Tackling Dhaka’s Planning Issues: Philosophical Ideologies and Planning Remedies

Bangladesh has achieved an amazing feat in reducing the annual growth rate of the population, but the size of the population is still large when compared with the size of the country. If the current trend continues, the population of Bangladesh is expected to reach about 194 million in 2050 (WB 2012). Understandably, this population exerts tremendous pressure on a limited resource base. As a result, both landlessness and environmental degradation have become rampant in recent times. Furthermore, because of the rapid growth of urbanization and associated infrastructure, every year Bangladesh loses 0.3 percent of its cultivated land. We have to keep in mind that the economy of Bangladesh is still mostly agrarian with 48 percent of the labor force engaged in agriculture and related activities (BBS 2013). Along with national population growth, the percentage of people living in urban areas has also been rising. 1.8 million people were living in urban areas in 1951 which increased to 13.5 million, 22.5 million, 31 million, and 33.5 million in 1981, 1991, 2001, and 2011 respectively; an eighteen-fold increase in the last 60 years. This astonishing growth in urban population is largely attributed to three main factors, namely: (i) rural-urban migration, (ii) natural growth, and (iii) the redefinition of urban areas. It is affirmed by experts that among them, rural-urban migration is the most dominant factor. Moreover, the country faces enormous challenges in coping with the infrastructure and service requirements for its rapidly growing urban population, particularly in the capital city Dhaka.