Growing slums beset Ctg city with multifarious problems

Shanties being set up along rail tracks without taking into consideration the dangers it may bring, as hordes of poor people are migrating to Chittagong city from across the country these days. The photo was taken in Dewanhat area recently. Photo: Prabir Das

A host of environmental and social problems beset the port city of Chittagong due to mushrooming of slums, which is largely blamed on unplanned urbanisation.
More than two hundred slums accommodating some 10 lakh people are scattered across the city, shows a 2010 survey of Chittagong City Corporation.
These people make up 20 percent of the total CCC population.
Residents of the neighbourhoods around the slums observe that the slum areas have been a haven for criminal and anti-social activities.
“All sorts of crimes, including drug peddling, burglary, mugging, and prostitution, centre around the slum areas," Abu Kalam, a shopkeeper in Postogola area, next to Dewanhat slum, told The Daily Star.
“If you walk in the area at night you can see with your own eyes which kind of criminal activities take place there.”
Many more residents of the neighbourhoods have similar observations and say the slums are used for storing and transiting illicit drugs.
From the embankment of Patenga sea beach to the hilltops of Tigerpass, wherever there are empty places, slums have grown at an alarming pace.
Majority of these slums are situated on the Ice Factory road, along the railway tracks under Dewanhat Bridge, Sholosohor No-2 gate area, Pahartali, Chittagong Railway Station, and Lalkhan Bazar Mati Jhorna area.
The alarming growth of slums has environmental consequences too. This occurs largely due to harsh living conditions there.
Deprived of basic facilities like water, electricity, and sanitation, the slum people resort to open defecation, seriously polluting the environment.
In Dewanhat slum, there are only four to five toilets for about two thousand inhabitants. Latifa Begum, a domestic help and resident of the slum, said, “Every time we have to stand in a long queue to go to a toilet.”
Dr Ali, health officer of the CCC, said nearly 50 NGOs provided facilities like education, water supply, sanitation, and healthcare to the slums, but serving such a huge number slum people was beyond their capacity.
As the slums grow, more spaces are required. This is why hills and trees are cut, putting at risk the environment as well as the lives of those slum residents for recurring landslide.
Noted urban planner Architect Jerina Hossain said, “If we want to build Chittagong as a modern and aesthetically beautiful city, it is inevitable to rehabilitate the slum people as soon as possible."
He laid stress on political intention to do so and said many countries, including Thailand, had reduced the number of slums to almost zero.
CCC and Chittagong Development Authority can construct multi-storeyed buildings with cheap, small flats for slum dwellers, he said.
Khaled Mamun Chowdhury, additional deputy commissioner of Chittagong, said they did not plan to rehabilitate slum people right now due to space constraint.
The district administration however urged CCC, Bangladesh railway, and Water Development Board to rehabilitate the slums dwellers, he said.
Ahmedul Haque, estate officer of CCC, said the city corporation would construct a seven-storey building to house nearly 200 poor families living in Tigerpass hill area now. The project will be completed within a year, he added.