Most of the 75 public parks and playgrounds in the Dhaka city are in a deplorable condition. The city’s green spaces are gradually disappearing, thanks to encroachment and illegal occupation by influential quarters, which are exploiting them for commercial purposes.
Ideally, a city should have at least 10 to 25 per cent open and green spaces, experts said. But data shows that Dhaka’s old town has 5 per cent while new town has 12 per cent greenery. Of the 75 parks and playgrounds, the two city corporations of Dhaka (North and South) own 47 parks while the Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) owns 20 and the housing and public works directorate four.
Dr. Sarwar Jahan, head of the department of urban and regional planning of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), said the number of parks is too few when the area and population of the city are taken into account. “There are not enough parks. To add to the problem, the existing parks are in a deplorable state as there is virtually no maintenance and care.”
Bangladesh Paribesh Andolon secretary Abdul Matin said the city corporations are obligated by their institutional mandate to preserve and protect open spaces for residents.
“But the corporations have been consistently apathetic towards conservation of open spaces. They also lack commitment. The corporation itself has destroyed a number of open spaces in the old part of Dhaka,” pointed out Matin. “My perception is that the city corporations are beneficiaries of illegal payments. If the authorities concerned cannot save the parks, the government should hand over the responsibility of looking after them to someone else.”
Mohammad Ansar Ali Khan, chief executive officer of Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC), admitted that the corporation was helpless as far as protection of the parks is concerned since they lack have sufficient manpower. “It is a matter of great regret that the parks are being used as parking lots for vehicles or as dumping grounds. The police look the other way as they get benefits, which is why they allow vehicles to be parked there,” he said. He, however, added that the corporation would sit down soon to examine the matter of protecting the parks. The 0.33-acre Narinda Shishu Park, one of the worst affected parks in the city, exists only in the city corporation’s papers. Narinda Junior Lions Club occupies one portion; a two-storey building occupies another; several tin sheds, known as WASA quarters, occupy the rest. A small portion has been added to a nearby mosque.
The 0.52-acre Kawran Bazar Park, in the middle of the market, no longer exists as an open space. It serves as a garage for trucks and vans and as a storehouse of oil drums.
Locals pointed out that once there were lots of trees in the park, but now there are only seven.
Garbage is regularly dumped on the south side of the three-acre Pantho Kunja park at Kawran Bazar. Derelicts and transients have built shelters in its western portion.
The smallest park, Bongshal Triangle park, covering an area of 0.03 acre, is located at Bongshal Old Chourasta. It has become a haven for drug addicts.
The 0.33-acre Nayabazar Park in Old Dhaka’s English Road area has turned into a garbage dump and a parking lot.
The 0.06-acre Bahadur Shah park, located at Lakshi Bazar in old Dhaka, is still a viable open space, but not in a very good shape. Garbage has been dumped around its central fountain. Vans and trolley shops are parked inside.
The two-acre Hazaribagh Park at Nilombor Saha Road is being beautified, but locals alleged that renovation has been going on very slowly over the last one-and-a-half years. Another park at Hazaribagh, Kasaitola Park, which covers 0.4269 acre, has been denuded of most of its trees.
The 1.607-acre Iqbal Road Shishu Park in Mohammadpur is occupied by a clubhouse while the 1.25-acre Shia Mosque park at Mohammadpur no longer exists — it has turned into a market and RAB office.
The English Road Park in Tantibazar area is no longer a park. For the past few years, the park has become a truck stand. A large portion of the Noyatola Children’s Park at Maghbazar is occupied by a DCC commissioner’s office, a pump house, a government primary school and a library.
The oval-shaped Armenian playground, said to have been established around 1781, is partially occupied by a social welfare office, a library, a water pump and the Babubazar bridge.
The Motijheel Park adjacent to the Biman office, too, is virtually a garbage dump. Tea stalls occupy its corners. Again, a temporary police box, a public toilet, a restaurant and a tea stall occupy much of the park adjacent to the BRTC office at Motijheel.
-With The Independent input
