Urbanization and sustainability: challenges and strategies for sustainable urban development in Bangladesh

Abstract

Like other developing countries, urbanization in Bangladesh is a growing phenomenon, which is steady in nature but fretfully affects urban sustainability in the wake of lacking in good governance. Despite urban authorities are concerned about this issue, they often fail to address the problems due to the fact of uncontrollable and unpredictable rural to urban migration, and negligence of urban poor's sustainable living and access to basic services. Virtually the rural poverty problem has been transposed to urban areas, particularly in Dhaka City, Bangladesh. Inadequacy of infrastructural services, basic amenities and environmental goods; environmental degradation; traffic jam and accidents; violence and socioeconomic insecurity are the major challenges which are created through rapid urbanization. This paper provides a general understanding of urbanization in Bangladesh and tries to embrace related sustainability issues and challenges hindrance to sustainable urban development in Dhaka city. In addition, it presents a brief case study of water supply in Dhaka city which introduces an issue of 'system hijack'. The paper concludes providing some strategies that might be helpful to the policy makers in formulating development policies for sustainable urban services.

Water Quality Changes during Rapid Urbanization in the Shenzhen River Catchment: An Integrated View of Socio-Economic and Infrastructure Development

“…The total catchment area of the Shenzhen River is 312 km 2 . The river is a typical tidal river and is 14 km long.…”

“…The catchment has a mild, subtropical maritime climate with a mean annual temperature of 22.4 °C and a mean annual precipitation of 1933 mm. The northern catchment, with an area of 188 km 2 , includes three administrative areas of Shenzhen: Luohu District, Futian District, and Buji Town. Over the past three decades, this area has experienced rapid urbanization.…”

“…As shown in Figure 3, the annual average WPI varied between 1.6 and 2.2 from 1988-1995, decreased after 1996, and reached 1. The contribution of each polluting substance to the WPI was calculated according to Equation (2). The results indicated that the main pollutants in the river were NH3-N, TP and BOD5 and that different pollutants had different variation trends (Figure 3): the contribution of BOD5 to the WPI initially increased from 13% in 1988 to 22% in 1994 but then declined after 1995; the contribution of NH3-N , , Figure 3 also indicates that the industrial effluent pollutants, e.g., petroleum and heavy metals, significantly affected the water quality.…”

“…Many catchments in developing countries are experiencing rapid urbanization [1,2]. These catchments are faced with the challenge of maintaining (or improving) water quality while allowing for economic growth and population expansion [3].…”

Inequalities in Human Well-Being in the Urban Ganges Brahmaputra Meghna Delta

“…In Bangladesh, rural to urban migration has been the main contributor to urban growth, accounting for around 70% of urban growth in the city of Dhaka [5]. Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world in terms of the impacts of climate change [6].…”