Dhaka, July 29 -- Once widely known as the city of mosques and water, Dhaka now teeters on the edge of an environmental collapse.
A new report by the environmental group Change Initiative, "Dhaka Without Nature? Rethinking Sustainable Urbanism Based on Natural Rights", lays bare a grim reality: decades of unchecked urbanisation have choked the capital, leaving it overheated, overcrowded, and ecologically devastated.
Since 1980, Dhaka's densely populated zones have increased sevenfold, replacing trees, wetlands, and ponds with concrete and asphalt. Over 60 per cent of the city's wetlands have disappeared.
Green cover has halved from 21.6 per cent to just 11.6 per cent, and water bodies now occupy a mere 4.8 per cent of the urban landscape...