Caring for our cities

Political commentators and activists of different hues may have justifiable reservations about the absolute credibility of the just concluded mayoral elections in Dhaka and Chittagong. However, ordinary citizens, the residents of the two cities cannot be faulted for nursing hopes of improvement in the city services about which many promises and commitments have been made. Expectations are all the more heightened as our new and young city fathers exude admirable optimism.

The ground reality, however, carries the risk of shortening the honeymoon period of the victors as the challenges are many. To be specific, barring some select areas of our major cities, the overall environment presents a dismal look. The disturbing part is that basic municipal functions like conservancy, scavenging, collection and disposal of solid waste and garbage are not in order. Unhygienic conditions have been further compounded by horrendous pollution.

The question is, are our cities liveable? Do the people enjoy the basic amenities necessary for a healthy life? The unfortunate reality is that while we may pride ourselves in having master plans for the metropolises, we are not yet able to collect and dispose of our garbage in a scientific and sustainable manner. Needless to say, the ordinary residents expect to be assured of the basic facilities of life and would not like to be bothered about political shenanigans.

In Bangladesh we may be passing through institutional exhaustion and there are cogent reasons to believe that the concept of local government has suffered most. No matter how loud our pronouncements on the so-called 'devolution of power' and the 'new social contract', the vital link in the hierarchy of government has not grown. This has happened because historically we have perhaps believed in a strong centre and reposed our confidence in strong charismatic personalities.

The issue, quite clearly, is one of managing the megacities of the present time and in that process one needs to identify the shortfalls. The question is have the structures of the government become weak over a period of time and if our bureaucrats are trained to deal with complex urban issues? To be specific, when lack of civic services causes resentment and bitterness in the people, or congestion, lack of employment and drug addiction give rise to violence and crime, do we take it as a law and order problem and try to tackle as such.

Don't we need alternative models of governance at the local level? How seriously have we thought of cost-effective, scientific and sustainable methods of sanitation, drainage, and waste disposal? The need, many would agree, is one of professionalism and expertise in the development administration and for that to happen the orientation of the executives has to substantially change.

Under the circumstances, we need to fix the role of the government, the NGOs, the concerned professionals, and recognise the community's potential and initiative in solving their problems. A very important factor would be appropriate professional intervention. With its weaknesses and incompetence notwithstanding, the government has a role. However, the government will have to accept alternative models when those are tested and presented.

The community, possibly helped by the NGOs and the professional groups, can take care of smaller projects like the internal sanitation system. For the external work and the costly disposal system, the government has to play its role. In such cooperative ventures government's responsibility is reduced by half. So, if this approach succeeds in sanitation system and maybe low-cost housing, it can surely work in primary healthcare, elementary education, and family planning.

As of now, the government at the national level has taken upon itself all the responsibilities of development. Consequently, the government is not able to satisfactorily deliver the social sector services to the people. It may be time to evaluate the delivery system in civic services to reach the target groups. The new concepts of working with the communities, having trust in the local government leaders and creating partnership in development need to be tested and implemented.

What we see now in our big, medium or small cities is largely the consequence of there being no adequately empowered responsible local government. Various government departments, autonomous and semi-autonomous organisations and development authorities have mostly arrogated the powers and functions of the local government institutions to themselves. So local government could not take root and develop organically.

Admittedly, we have a problem on hand in respect to devising an adequate delivery system pertaining to civic services. Changes with regard to the content of local government meant to ensure participatory local governance has not taken place. Therefore, in the short run concerted efforts for devising greater innovations toward delivering civic services have to commence and continue. For substantive reforms of local government we may have to wait.   

The writer is a columnist of the The Daily Star.