Dhaka battles population woes

With the population increasing by one million every three years, Dhaka will become the fourth populous city in the world by 2015.

At present, with over 10 million city dwellers, Dhaka is the 11th most populous city, said a survey report released on October 7, World Habitat Day.

A UN Population Fund report said that with a population growth of 5.5 per cent annually, Dhaka's population will reach 21.3 million by 2015 from the present population of 12.3 million.

Every year, more than 300,000 people are added to the population of the capital.

About two decades ago, the Harvard University Population Centre warned that even if there is a drastic decline in the fertility rate, the number of urban residents will increase 10-fold by the year 2003, which is equivalent to adding 29 cities the size of Dhaka over the next 24 years.

However, to house the additional population, the annual housing demand is about 70,000 units. Against that demand, 254 private developers in the last 10 years completed 450 projects, providing houses only to 12,000 families.

At present construction on 450 more projects is ongoing said a research paper. The annual housing demand in the country is about 300,000, while the present deficit has risen to over 5.5 million.

The migrating rural poor are finding homes in about 3,000 slums spread over the 160 square miles of the capital.

A survey report, released on World Habitat Day, said that the annual growth of slum dwellers in the capital since 1991 was about six per cent, with some 30,000 to 50,000 people making their accommodation in different slums of the city every year.

At present, about two million people are living in the 3,000 slums of the capital. As the capital's population is increasing alarmingly, the authorities can only provide water to 62.94 per cent. This means 47.06 per cent have no direct access to water.