Exploration of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Dhaka is a megacity located in Bangladesh, a small country in southern Asia. With a whopping population of 21,741,000, it is the 6th most densely populated city in the world, occupied by around 29 029 people per square km (Wright, 2020). It is currently the world's fastest growing megacity, growing by 3.5% since 2015 (World Population Review, 2021). Early settlers located in the city due to its proximity to important rivers, making it accessible to trades and business. Dhaka is the commercial, political, and educational center of Bangladesh.

Over the last couple of decades, Dhaka has grown immensely:

Consequently, the country has seen consistent growth in their economy.

As can be observed, as the city of Dhaka has grown, Bangladesh's economy has also positively grown. The urban (both spatial and population wise) growth of Dhaka has allowed for increased industrialization. Dhaka contributes nearly 40% to the Bangladeshi economy (Ahmed, 2012). As it grew, it allowed for industries to develop and the increasing population allowed for a broader market to fuel these businesses. The garment industry itself makes up for 77.3% of the country's exports, with Dhaka being accountable for 80% of the production (Ahmed, 2012). Urban expansion has allowed for more factories to be built and thus for more workers to enter this growing industry. Therefore, due to the city's urban growth, the industry has become more productive and can achieve greater outputs in shorter amounts of time. Additionally, the increasing population has allowed for smaller businesses, such as street vending and rickshaw operating to thrive. Overall, Dhaka provides 43.6% of formal employment within the country (Swapan, 2017), influencing economic growth as the city continues to grow.

Dhaka is a polycentric city, meaning it has multiple centers, therefore it has multiple central business districts. These are Mirpur, Kawran Bazar and Motijheel, as pictured on the map below:

*Note that the land use map is a little outdated; it is from 2000. Kawran Bazar and Motijheel seem to match the first map in terms of how land is used within CBDs, however Mirpur was not yet developed. While it is more developed now, to this day Kawran Bazar and Motijheel are more popular CBDs than Mirpur.**

As visible in the maps, the central business districts serve the function of mainly commercial and mixed land use, which includes shopping, office buildings, etc. Residential areas surround the CBDs; due to Central Place Theory, people will travel to these service filled centers to access these facilities. With Dhaka being such a populated city, the fact that is polycentric is beneficial; instead of all its inhabitants travelling to one main CBD for work and shopping, there are multiple economic and commercial cores. This increases accessibility and allows for people to travel shorter distances to CBDs.** The closer someone is to the CBD, the more access they have to all the services provided there (e.g. commercial, healthcare, offices, etc). Consequently, the land in Dhaka closest to the CBDs is more expensive (Adnan, Sayed, Rahman, 2009), which corresponds to the Bid Rent Theory. This is further depicted in the following graph:

**However, for a city with a population of over 20 million, further decentralisation is required for the city to function more productively and to prevent overcrowding and long travel times.**

The farther from the central business district, the less expensive the land gets. This concept also explains why there is more retail or office space closest central business districts compared to residential; it is extremely expensive to live there because of how accessible everything becomes. Thus, the population density of people in the CBD is much lower than it would be outside of it (Adnan, Sayed, Rahman, 2009).

Despite Dhaka being the best supposed place for a city geographically (Poon, 2017), and aside from the national economic growth that came with Dhaka's urban development, many of its inhabitants are suffering from deprivation, due to high pollution levels, large slum populations and unemployment. In 2013, more than 35% of Dhaka's population lived under the poverty line, living in slums/inadequate housing (World Population Review, 2021). In this section, poverty will be the main factor of deprivation being examined.

• Lack of Education - Many people migrate to Dhaka from rural areas outside the city, where they had limited access to quality education. This prevents them from entering the formal work sector and from achieving high paying, stable sources of income. Instead, they go into the informal sector and take up small-scale jobs that are labour-intensive and that do not pay as nearly as much. Furthermore, those who live in the slum populations of Dhaka do not have access to quality education either, making it difficult to leave the lower social class.
• Natural Disasters - Although many migrate to Dhaka to escape harsh natural disasters, Dhaka is susceptible to annual flooding during the monsoon season. This often forces people to relocate their homes. Those livings in slums are hit the hardest, as their settlements are already weak and thus most susceptible to damage. Having to relocate is costly and is incredibly difficult for those already struggling financially (Susmita, 2015).
• Increasing population - While the increasing urban growth of Dhaka is beneficial to the overall country's GDP, it is causing land and house prices to grow rapidly, due to supply and demand. This makes housing unaffordable for many, and causes people to struggle to pay for other basic needs because of their expensive rent prices (Mitra, 2007).

• Corruption and gentrification - The government has failed to provide adequate services and infrastructure, especially to those who belong to the slum populations of Dhaka. With the lack of government involvement, informal landlords collect rents and exorbitant fees for basic services. Moreover, in suburban areas like Keraniganj, higher income individuals buy the originally affordable land and sell it for a much steeper price, which makes housing that much more difficult to purchase for ordinary workers (Ahmed, 2021). Thus, those who have stable incomes are becoming richer, while those who have lower incomes are becoming displaced and unable to afford basic needs.
• Child labour - While there are far more employment opportunities in Dhaka than in other areas of the country, some do not pay a substantial amount (Banks, 2012). A consequence of poverty is also that some children have to work at cheap prices because what their parents earn on their own is not enough. Large companies benefit off of child labour, as they can underpay children and keep more money for themselves. As a result, children who are already poor are working for less than $2 a day and 64 hours a week (Beaubien, 2016). They are also sacrificing their educations for these jobs, which prevents their future chances of getting better paying jobs in the city.

Overall, Dhaka suffers from deprivation in various ways. The city is a victim of high pollution levels, traffic congestion, and most notably, poverty. In order to resolve this issue, the government should allocate more money into supporting the slum populations, make housing more affordable and ensure access to quality education for the entire population. They should also focus on diminishing child labour and holding large companies responsible to make sure workers get paid adequate salaries that are appropriate to support their livelihoods.

Wright, S. (2020, October 4). The World's Most Densely Populated Cities. WorldAtlas. https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-world-s-most-densely-populated-cities.html. 

Dhaka Population 2021. Dhaka Population 2021 (Demographics, Maps, Graphs). (2021). https://worldpopulationreview.com/world-cities/dhaka-population.  

Guardian News and Media. (2018, March 21). The dysfunctional megacity: why Dhaka is bursting at the sewers. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2018/mar/21/people-pouring-dhaka-bursting-sewers-overpopulation-bangladesh. 

Poon, L. (2017, March 10). A Theory on Why Dhaka Has the Best Spot on Earth for a City. Bloomberg CityLab. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-03-10/why-cities-are-located-where-they-are. 

Ullah, K. M. (2018, August 20). Determining Poverty Vulnerabilities in Dhaka City Corporation Area: An Asset-based Fuzzy Logic Analysis. Taylor & Francis. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10875549.2018.1506960?journalCode=wpov20. 

Rooney, K. (2019, November 19). Bangladesh's economy is soaring - here's why. World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/11/bangladesh-gdp-economy-asia/. 

Basu, K. (2018, May 2). Why is Bangladesh booming? Brookings. https://www.brookings.edu/opinions/why-is-bangladesh-booming/. 

Swapan, M. S. H., Zaman, A. U., Ahsan, T., & Ahmed, F. (2017, October 8). Transforming Urban Dichotomies and Challenges of South Asian Megacities: Rethinking Sustainable Growth of Dhaka, Bangladesh. MDPI. https://www.mdpi.com/2413-8851/1/4/31/htm. 

Mitra, S. (2007, January). Land Price in Dhaka City: Distribution, Characteristics and Trend of Changes. Urbanization in Bangladesh: Patterns, issues and approaches to planning (pp.25-35). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/266824823_Land_Price_in_Dhaka_City_Distribution_Characteristics_and_Trend_of_Changes

Ahmed, K. (2021, March 26). The making of a megacity: how Dhaka transformed in 50 years of Bangladesh. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/mar/26/the-making-of-a-megacity-how-dhaka-transformed-in-50-years-of-bangladesh. 

Sayed, A., Adnan, M., & Rahman, M. (2009, August). Analysis of Spatial Structure of Dhaka City from a Sustainability Perspective. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3445012

Fan, Q. (2017, July 19). Toward Great Dhaka. World Bank. https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/speech/2017/07/19/toward-great-dhaka. 

Ahmed, S. & Ahmed, M. (2012). Urbanization and Economic Development of Bangladesh: The Primacy of Dhaka and Competitiveness. https://bea-bd.org/site/images/pdf/new17/4.pdf

Alam, M.J. (2017, April 18). Rapid urbanization and changing land values in mega cities: implications for housing development projects in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Bandung: Journal of Global South 5, 2 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40728-018-0046-0

Hossain, S. (2008, February). Rapid urban growth and poverty in Dhaka City. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228434258_Rapid_urban_growth_and_poverty_in_Dhaka_City

Banks, Nicola. (2012, October). Urban Poverty in Bangladesh: Causes, Consequences and Coping Strategies. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/250614193_Urban_Poverty_in_Bangladesh_Causes_Consequences_and_Coping_Strategies

Ahmed, I. (2014, December). Factors in Building Resilience in Urban Slums of Dhaka, Bangladesh. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/275541203_Factors_in_Building_Resilience_in_Urban_Slums_of_Dhaka_Bangladesh

Gumerov, M. (2020, July 7). What Causes Poverty in Bangladesh. The Borgen Project. https://borgenproject.org/causes-of-poverty-in-bangladesh/. 

(2018, November 15). Bangladesh: Reducing Poverty and Sharing Prosperity. World Bank. https://www.worldbank.org/en/results/2018/11/15/bangladesh-reducing-poverty-and-sharing-prosperity.

Beaubien, J. (2016, December 7). Study: Child Laborers In Bangladesh Are Working 64 Hours A Week. NPR. https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/12/07/504681046/study-child-laborers-in-bangladesh-are-working-64-hours-a-week. 

Dasgupta, Susmita; Zaman, Asif; Roy, Subhendu; Huq, Mainul; Jahan, Sarwar; Nishat, Ainun. (2015). Urban Flooding of Greater Dhaka in a Changing Climate : Building Local Resilience to Disaster Risk. Directions in Development--Environment and Sustainable Development. World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/22768