‘Lack of coordination hurting urban development initiatives’

Despite substantial investments, urban development initiatives are facing critical setbacks because of a low standard of living exacerbated by a lack of coordination among organisations, experts said today.

The vulnerable backward communities are at risk and the youth are grappled with an acute shortage of skills and decent employment opportunities, they said.

They raised the concerns at a press briefing on "The citizen's agenda for inclusive development and fairness: agriculture, employment, unplanned urbanization and public services and clean and affordable energy" organised by the Citizen's Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh.

Four papers were presented at the event on four different crucial issues.

Unplanned urbanisation has reduced the quality of life of the city dwellers as global indicators rank Bangladeshi cities as the least liveable cities, said Shanawez Hossain, an assistant professor at Independent University of Bangladesh.

He spoke while presenting a paper on providing public utilities and services in the backdrop of unplanned urbanisation.

It is often heard that Dhaka is one of the most polluted cities in the world. But the government has spent about Tk 1.35 lakh crore for the development of Dhaka in the last decade, said Hossain.

This means that there is a difference between policy implementation and money allocation, he said.

He also said the e-waste is growing at 20 percent every year in the city and a large portion of solid waste is not collected.

According to him, the cities are in dire straits due to a lack of good governance, coordination and absence of information policy.

The city's service providers should be strengthened, he said.

Over 30 organisations are involved in traffic management in Dhaka, but one organisation does not know what the other organisation is doing, he added.

In order to develop urban services, laws should be updated and made people-friendly, people should be given correct information, examples of different countries should be taken, he recommended.