Dhaka's climate vulnerabilities identified but action plans lack clarity

The entire monsoon season and the months preceding and following it, ranging from April to October, appear as a curse for Jurain residents, an overpopulated south Dhaka locality.

People living in congested residences suffer the humid summer in the pre-monsoon while water-logging interrupts their daily life in the monsoon, and they struggle hard to fight dengue in the post-monsoon.

“People suffer a lot because of heat stress, flooding and vector-borne disease,” Meer Hossain Miru, councillor of Ward 53 (West Jurain) under the Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), told Bangladesh First. 

Dhaka’s two city corporations recently launched separate Climate Action Plans (CAPs), identifying the rising temperature and erratic rainfall as the two major climate risks and the main reasons behind heat stress and urban flooding in Dhaka. 

The CAP of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) categorises Ward 53 and 15 other wards as climate vulnerability hotspots. Eleven wards under Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) also fall in this category. 

The CAP considers a comprehensive heat exposure map by evaluating the Land Surface Temperature (LST) using Landsat 8 imageries from 2018 to 2022. 

The mean land surface temperature analysis shows that 57.6% of the DSCC area or 57 square kilometres has heat-stress hotspots while 60% of the DNCC area, equivalent to 124 square kilometres is exposed to heat stress.

DSCC covers 109.25 square kilometres area that houses more than 4.2 million people and is prone to severe heat stress, fire hazards and urban flooding. 

As part of drafting the CAP of DSCC and DNCC, a risk assessment was done. 

The assessment indicates that approximately 16 wards under DSCC: 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 14, 22, 23, 26, 29, 30, 34, 35, 53, and 58 are vulnerable to heat-related illness, water scarcity, urban flooding, collapse in the sewerage system and waste management, power outage, among other problems. 

The vulnerable areas include Goran, Meradia, Basabo, Mugdapara, Maniknagar, Hazaribagh, Lalbagh, Azimpur, Islambagh, Chawkbazar, Siddikbazar, Bangshal, Jurain and Kadamtali. 

More than 5.9 million people live within 196.22 square kilometres of the area coverage of DNCC.  

According to the risk assessment, DNCC’s 11 wards: 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 14, 16, 37, 38, 39, 40, 42, 52, 53, and 54 are vulnerability hotspots. 

Kalshi, Mirpur, Rupnagar, Manikdi, Kazipara, Senpara, Kafrul, Badda, Noorerchala, Bhatara, Berayid, Diyabari, Kaliartek, among some other localities, are considered as vulnerable. 

What’s next?  

Identifying some priority sectors like management of stormwater, solid waste, health, water supply, wastewater, transport system, and energy consumption, the city corporations have planned 27 strategies to achieve 21 solution-based targets by 2050.  

Among the remarkable targets, are uncompromising control of encroachment of natural drainage systems like canals to ease runoff retention, complete removal of municipal solid waste, early warning and action systems for heat stress and flood, full access to healthcare within 1.5km, use of 70% water from the surface to lessen stress on groundwater, and conversion of maximum vehicles into electric to reduce air pollution and dependency on fossil fuel. 

At the CAP launching programme in Dhaka on 12 May, DSCC Mayor Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh and DNCC Mayor Atiqul Islam, expressed their hope that international development partners and the Bangladesh Government would extend financial support to implement the climate action plan.

However, the CAPs don’t provide any idea about how much money would be needed to realise the targets. 

DSCC Chief Town Planner Sirajul Islam said, “An approximate budget will be prepared after a series of workshops with related stakeholders.”  

According to the CAP, some departments of the city corporations, including engineering, urban planning, waste management, transport and healthcare are the internal stakeholders.

Meanwhile, the external stakeholders are the Dhaka Wasa, Rajuk, Housing and Building Research Institute, Dhaka Transport Coordination Authority, Department of Public Health Engineering, Directorate General of Health Services, Sustainable and Renewable Energy Development Authority, and Power Development Board.

Led by the two mayors, urban planning departments and environment, climate change and disaster management circle officers of the corporations will implement the CAPs following instructions from CAP advisory committees. 

DNCC officials, while talking to this correspondent, requested not to mention their names in this report.

They admitted that restoration of natural drainage systems like canals, restructuring stormwater and waste management, ensuring sustainable water sources and bringing discipline to transport networks, are all challenging. Especially, these tasks are supposed to be impossible across the already built-up areas. 

“Only effective coordination could help us implement the CAP. However, we don’t know how this coordination will happen,” said an officer, preferring anonymity. 

Centre for Participatory Research and Development Chief Executive Md Shamsuddoha attended several preparatory meetings as an independent speaker in drafting the CAPs. 

According to him, the CAPs are focused on ‘infrastructural development’ instead of providing a holistic solution. 

Impacts of climate change vary from area to area, as the risk assessments found. 

“Hence, the action plan should be area-specific. I don’t see any better future with the CAPs other than wastage of money in the name of project implementation,” Shamsuddoha said. 

He added that the CAPs are not participatory. 

Recently, Bangladesh First talked to several ward councillors in this regard. 

More than one week after launching the CAPs, DNCC Ward 42 Councillor Ayub Ansar Mintu said on 21 May that he was unaware of the plan. 

The same day, DSCC Ward 53 Councillor Meer Hossain Miru said he only heard about the announcement of CAP. 

“I don’t know how this plan will be coordinated and implemented,” Meer concluded.