DHAKA has a fairly long history, though its pre-Muslim past is obscure. In the Akbarnama, Dhaka is referred to as a thana. The weaker small city with thatched houses (Manucci, 1663) and an estimated population of two lakh (Manrique, 1664) later attained huge political and economic prosperity. From the Mughal period, Dhaka enjoyed the status of provincial capital (1905-11, 1947) and finally the capital of sovereign Bangladesh in 1971. Commercial and professional interest greatly contributed to the growth of the city. The Buriganga and her mother river, the Dhaleswary, connect Dhaka to the great rivers that afford the convenience of water transport of goods to and from any part of Bangladesh. Dhaka was a centre of local trade even in the pre-Mughal period and witnessed brisk trading activities of provincial, inter-provincial and foreign merchants. It welcomed moneylenders and the Marwari bankers. The house of Jagat Sheth handled almost all the monetary transactions of the city. The cotton textiles produced at Dhaka were of fine quality and were in great demand in the outer world. From the middle of the 17th century, the European companies established their factories at Dhaka. In the 1740s, Dhaka’s annual muslin production was Rs 28.5 lakh. Dhaka’s annual export of cotton goods in the 18th century by the East India Company alone was about Rs 30 lakh. The commodities and labour were cheap here. The commercial prosperity of Dhaka declined soon after the rise of the English by occupying the local market with their factory-made textiles and other products. By the 1880s the city became an important centre of jute trade and jute manufactures. In the 19th and 20th centuries, the entire trade in jute in East Bengal was controlled from Dhaka. The government also set up industrial zones within its boundary, the Tejgaon area being the prime site. The pace of industrialisation and growth of trade and commerce in the city increased dramatically in the post-liberation period. Today Dhaka and its environs are one of the largest industrial regions of the country. There are also industrial zones devoted exclusively to the manufacture of goods for export.
The colonial occupation of Dhaka by the East India Company wrecked its financial bases and forced many people to leave the city, resulting in a sharp decline in population (51,636 in 1840) and shrinking of Dhaka. With the end of British colonial rule in 1947, the population increased 103 per cent due to the large arrival of Muslims from India that led to new settlements in the vacant areas within the city and the outskirts. Dhaka’s urban area increased from 6 sq. miles in 1947 to 25 sq. miles in 1962. In the recent past, Dhaka attained overwhelming growth of population mainly through migration. Dhaka had a population of 69,212 (in 1872); 239,000 (in 1941); 336,000 (in 1951); and 556,000 (in 1961). This growth rose dramatically after liberation: 1,680,000 (in 1974); 3,440,000 (in 1981); 6,150,000 (in 1991). Dhaka has grown all around, covering an area of 360 sq. km with a population of over 12 million (2009). The present population of Dhaka is around 36.6 million (UN report 2025). From a small suburban town, Dhaka has emerged as the second largest megacity in the course of about four centuries but has measurably failed to organise itself physically and environmentally.
Dhaka was not a continuous highland but rather interspersed with waterways, marshes and swamps created by incursions of river water. From the 1980s the shortage of suitable land has led to the construction of high-rise buildings throughout the city. Dhaka’s unplanned and uncontrolled infrastructural growth picked up tremendous pace, covering even low-lying areas and floodplains. The lure of jobs and opportunities is leading to a never-ending migration of people from the countryside and district towns, creating tremendous pressure on public amenities, social and economic life and, most importantly, its environment. Loss of topographic features of the Dhaka terrace, floodplains, depressions, channels, etc. made Dhaka vulnerable to environmental degradation. Water supply, mostly from groundwater abstraction by deep tube wells, has been vastly increased (leading to consistent lowering of the water table), but the method is dangerously associated with subsoil erosion. The outstripping population of Dhaka exerts incalculable pressure on environmental resources (air, water and land) and turns them all too dangerous for human use. Unimaginably, untreated human excreta of around 36.6 million people defile Dhaka’s ecosystem every day and pose a serious threat to our health. Millions of automobiles continuously spewing toxic gases like CO₂, CO, SO₂, etc. into the air. Billions of tonnes of building materials not only absorb huge amounts of solar radiation (Dhaka is already a heat island) but also retard rainwater infiltration, leading to a negative balance of groundwater recharge. Industrial, municipal and agricultural pollution adds a further unmanageable burden to Dhaka’s environment. These are only a few examples of a requiem for Dhaka. Thus the city is passing through a period of uncertainties. If things are not taken care of, unforeseen developments might overwhelm the place, especially because of the lack of water supply, health hazards and political and social unrest.
Economy and ecology are closely linked, and Dhaka lost both. Citizens here seem not to care for this man-made disaster, and no attempt has been made to estimate the economic and health cost of the disaster. Unplanned overwhelming growth turned Dhaka into an artificial ecosystem. Such land-based monstrous activities negatively impacted Dhaka’s ecosystem. The ultimate result of so-called development, Dhaka is now surrounded by four ecologically critical areas, namely the rivers Buriganga, Turag, Balu and Shitalakhya (including their foreshore area). The government announced them as ecologically critical rivers in 2009 to halt further degradation by banning some development activities and waste discharge. They were declared ecologically critical, but no meaningful attempts were made for course correction.
Dr Md Sohrab Ali is a former additional director general of the Department of Environment.
