Resilient Cities Index: A reminder for Dhaka

It should come as no surprise that a recent report by The Economist ranked Dhaka as the second-least resilient among 25 cities in the world. 

The report, interpreting a city's critical infrastructures like electricity, water supply, transportation, buildings, and digital connectivity through the lens of disaster resilience, paints a gloomy picture of the capital. Dhaka dwellers often feel unsafe and The Economist report is nothing but a confirmation of that. 

Due to overpopulation and unplanned urbanisation, Dhaka city authorities — lacking skilled manpower and coordination among the relevant offices — have long been deemed incapable of providing necessary utility services to residents. 

The Economist report says that some densely populated emerging economy cities like Dhaka and Jakarta face the most significant challenges as they seek to deliver critical infrastructure for huge metropolitan populations across sprawling geographies. In some cases, efforts are further complicated by poor governance and corruption. 

Take the deadly incident on 21 September night as an example. That fateful night, incessant rain submerged many parts of Dhaka. It also led to the deaths of four people, including three of a single family, as a live wire of an illegal connection fell in the stagnant rain water in Mirpur and electrocuted them.  

The incident showed the failure of the utility providers in snapping illegal electricity connections and a negligence in removing all the overhead cables by 2022. Secondly, water-logging was the outcome of the city authorities' constant failure in restoring and maintaining the runoff retention channels. Third was the poor response of health emergency services. The electrocuted people could not be rescued in time and even the one survivor, a child, had to receive emergency service after being brought to Dhaka Medical College Hospital, 13km south of the accident's spot. 

"That single Mirpur incident reminds us how non-resilient Dhaka is or how Dhaka becomes paralysed in terms of emergency disaster response. It seemed there was no governance in the country," said Professor Adil Mohammed Khan, a faculty at the Urban and Regional Planning department of Jahangirnagar University. 

The Economist's Resilient Cities Index recommends effective delivery of functional infrastructure to manage and cushion Dhaka's growth as it is critical to face future challenges.

According to the report, most global cities are plagued by traffic congestion and only six of the 25 cities in the index have emergency services that can respond in under 10 minutes.

Another major issue Dhaka is grappling with is energy poverty and how the lack of maintenance in the electrical grids are exacerbating the problem, the report said, adding that Dhaka is the second worst in this metric with an estimated 22.5 million people who suffer from frequent to severe power outages, putting Bangladesh's capital ahead of Cape Town, Jakarta, Lagos and Mexico city, but behind New Delhi.

"Amid concerns of disaster preparedness, there is no proper regulation in the utility services including electricity and gas supply across the major parts of the city. The utility networks are mostly unplanned and grappling with poor maintenance, risking citizens of fatal fire accidents," Adil said. 

The Bangabazar inferno, which happened in April this year, reminds us how challenging firefighting is in Dhaka. Even though the Fire Brigade and Civil Defence was located close to the market, firefighters struggled to douse the devastating fire due to lack of water.  

Amid unabated global warming, it is difficult to deny Dhaka's temperature is getting hotter. The city experienced prolonged (more than five days) heatwaves in the summer while the monsoon arrived late. 

Not surprisingly, The Economist report points out that Dhaka is also at high risk of riverine flooding which can pose long term health risks as stagnant bodies of water, for example, can provide breeding grounds for waterborne and vector-borne diseases. 2023 has been marked as the deadliest year of dengue-related deaths.  

Dhaka and New Delhi prove to be the least resilient to air pollution in The Economist's index. Green activists believe that the sources of Dhaka's air pollution cannot be suppressed due to institutional failures. 

Once we knew that brick kilns were the major polluters. Then came the mega infrastructure projects from which particulate matters generated from construction materials and activities. Once we knew that diesel-run vehicles were the major polluters. Then CNG-run vehicles were imported. Yet, Dhaka's air remains 'highly polluted' round the year except during monsoon. 

"The poor quality of Dhaka air only demonstrates the failures of the authorities who are responsible for controlling pollution," said Sharif Jamil, secretary general at Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon, the country's prominent green campaigner.

"Destruction of the rivers surrounding Dhaka and the city's water retention channels by encouraging encroachment and unplanned urbanisation was the first step to reducing Dhaka's disaster resilience. Impunity to the destroyers has only aggravated the process," Jamil added.    

The Economist report notes that urban resilience is strongly influenced by social and institutional dynamics. Moreover, a city's ability to recover from disaster is reliant on its stability of the local economy to redirect financing to rebuilding.

"Unfortunately, Dhaka has been losing community engagement in disaster response. In the developed world, local governments at the grassroots level can handle the initial stage of disaster response. In contrast, the local community bodies in Dhaka are not capable. They have fewer financial strength and social capital," Professor Adil said.     

Surprisingly, The Economist Index ranks Dhaka quite highly in terms of having an educated workforce, an important factor in determining a city's resilience. According to the report, Dhaka is ranked 9th among 25 cities, with an impressive 79.6% of its working age population having some form of advanced education. 

But that alone cannot be Dhaka's saving grace when it comes to disaster preparedness.