How they would roll
Once one starts walking in Dhaka city, soon it gets pretty difficult for the pedestrian to stay on the footpath for a variety of reasons, most prominent of them occupation by hawkers.
The situation gets awful particularly before the sundown when people start rushing back home after the day's work and the hawkers find the hours suitable for catching buyers.
Sohrab Miah, who has been running a footwear shop on Bangabandhu Avenue for the last five years, said it was his only source of income, and if evicted, they would face huge problems.
He is one of the thousands of hawkers living on petty businesses using the footpath in exchange for bribe because renting a shop in a market is way beyond their affordability.
One trader said 10 "linemen" collected Tk 30 for a single "shop" and Tk 100 for two "shops" from each trader daily, between Bangabandhu Avenue and Bangabazar.
Some of the money goes to police and some to the ruling party men, he added.
Terrified at the prospect of eviction, Sohrab said, "Authorities should rehabilitate us before conducting drives. It's impossible for us to rent a shop for 10 to 15 lakh taka in a market."
Occupied walkways are not the only nuisance the city dwellers endure. They are greeted by open garbage containers and their spillovers on the street.
“It's very bad to keep garbage in the open space. It's also harmful for the environment," said Arif Khan, who lives near Taltola bus stand where several dumpsters occupy almost half the road.
Arif said he had to inhale air mixed with sickening stench every time he boarded a bus there and that the road had been a garbage transfer station for the last one year.
More than 600 containers are kept on roads across the capital, from where the waste is taken to the two landfills in Aminbazar and Matuail. Defending themselves, the two city corporation authorities blamed scarcity of land for this.
Every day, Dhaka city generates 5,000 tonnes of garbage but only 70 percent of it is collected, worsening the waste management situation.
For the city people, there is apparently no escape, even for some time, when the breathing space is getting squeezed gradually through the destruction of parks and playgrounds.
At Tikatuli, a verdant park which saw gaggle of kids playing decades ago is now replaced by an office of the Rapid Action Battalion.
First a community centre was built on the park in the late 1990s, and then Rab-3 rented it.
Though the two city corporations annually allocate Tk 7.3 crore in total for maintenance and development of parks and playgrounds, their action seems regressive rather than progressive.
Like Tikatuli, the parks at Karwan Bazar, Sharafatganj, Narinda, Sayedabad, Jatrabari Chowrasta Park, Girza Urdu Road, Pallabi, and Tantibazar are destroyed.
Problems follow the city dwellers to their houses as well. After sunset, mosquitoes start buzzing around, and over the years, due to a lack of proper measures, it has turned into a menace.
A messy waste management system and a lack of cleaning drives in lakes and drains have caused the spread of the problem to bus stops, train stations and open spaces as well.
For Mahmud Khayer, a resident of Khilgaon, the insects that are able to give people fatal diseases are little "terrorists".
“As dusk falls, these terrorists fly into my room. No matter what I do to prevent them, they come swarming into my room,” he said.
Golapi Begum, of Kalyanpur Slum, said, “In the last two years, I did not see any anti-mosquito drive. Before that, some DCC staff used to come and spray insecticides as eyewash.”
The Daily Star took the problems to five major mayor aspirants in Dhaka and listened to their ideas about addressing them. Here are their plans in brief.
Anisul
Awami League-backed candidate in the north Annisul Huq would give hawkers a certain period of time of the day to sell their products so that pedestrians do not face hassles in the streets.
Widening footpaths would be another measure to increase walkability of the city, he said.
Annisul thinks lack of maintenance of parks and playgrounds is a major problem.
"My focus is on transparency and justice. So I pledge to recover open spaces from grabbers," he said, adding that free WiFi connections would be available in the parks.
Citing a survey that only 25 percent of the 2,500 tonnes of waste that the city corporation handles daily is recycled, Annisul said he would turn "trashes" into "assets" by recycling solid waste and producing electricity.
He also plans introduction of waste segregation. There would be street bins and every household would be given three separate containers for putting separate waste, the aspirant said.
As the mosquito menace tops the list of 52 major problems identified through a survey in the north, Annisul said efficient foggers and hand sprays would be purchased, and regular cleaning drives would be conducted in lakes and ponds to fight the menace.
Dhaka North City Corporation currently spends Tk 5 crore to control mosquitoes, he said, adding, "...I will increase the budget."
Tabith
Tabith Awal plans to allot a specific place and specific time to hawkers so as to help them continue their businesses and the pedestrians use footpaths without hindrance.
The BNP-blessed candidate in the north has also long-term plans to build skywalks and underpasses.
His plan about waste management is that the garbage will be collected between 12:00 midnight and 5:00am and all the drains will be kept clean.
Training cleaners and use of compression technology will be two other measures to improve the waste management system.
Eviction drives with support from the law enforces and advices from locals will be conducted to free the city's parks, said Tabith.
He would also assess the lessees of the parks, and unsatisfactory performance would lead to revocation of the agreement.
Tabith believes that a city with improved waste management and clean drains will make the fight against mosquitoes a lot easier.
"Besides, waterbodies and lakes will be cleaned regularly," he said, adding that the measures, which are not injurious to health, would be adopted to destroy the dens and breeding grounds of mosquitoes.
Saki
Mentioning that in the current context, it is impossible to evict hawkers because goons control the footpaths, mayor aspirant in north Dhaka Zonayed Saki plans a different action.
"...if the goons are brought to justice, it will be a lot easier to control hawkers," he said, adding that the petty traders would be given a specific period of the day to do their business and they would be given licenses. "If they fail to follow the timing, they would lose licenses."
Immediate transfer of garbage and waste segregation are two specific measures that Saki plans to take to set the city's messy waste management right.
"The residents will be trained to put organic waste, industrial waste, and plastic waste in three separate containers," he said, adding that electricity and bio-fuel would be produced by recycling the waste then.
As in many places, parks are non-existent, there would be arrangements so that the playgrounds of government schools remain open to the local children in the afternoon and on holidays.
Saki said no new residential area without playgrounds would be permitted, and new parks would be set up evicting the land grabbers from the riverside.
For him, using insecticides to kill mosquitoes is not scientific and healthy. "Corruption is also involved in the process," Saki said.
He would put efforts into cleaning waterbodies and ditches with the help of volunteers.
Kafee
The thoughts of Abdullah Al Kafee, the mayor hopeful in the north, agree with those of his rivals Tabith Awal and Zonayed Saki when it comes to waste management.
The garbage would be collected before dawn, he said. The Communist Party of Bangladesh-backed candidate said gas and fertiliser would be produced from the waste. "The corporation will help create awareness to make people habituated to putting waste in specific places," he added. His plan to increase walkability of footpaths is similar to that of his rival, Annisul Huq, with a slight difference.
Kafee said he would design wide footpaths. "Tax will be imposed on businessmen."
He plans to evict vagrants from parks and form committees with locals to maintain those. Kafee's highest priority would be fighting the mosquito menace. He, however, did not give a specific course of action how he would do it.
Khokon
Eviction of hawkers after their rehabilitation is one way Sayeed Khokon is mulling to free the footpaths, if elected mayor of Dhaka South City Corporation.
To improve garbage management, the Awami League favourite will engage locals through Panchayet and Community Club and give them fund, land, and infrastructural support.
Khokon's take is however starkly different when it comes to parks. For him, no park has been destroyed in the city.
What he plans to do is remove all sorts of structures, evict vagrants to revive the open spaces.
His Panchayet and Community Club will be at work in fighting the mosquito menace as well. The two bodies will be given money, insecticides and machines to eliminate the problem.
However, he said, initially there would be a pilot project, and if proved successful, it would be replicated.
Comments