and western parts, where heavy industrialisation and urbanisation occurred in recent years.
'Compromise' to plans making cities unlivable
It is often said that Bangladesh's cities have grown in a disorganised manner due to a lack of 'plan'. That is however not true. In fact, the greater Dhaka area fell into the purview of planning as early as in 1917. Renowned Scottish town planner Sir Patrick Geddes prepared a report on Town Planning, Dacca, 1917, highlighting the necessity of protecting water bodies and green space for the socio-economic well-being of its citizens.
Within nine years of the establishment of Pakistan, Dacca Improvement Trust (DIT) was formed. By 1959, the capital of then East Pakistan had its first Master Plan, covering around 467 square kilometres area. This plan designated 38% and 5.1% of the total area as water bodies and open space respectively.
The DIT later in 1987 changed to Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha, shortened to RAJUK, (Capital Development Authority). This was actually a shift in purpose from 'improvement' to 'development'.
In 1995, RAJUK adopted the Dhaka Metropolitan Development Plan (DMDP) for a widely expanded Dhaka region, covering 1,528 square kilometers of the Dhaka, Gazipur, and Narayanganj cities, as well as some of their outskirts.
Accordingly, the DMDP produced three time-specific plans, including the Detailed Area Plan or DAP (2010-2015). The DAP 2010-2015 marked 27% of the total area as agricultural zones, 25% as flood flow zones, 1% as open space, and 9.5% as water bodies.
All these plans have, by and large, been ignored.
Let's illustrate with an example. A 2021 study reveals that Dhaka city lost 56% of its vegetation between 1989 and 2020, while its share of urban cover increased to 82% from 59% during the study period.
Another study on Narayanganj city finds that between 2011 and 2019, the vegetation and agricultural lands of the city was reduced by 21% due to a 33% increase in the built-up area. A separate study estimates that the amount of agricultural land in Gazipur Sadar (covering Gazipur city) accounted for 63% of total land in 1999, but was reduced to 22% by 2019.
Professor Amanat Ullah Khan, a retired faculty member of the geography and environment department at the University of Dhaka, knows the map of greater Dhaka like the palm of his hand.
"The DAP area has lost its green and blue spaces because the government didn't actually want to conserve them," the Professor said.
How populist politics can otherwise accelerate environmental degradation can be understood by the rapid urbanisation around Aauch Para in the Tongi area under Gazipur city.
Abid Iqbal's banker father bought a 200 square meter plot of agricultural land in the area in 1993. In 2007, Abid and his three Dhaka-dwelling siblings planned to build their family home on the land.
However there was no local road from the Dhaka-Mymensingh highway to the planned home. Thus the family motivated the other landowners to sacrifice small portions of their land as a means of developing a road, by widening some ridges.
Within one week, a 2.5 kilometer mud road was created. The initiative was highly appreciated by the then Mayor of Tongi Municipality, and eventually the muddy road was transformed into a brick lane by the municipality.
Overnight, the price of the low-lying lands increased dramatically. The landowners were happy with the overall development, and so was the Mayor, seeing a potential vote bank. The flip side of the development was it was completely unplanned, and was independent of any greater consideration of future consequences.
"Upgradation of the road was just a start to urbanisation in the area. In the next couple of years, more than 80% of Aauch Para will be covered by multi-storey buildings," Abid said.
So how were the landowners able to convert agricultural land or flood-flow zones into urban dwellings, despite the presence of several regulations against such misuse?
The National Housing Policy 2016 orders the exclusion of flood flow zones and fertile agricultural land from being developed into residential projects, and restricts land development for housing on or part of any river, canal and lake.
The Private Residential Land Development Rule 2004 strictly prohibits narrowing wetlands, including rivers, canals and natural drainage, for land development. According to the Open Space Act 2000, natural water bodies that are marked in the master plans can not be used for other purposes and may not be rented, leased, or handed over.
Can the new DAP save greater Dhaka from climate hazards?
RAJUK has brought a new DAP for the 2022-2035 period, proposing 28% agricultural land, 7% water bodies, 1.55% open space and 1.41% urban forest of a total 1,528sq-km area.
Implementation of the latest DAP seems ambitious, as it aims to restore the ecological balance of greater Dhaka. To provide adequate per capita open space for citizens and to accelerate groundwater recharge, at least five regional parks with a minimum of 100 acres of land each, and 49 water parks, are proposed in the plan.
As a part of major land reform, RAJUK is going to discourage housing projects on small plots (for example, 200 to 320 square meters of land). Small plot owners will get FAR (floor area ratio) incentives if they construct buildings, combined in a 'block development model', leaving 40% of the collective land as soakable green.
Md Ashraful Islam, RAJUK's Town Planner, also the DAP 2022-2035 Project Director, fears that the cities will turn into "volcanos" if the citizens fail to maintain ecological balance from now on. Because 80% of the national population has been projected to live in urban areas by 2050, there will be extreme pressure on the existing vegetation and wetlands.
Would the new DAP change like the older one? Ashraful replied, "The Prime Minister has instructed me to stick to the plan."
This story was supported by a Fellowship awarded by Question of Cities and Climate Action Network South Asia.
