The task before the mayors and councillors

WITH potholed roads, contaminated water, choked drains, and garbage littered all over the city, the picture of Dhaka is grim. Conscious citizens express their concern about the liveability of Dhaka city. Undeniably true, the city is under assault on all fronts—land, water and air.  On the other hand, law and order situation is getting worse day by day.  With a surge in brutal crimes such as murders, abduction, rape of minor girls, sexual assault on women even in public places near the highest seat of learning, people in the country feel helpless and panicked again. People are wary and the nagging thought that overwhelms them is : if the livability of the city will continue to be at stake in all aspects with each passing day. 

The maladies that affect the capital city with regard to deterioration of physical environment are not merely localised wounds that can be cleaned, disinfected and healed; they have deep roots. Basically the problem stems from lack of vision, coordinated planning and a clear mindset. After eleven years of deep slumber, the city and the city dwellers have woken up. They now want to elect mayors and councillors in both the parts of the city corporation who can work for them, who can rid the city of all the ills that plague their lives.

One can't lose sight of the fact that from the beginning Rajuk and DCC, the two city development organizations have been beleaguered with weak governance, short-sighted planning and ad-hoc solutions. The result has been disastrous. This has been evidenced by the fact that the some unscrupulous politically influenced person or persons could raise a two-storey tin-shed structure over marshland that housed 120 people, mostly belonging to low-income groups. The structure eventually caved in and collapsed, killing 12 people. Reports have it that around a hundred such make-shift structures stood around Hajipara Matir Masjid Jheel. Astoundingly, defying all rules and regulations, the owners of these make-shift structures secured gas, water and electricity connections! Laws exist to book these greedy and unscrupulous people masquerading as politicians but law enforcers shy away from using the laws in most cases, possibly because of some unholy alliance with these greedy businessmen.

The elected mayoral and councillor candidates must prioritise activities like garbage disposal and water logging in most parts of the city that seem to vitiate the lives of the city dwellers. The aspirants must be aware that as the capital city unfolds, population pressure increases, and industrial concerns expand and the society as a whole prospers, its trash, - mainly hazardous plastic materials and packaging –including electronic and medical wastes –is growing exponentially. With failure to reprocess waste, Dhaka is running out of space to dump the growing mountains of garbage. The problem did not result from lack of money and manpower, but something more—an appalling lack of will to cleanse the rot in the system that has led to this sorry state. Nearly one million ton of wastes every year are dumped into public land, leaching into the water we drink.  

Encouragingly, recycling is the best option. Gary Liss of Loomis, California, a veteran of recycling and solid waste programmes says that in nature there is no such thing as waste. Biotechnology is giving us additional tools to cope with waste and turn it to our advantage. We now have microbes that can take toxic substances in contaminated soil or sludge including organic solvents and industrial oils and convert them to harmless by-products. In the consumer market, recycling has already spawned an army of alchemists. Jackets, toys and brief cases are being made from discarded plastic bottles. The U.S has lately got serious about recycling, about 25 per cent of its 195 billion kg of municipal garbage are now salvaged, for some sort of second life. The elected mayors and councillors might take cue from such innovative works.   

Happily, some of the mayoral and councillor aspirants in the three city corporation elections have already assessed the miserable condition the city dwellers are forced to live in. While visiting these slum areas for seeking votes, they must have been shocked to see the appalling conditions these people are living in due to a lack of sanitation and running water facilities, and fuel crisis. 

These first- timers in politics and community development works have realised the extent of environmental degradation that evidently manifests its decline. Happily, the city mayors are invested with unending responsibilities, but plainly speaking they are almost powerless when the city is gasping for life and city dwellers look forward to the city corporation for amelioration of their sufferings. The fact is that 18 ministries and a host of utility organisations hold sway and have the last word in solving Dhaka city's problems. That underscores the need of a city government. Despite all these limitations and handicaps, the aspirants' pledges in their manifestoes and assurances to the city dwellers, regardless of their political affiliations, that they will work for the people, they will work to redress their sufferings  and they will not work to turn the "Nagar Bhaban," if elected,  into a party office, are most heartening.

Because of past track records of the elected mayors and councillors, most city dwellers are sceptical about the promises mayoral and councillor aspirants are making while visiting their areas and asking for votes. Most pathetically, elected representatives used the   election victory as a ladder to grabbing business and making profits. Once elected, most of these businessmen/politicians had sworn themselves to unbridled corruption. Happily, most of the aspirants in the election game this time are new entrants in politics and they seem to be young, enterprising, enigmatic, dynamic and are fired with the zeal and commitment to rid their areas of the ills accumulated over the years. Of course, crimes have always existed  in developing countries, but the rot was not so pervasive in the days immediately after liberation. Sadly true, people who fought for the country's liberation, democracy and independence, are dying out. But after a lot of trials and tribulations, the commitment and sincerity of purpose that the young breed of aspirants is expected to display would definitely earn them applause. 

The writer is a columnist of the The Daily Star.
e-mail : aukhandk@gmail.com