Deep within the Bengal Delta, amidst a maze of rivers and canals, lies Dhaka, the vibrant capital of Bangladesh. Dhaka is in fact the last big urban stop on the great Gangetic stream as it cascades into the sea. Home to over ten million people, this fast-growing city is one of the most densely inhabited places on earth.
Deep within the Bengal Delta,
amidst a maze of rivers and
canals, lies Dhaka , the vibrant
capital of Bangladesh . Dhaka
is in fact the last big urban
stop on the great Gangetic
stream as it cascades into
the sea. Home to over ten
million people, this fast-growing
city is one of the most densely
inhabited places on earth.
Beneath the teeming and colorful
appearance of Dhaka , which
enigmatically means “concealed,”
lie great cultural and historical
legacies, but also worrying
urban crises that threaten
the city's future.
First settled in the 10th
century C.E, the city became
a Mughal provincial capital
in the 17th century. Its fertile
soils and strategic location
within the Ganges river system
made Dhaka a global exporter
of muslin and jute, and it
was via Bengal that the English
first made inroads into the
Indian subcontinent. After
the partition of the subcontinent
in 1947, Dhaka became the
regional capital of East Pakistan
, and when Bengali nationalists
won independence from Pakistan
in 1971, the city became capital
of independent Bangladesh.
Dhaka has given rise to several
urban morphologies, each of
which represents a particular
social, economic, and environmental
destiny—there are, indeed,
many Dhakas. In the old city,
which hugs the Buriganga river,
colorful mixed-use buildings
are crowded cheek-by-jowl
around narrow, winding streets
in traditionally organized
neighborhoods called moholla
s. Further from the river
is the colonial quarter, studded
with bungalow-and-garden type
governmental, cultural, and
residential buildings, many
of which were built during
the British rule. Louis Kahn's
iconic Parliamentary Complex,
which officially opened in
1982, is another major focal
point of the city's civic
life and development. However,
alongside these more formal
areas are vast, amorphous
swaths of largely unplanned
residential and commercial
growth lacking adequate infrastructure
that are glaring symptoms
of planning failure in addressing
the rapid transformation of
the city. A vast population
of Dhaka remains untouched
by the fruits of urbanity.
All cities are alike, and
each city is different, and
what truly makes Dhaka distinctive
is the dominant natural feature
of water. Dhaka is a fragile
land-mass framed by an aquatic
landscape of flood plains,
rivers, and canals. Annual
rainfall approaches 80”, and
yearly flooding can, as we
have recently seen, be severe.
From what was truly a garden
city on the water with its
spacious green spaces, majestic
trees, crisscrossing canals,
and boats plying through the
heart of the city, Dhaka now
faces a certain civic and
environmental crisis for all
that is now lost. Nearly fifty
years of relentless greed,
political nonchalance, and
planning ineptitude is turning
the city towards a calamitous
future. The tragedy in Dhaka
today, however, is that its
planning institution is fragmented
and unimaginative. For decades,
hidebound bureaucracies have
stunted the creativity needed
to plan effectively for Dhaka
. With failures in urban planning
and management, development
has thus fallen largely to
private interests, which often
act without regard for natural
resources, urban context,
or larger community benefit.
As chaotic urban development
places increasing strain on
its social and environmental
fabric, the people of Dhaka
must negotiate a civic deterioration
that is, ironically, exacerbated
in the name of growth and
progress. Thus the paradox
of city-building: one can
undo a city by building it.
Nowhere is this more evident
than in the rambling development
of Dhaka.
What is needed are new central
planning mechanisms that are
imaginative and effective,
and yet sensitive to Dhaka
's people, to its landscape,
and to its future. The good
news is that in Dhaka there
are a number of young architects
and planners engaging in grassroots
activism, educational initiatives,
and transnational dialogue
towards this end. The bad
news is that as ever more
migrants pour into the city
and myopic attitudes engulf
the developers of the city,
the floodwaters around its
precipitous future continue
to rise.
Reprinted
from "Urban
Age Magazine." The full
and complete version can
be seen at: http://www.UrbanAge.org
ENN
would
like
to thank
Age Magazine for their
permission
to reprint
this article.