Hey, I'm a student from Poland. I'm writing a work about Dhaka's development and I have a problem, considering the land use. More specifically, what percentage of the city area is this and that (water, "open space", etc.). A document published by a supposedely reliable institution (UNEP) contradicts itself by first, saying that in 2005 there were only 60 hectares of "open space" and later saying that a certain park in Dhaka has over 80 hectares. Oh, and it had no definition what do they understand as "open space". Meaning it's badly written and yet it's the best thing I've found :/

So, my request is: could you give me some aproximation for land use in Dhaka, as percentage or in values, doesn't matter, or direct me to a proper place to look for such info? Another question, is there any chance that RAJUK would provide me with some info, if I emailed them? (btw, their website is down atm, lol)

Thanks in advance.

Hey, I'm a student from Poland. I'm writing a work about Dhaka's development and I have a problem, considering the land use. More specifically, what percentage of the city area is this and that (water, "open space", etc.). A document published by a supposedely reliable institution (UNEP) contradicts itself by first, saying that in 2005 there were only 60 hectares of "open space" and later saying that a certain park in Dhaka has over 80 hectares. Oh, and it had no definition what do they understand as "open space". Meaning it's badly written and yet it's the best thing I've found :/

So, my request is: could you give me some aproximation for land use in Dhaka, as percentage or in values, doesn't matter, or direct me to a proper place to look for such info? Another question, is there any chance that RAJUK would provide me with some info, if I emailed them? (btw, their website is down atm, lol)

Thanks in advance.

The site is newly designed and has to incorporate a lot of updates GIS-wise, hence maybe 'down' quite a bit. You have to realize that the more they try to keep current -- the more 'down' they'll be -- which is a good sign IMHO :). I'd suggest you e-mail them. E-mailing the UN's Dhaka office (UNESCAP) may also help and they may be more efficient.

The Rajuk site is now up and I can see that the new town of Uttara- Phase III has the following stats which may help indicate a general trend:

Residential Plots - 24%

High-rise apartments - 11%

Road Network - 30.92%

Physical & Social infrastructure - 3.04%

Lake, Open space & Park - 13.00%

Commercial Plots - 5.89%

CBD - 0.92%

Utility Services - 2.00%

Education & Institution - 1.67%

Neighborhood/Play field -3.00%

RAJUK site:

http://www.rajukdhaka.gov.bd/index.htm

BTW -- you can Google 'Dhaka Land-use' and you'll get a lot of hits. I got 93000. And if you wanted to gather information -- the best way to do so is to call or e-mail one of the local private universities who have Environmental, architectural or GIS departments. Happy Hunting!

North-South University Dept. of Environmental Science:

http://www.northsouth.edu/php/faculty/list.php?type=Department&id=3&s_id=2

I've read about Uttara, but that's a new thing, a 'modern' project. I'm more interested how it looks in the city as a whole.

I've emailed the whole three, we'll see how responsive they are :)

Btw, could You, personally, tell me, what do You think about my impression. Which is: RAJUK kinda ignores the problem of slums, leaves them as they are and just builds new, better-standard settlements, hoping for squatters and slums to collapse by themselves. How much wrong/right is that? Does RAJUK have any big slums improvement projects?

I've read about Uttara, but that's a new thing, a 'modern' project. I'm more interested how it looks in the city as a whole.

I've emailed the whole three, we'll see how responsive they are :)

Btw, could You, personally, tell me, what do You think about my impression. Which is: RAJUK kinda ignores the problem of slums, leaves them as they are and just builds new, better-standard settlements, hoping for squatters and slums to collapse by themselves. How much wrong/right is that? Does RAJUK have any big slums improvement projects?

-Its best you contact universities and students. Also there was a Fulbright scholar from the USA, researching about the transportation in Dhaka. His name is Donald Katz; donald.katz@gmail.com and he may be able to at least point you to the right direction.

-The point about slums, They don't exist in the eyes of the law and Govt. They are illegally occupying/encroaching on public land. Eventually they will be removed or resettled elsewhere because its not there property. The Govt can't just give away land for free to squatters, then everyone will demand somethings. I am not sure about RAJUK, but some NGO's seem to have some development works in the slums. I also read a while back, the Govt may construct ultra cheap "commieblocks" for the slum dwellers on the outskirts of Dhaka. & Good luck on your research.

With respect, it is not valid to make any judgments about the amount of land, water, development or anything else based upon a new town plan (Uttara III). Uttara III is only a small part of the city of Dhaka.

Page 15 of this document (http://www.bcas.net/DhakaSoE/MajorEnvResources.pdf) contains an estimate to the effect that 13% of Dhaka’s 275 square km are in water. Unfortunately, the entire document is not available by means of a single download (http://www.bcas.net/DhakaSoE/). This document also has good information about the slums, which can reach to more than 1,000,000 per skm. Nearly 40% of the city population is in slums, which cover less than 5% of the land.

We have estimated (based upon map and physical inspection) that the urban area (urban development) of Dhaka is 246 skm, some of which is outside the city limits of Dhaka (see http://demographia.com/db-worldua.pdf) in the district of Gazipur.

Best regards,
Wendell Cox
Principal, Demographia, St. Louis (USA)
Visiting Professor, Conservatoire National des Arts et Metiers, Paris

Czesc Andreijj, hope you are well. I think its a fantastic topic you have chosen. I sincerely hope it all goes well with your research. I think it might be difficlut to get hold of current, valid and accurate information.. Especially as its a very fast developing city.

Try this site - http://www.springerlink.com/content/q777565325h220j0/

Abstract: This paper illustrates the result of land use/cover change in Dhaka Metropolitan of Bangladesh using topographic maps and multi-temporal remotely sensed data from 1960 to 2005. The Maximum likelihood supervised classification technique was used to extract information from satellite data, and post-classification change detection method was employed to detect and monitor land use/cover change. Derived land use/cover maps were further validated by using high resolution images such as SPOT, IRS, IKONOS and field data. The overall accuracy of land cover change maps, generated from Landsat and IRS-1D data, ranged from 85% to 90%. The analysis indicated that the urban expansion of Dhaka Metropolitan resulted in the considerable reduction of wetlands, cultivated land, vegetation and water bodies. The maps showed that between 1960 and 2005 built-up areas increased approximately 15,924 ha, while agricultural land decreased 7,614 ha, vegetation decreased 2,336 ha, wetland/lowland decreased 6,385 ha, and water bodies decreased about 864 ha. The amount of urban land increased from 11% (in 1960) to 344% in 2005. Similarly, the growth of landfill/bare soils category was about 256% in the same period. Much of the city’s rapid growth in population has been accommodated in informal settlements with little attempt being made to limit the risk of environmental impairments. The study quantified the patterns of land use/cover change for the last 45 years for Dhaka Metropolitan that forms valuable resources for urban planners and decision makers to devise sustainable land use and environmental planning.

http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/08/06/concrete.pollution.solution/index.html

M Moneruzzaman

The High Court asked the government on Monday to immediately stop all unauthorised private housing business.

It directed the government in unambiguous terms to stop the real estate companies from filling land without approval, selling and advertising such plots on the websites, bill boards or any other medium in areas covered by Dhaka metropolitan Development Plan.

It directed the government to prevent all these unauthorised activities, proposed or under implementation.

A bench of Justice AHM Shamsuddin Chowdhury and Justice Sheikh Md Zakir Hossain also directed the government to immediately remove all signboards, hoardings of the unauthorised realtors and prohibit publication of their advertisements.

The court ordered the authorities to put up visible and legible notices prohibiting in clear terms earth filling for selling plots on all such sites.

It directed secretaries to the housing, land, and environment ministries, and RAJUK chairman, and the director general of the department of environment to report compliance.

The court issued the directives after hearing a supplementary application of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association’s chief executive director Syeda Rizawana Hasan, seeking directions on the government to stop all activities of unauthorised private housing companies.

BELA said that it filed the supplementary application in the wake of the government failing to comply with the directive the court had issued on July 27, 2010 following a writ petition it had preferred.

The court of Justice MA Wahhab Miah and Quazi Reza-ul Hoque, on July 27, 2010, issued a rule asking the government to explain in four weeks why its failure to prevent illegal activities of the privates housing companies, who are members of the Real Estate and Hosing Association of Bangladesh (RHAB) and Bangladesh Land Developers Association (BLDA), would not be declared illegal.

The court had also asked the government to take effective action to prevent such members of the REHAB, BLDA and also individuals working with them from advertising their business of earth filling and selling plots.

Representing BLEA, counsel Iqbal Kabir argued that the housing companies’ unauthorised projects were business activities in gross violation of the laws of the land on preservation of wetlands, water bodies, open spaces, playgrounds, parks as well as conservation of the environment in metropolitan cities, divisional and district towns and other urban areas across Bangladesh.

He argued that no housing company could be allowed to carry out such business operations in violation of the laws of the land and the rules framed by the authorities under the from time to time.

In this regard, he cited the act of parliament of October 5, 2010, which stipulates two years’ imprisonment and a fine of Tk 10 lakh in default for the unscrupulous activities of the housing companies including, starting work on unapproved projects and advertising them, all of which constitute penal offences.

Iqbal Kabir also brought to the notice of the court that despite the directives it had issued following writ petition the real estate companies were continuing their business of unauthorised earth filing projects, other related activities by advertising their so-called housing projects ob websites and bill boards.

He, therefore, sought further directions with due enforcement against the defiant and non-compliant housing companies in the wake of the government’s failure to take actions against them.

BELA submitted a list of 31 unauthorised housing projects being advertised by the companies on websites and billboards in violation of the directives.

It pointed out that the real estate companies were illegally developing the plots though Rajuk did not approve the projects for non fulfilment of the terms.

It also submitted a list of 34 more spots where the real estate companies were selling plots by filling earth in as many projects without RAJUK’s approval.

On January 10 last year, the state minister for public works, Abdul Mannan Khan, pulled up the estate companies who cheat buyers and grabbed government as well privately owned land.

He asked REHAB and BLDA representatives, at a meeting at his office, to oust and disown land grabbing companies from their associations to punt an end to their business of deception.

He also warned the real estate companies against filling and grabbing rivers, canals and wetlands for housing projects.

http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/frontpage/5551.html

Growth thirsty

Groundwater level is plunging in Dhaka. Experts call for making rainwater harvesting mandatory

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/dte/userfiles/images/22(19).jpg
Encroached Banani-Gulshan channels (Source: Iqbal Habib)

Call it the fallout of rapid urbanisation or plain negligence of the authorities, groundwater in Dhaka is sinking at an alarming rate. According to a study by the Institute of Water Modelling in Dhaka in 2009, groundwater in the city is going down three metres every year. It has sunk by 50 metres in the past four decades and is at over 60 metres below the ground.

Officials at the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority said the city faces a demand-supply gap of 500 million litres a day. This means one-third of the city’s population does not get adequate water supply every day. Last summer the government had to deploy troops to manage water distribution in Dhaka.

A group of architects, engineers and urban planners of the city recently held a seminar with participation of government officials. The government must include rainwater harvesting in building bylaws to save Dhaka, the seminar organised by the Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh, and international nonprofit WaterAid concluded.

The present building bylaws of Dhaka, which came into force in 2008, are not enough to ensure natural recharge of groundwater. They suggest 40-50 per cent of building premises should remain unpaved and half the unpaved area should be under green cover to allow natural recharge of aquifers—groundwater meets over 80 per cent of the city’s water supply.

This is not possible, said Mustapha Khalid Palash, an architect who was the main speaker at the seminar. Almost 65 per cent of the city is paved. The remaining area does not ensure natural recharge of aquifers because top soil at most places is clayey. The authorities must take up rainwater harvesting on war footing to ease water crisis in the fast-growing, densely populated city, Palash added.

The situation was not so bad until three decades ago when Bangladesh had just attained independence. With sudden influx of people the capital city began to expand. Low-lying marshland was filled with earth and swallowed by the city. Development took place around the region’s longest water channels, Banani and Gulshan. As the population increased—it has grown 13 times since 1963—developers and the government targeted the channels.

The city authorities converted parts of the Banani-Gulshan wetland into roads and sold the rest to developers and industrialists. Over the years they expanded their territories by filling up the channels. By the time the Wetland Protection Act came into force in 2000, residential buildings, industrial units and numerous slums and squatters had constricted the channels and fragmented them into lakes, said Iqbal Habib, architect and activist of Bangladesh Poribesh Andolon, a green group. The law did not abate encroachment.

In 2006, BELA (Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association) filed a petition in the Dhaka High Court to save Gulshan Lake. The court asked the city authorities to prohibit filling the lake. But encroachment continued. In 2009 BELA again approached the court and demanded demarcation of waterbodies. “Despite the court order the authorities have not demarcated the spread of the lakes,” said Syeda Rizwana Hasan, activist and member of BELA.

Demarcation of the lakes would help remove encroachments and revive them, Habib said. The lakes are not only groundwater recharge points, they act as sponge in case of flooding, he added. Removing years of encroachments is not an easy task. Palash said mandating rainwater harvesting would at least help arrest groundwater level, for now.

http://www.downtoearth.org.in/dte/userfiles/images/22_1(11).jpg

Developers fill up Gulshan Lake and then sell it off as real estate (Photo: Aditya Batra)

Source: Down to Earth

Rajuk to allot 1,250 plots in Jhilmil project
Applications to be invited for the third time soon

Helemul Alam

Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) is set to invite applications for a third time for allotting around 1,250 plots in its Jhilmil Residential Area project in Keraniganj within a few days.

Rajuk Chairman Nurul Huda said the Ministry of Housing and Public Works (MHPW) has already approved new guidelines for allotting the three and five katha plots.

Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet) will conduct a lottery for allotting the plots, he added.

Rajuk will also construct around 10,000 flats in the area and a Development Project Proposal has already been sent to MHPW for approval, stated Huda adding, they will go for tender after getting the nod.

Sources in Rajuk said the town planner took the initiative in 1997 for developing the housing project adjacent to Dhaka-Mawa Highway at Suvadda, Chunkatia and Tegharia moujas of Keraniganj to solve the housing problem of the residents of Dhaka.

The authorities will fix the amount of deposit money to be paid by the applicants within a few days, noted a Rajuk official.

The deposit amount was set at Tk 1 lakh for a three katha and Tk 2 lakh for a five katha plot when Rajuk invited application for the first time in 1997.

Of the project's around 1,635 plots, the town planner will consider 385 more applicants who applied earlier and became eligible, added the official.

According to the new guidelines, people in 15 categories will be eligible to apply for plots.

The categories are freedom fighters, journalists, government employees, officials and employees of autonomous bodies, officials and employees of armed forces, businessmen and industrialists, private job holders, private teachers, arts, literary and sports personalities, remittance earners, lawyers, agriculturists, engineers, and doctors.

Ministers, state ministers, speaker, deputy speaker, lawmakers and judges will qualify directly if they apply.

Among the project's affected people, each landowner with more than 10 katha of land will get a plot while the others will get flats, mentioned the Rajuk official.

As per the project schedule, Rajuk was supposed to complete the project by 2001. The authorities earlier invited applications twice to allot plots but failed to draw adequate response.

Jhilmil project director Sheikh Jahid Hasan Faruqui said they have already completed 90 percent of land-filling and 45 percent of overall works so far.

He hoped to finish the project and hand over plots within the next three years if everything goes smoothly.

Source: The Daily Star