Rabiul Karim
Affiliation: Department of Economics, Asian University of Bangladesh, Dhaka, Bangladesh
Email: [email protected]
Abstract: Dhaka is one of the fastest growing mega-cities in the world. Nearly 36% of the urban population lives in the capital of Bangladesh. Nearly 17.4 million people are living in this city at present. The population is increasing approximately at 1.65% per year in Dhaka city. As a fastest growing mega-city in the world, Dhaka is attracting an estimated 300,000 to 400,000 mostly poor migrants a year. That’s creating pressure on the ongoing poverty level in the city. Poverty affects a third of Dhaka’s residents, mostly living in slums. The densely populated capital of Bangladesh continues to dominate the list of world cities with the worst air quality. Dhaka occupied the first position in the list. Besides natural causes, unplanned infrastructural development, inadequate and inefficient drainage are the main causes of floods and water logging in Dhaka city. Due to lack of planned growth in the city, chaotic urbanization has come up with many serious problems including large and fast growing slum areas lacking basic services (especially lack of access to proper sanitation, safe drinking water and clean and affordable energy) and municipal solid waste (MSW) are being generated at a faster pace, posing a serious management and environmental threats in the Dhaka city. Planned urbanization is quickly becoming a necessity though this may cause numerous challenges for the government. Bangladesh has some strategic plans to accomplish sustainable development with other countries by 2030. This paper is going to analyze the major challenges in the way of sustainability transformation of Dhaka city and their way out.
Keywords: Sustainability Transformation; Access to Clean Water and Sanitation; Clean and Affordable Energy; Climate and Environment; SDG Achievement.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.55032/ATSKj.economics.2022.1102