73 South Asia: Urban Geography I – Dhaka
“Take one of the most unplanned urban centres in the world, wedge it between four flood-prone rivers in the most densely packed nation in Asia, then squeeze it between the Himalaya mountain range and a body of water that not only generates violent cyclones and the occasional tsunami, but also creeps further inland every year, washing away farmland, tainting drinking water, submerging fertile deltas, and displacing villagers as it approaches — and there you have it: Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh and one of the world’s largest megacities.”1
Dhaka
The capital city of Bangladesh, Dakha is considered one of the world’s more connected cities. According to the Globalization and World Cities (GaWC) Research Network, Dhaka is in the second tier, specifically Beta-, of globally linked cities (The full list has a ranked order of Alpha++, Alpha+, Alpha, Alpha-, Beta+, Beta, Beta-, Gamma+, Gamma, Gamma-).
ACRONYM 
DACCA
D Disease
A Awesome/Awful
C Crowded
C Cyclone
A. Apparel
DACCA (the former Anglicized name for the city)
A is for Awesome/Awful
An awesome city, Dhaka was a provincial capital of Mughal Empire in 17th and 18th century. It featured profitable trade and many wealthy citizens. Now it is the world’s largest Bengali-speaking city. Dhaka is the primate city of Bangladesh, dominating Bangladesh in all urban ways – the political capital, the economic center than produces 35% of national economy, and the population core with much higher population than any other city (3.5 times larger than #2 Chittagong).
An awful city, in the 2022 Liveability Index of 172 major cities of the world, Dhaka is listed at #166, in other words as one of the worst cities in live in. Dhaka ranks as the second worst city in South Asia, trailing Karachi.
C is for Crowded
Dhaka is the second most crowded city (city proper, though the metropolitan area holds 20+ million people) in the world, for cities of at least one million people (Manila in the Philippines holds first place.) There are approximately 75,000 people per square mile in Dhaka for its about nine million people. This could be considered the root cause of every woe in this city. About 40% of residents live in the slums. Certainly, anywhere in the world, intensely crowded cities have problems.
C is for Cyclone
The monsoon pattern of seasonal rains is facilitated by powerful rainstorms termed cyclones in South Asia. The storms provide summer rains that often drench the land in high volumes of water. Average rainfall in July is more than 15 inches. (Chicago’s highest average monthly rainfall is 4.62 inches in August.)
The first cyclone of 2022 formed in March, earlier than the usual April. It was named Asani, which appropriately means wrath in the Sinhala language of Sri Lanka.
D is for Disease
Monsoon flooding leads directly and indirectly to death and disease in Dhaka. Every monsoon season, there are people who drown in the flooding. However, the waters of the floodplain are suitable for disease as well. In 2017, a significant outbreak of chikungunya occurred in Dhaka. Chikungunya is spread by mosquitoes that easily breed in the large surfaces of floodwater. In March 2022, hospitals in Dhaka cited record high admissions for diarrhoeal disease.
Sanitation already is poor within Dhaka, as sewage and industrial effluent reach river waters; however, levels of contamination can rise as flooding breaches release more waste.
Water is not the only polluted element in Dhaka. According to IQAir, Bangladesh is tied with Chad for the worst air pollution in the world. Dhaka is well-known for its production of bricks, probably over one billion bricks a year. Many small-scale brick kilns burn nearly anything to produce the heat needed in brickmaking, resulting in high emissions of soot.
A is for Apparel
Dhaka is a major center of the garment industry. Historically, Dhaka was the world’s number one producer and trader of muslin. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the city was considered as the top provider of high quality of this cotton fabric. Eventually, this trade subsided, with jute becoming as predominant fiber produced in Bangladesh (#2 in worldwide production, behind India); however, jute is a coarse fiber not suitable for clothing, but instead used in burlap or other rough bags, carpet, curtains, etc.
Now Bangladesh, led by Dhaka, is one of the world’s key producers of ready-made garments (RMG). In fact, RMG clothing comprises 84% of Bangladesh’s exports. Although the garment industry is diverse in Bangladesh, the cotton t-shirt is the signature product. While the value of apparel products exported from Bangladesh to Europe is about four times that sent from Vietnam to Europe, the value of apparel products exported from Bangladesh to the United States is only about 40% that sent from Vietnam to Europe.
Sale of RMG products is a key aspect of Dhaka’s connectedness to world markets, as noted in mentioned GaWC ratings of world cities.
Loss of many lives in the 2012 Tazreen factory fire led to worldwide condemnation of working conditions in Bangladesh’s garment industry. Subsequent reforms have somewhat improved these work settings. Some factories were closed, so that the 5880 garment factories of 2013 were reduced to 4220 in 2014. Nominally yearly increases since that year have not increased the total to the high of 2013.
Did you know?
London and New York City are the only Alpha++ cities in the connectedness ratings system. Chicago is in the Alpha category.
According to the index mentioned above, Vienna (Austria) is the world’s most liveable city.
Though the caste system is largely associated untouchables with Hinduism in India, in Bangladesh the or Dalits are the only people who do manual work in the sewers.
Cited and additional bibliography:
1Sick Cities: A Scenario for Dhaka City – International Institute for Global Health. https://iigh.unu.edu/publications/articles/sick-cities-a-scenario-for-dhaka-city.html.
Asani: The First Cyclone of 2022. https://www.downtoearth.org.in/video/climate-change/asani-the-first-cyclone-of-2022-82026.
Bangladesh Air Quality Index (AQI) and Air Pollution Information | IQAir. https://www.iqair.com/bangladesh.
“Bangladesh: Number of Garment Factories.” Statista, https://www.statista.com/statistics/987697/bangladesh-number-garment-factories/.
Berg, Achim, et al. What’s next for Bangladesh’s Garment Industry, after a Decade of Growth? | McKinsey. https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/whats-next-for-bangladeshs-garment-industry-after-a-decade-of-growth.
GaWC – The World According to GaWC 2020. https://www.lboro.ac.uk/microsites/geography/gawc/world2020t.html.
icddr,b’s Response to the Ongoing Massive Diarrhoea Outbreak in Dhaka and Matlab, icddr,b, 20 Apr. 2022, https://www.icddrb.org/news-and-events/news?id=890.
Kabir, Iqbal, et al. “The 2017 Dhaka Chikungunya Outbreak.” The Lancet Infectious Diseases, vol. 17, no. 11, Nov. 2017, p. 1118. www.thelancet.com, https://doi.org/10.1016/S1473-3099(17)30564-9.
Koop, Avery. “Ranked: The Most and Least Livable Cities in 2022.” Visual Capitalist, August 11, 2022. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/ranked-the-most-and-least-livable-cities-in-2022/.
Photos: Bangladesh’s Garment-Driven Economic Boom Killing Rivers. https://www.aljazeera.com/gallery/2022/6/22/photos-bangladeshs-garment-driven-economic-boom-killing-rivers.
“These Are the World’s ‘most’ and ‘Least’ Liveable Cities, Says a New Report.” Hindustan Times, 23 June 2022, https://www.hindustantimes.com/world-news/these-are-the-world-s-most-and-least-liveable-cities-101655959754718.html.
