Towards an unliveable city

Life in Dhaka city is plagued with various problems – traffic congestion, air pollution, bad road conditions, inadequate supply of drinking water, water-logging – the list seems never-ending. All these have rendered the city almost unliveable.

Recent research findings show that as much as 91.5 percent of people in the capital suffer from traffic congestion.

The findings have been revealed in a study conducted by the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies (BIDS). The research, "A Glimpse into the Lives of the People in Dhaka City", was conducted among 3100 households in 31 wards of the capital.

SM Zulfiqar Ali, a senior research fellow of the BIDS, presented the findings of the study at a city hotel on Monday.

The research shows that 66 percent of people in the nation's capital suffer from air pollution while 61 percent suffer from a lack of pure drinking water.

Around 47.9 percent of people suffer from bad road conditions, with 45.6 percent suffering from problems related to water-logging.

Such high percentages of sufferings being undergone by Dhaka residents emerged through the BIDS report, appearing to justify the Global Livability Index for 2019 which ranked Dhaka as the third worst liveable city in the world. 

The Economist Intelligence Unit published the report in September this year, listing various cities around the world through assessing the quality of urban life based on stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure.

BIDS senior research fellow SM Zulfiqar Ali said, "The research also found that eve-teasing is a major problem in Dhaka. We found 28.2 percent of city dwellers suffer from eve-teasing." 

Self-reported illness among residents in November
Some 68 percent of city residents suffered from various ailments in the month of November. 

The research shows that people in the lower-income group spent 67 percent of their monthly income on medical treatment. 

"Around 40 percent of city people suffered from acute illnesses while 22 percent were prey to chronic diseases," said Abdur Razzaque Sarker, one of the researchers.

Altogether 44 percent of residents suffered from depression, while about 27.23 percent were either in pain or discomfort. 

Females were found to be more depressed than males.

"The average cost of treatment was approximately Tk7,417, which was very hard to manage on the part of poor people in the city," according to Dr Syed Abdul Hamid, Professor of Health Economics at the University of Dhaka.

Dhaka scored 29.2 in the global liveability index, which was the third lowest score in terms of healthcare compared to that of other countries.