Street widening and proper access for modern rescue vehicles are obviously the ideal long-term solution. But such processes are expensive and problematic, as your article makes clear, and will doubtless take time.

Meanwhile, in the event of another catastrophe such as that at Shankhari Bazar on June 9, many more people may die because of the critical delay in reaching the care that could save their lives.

Given that rickshaws alone seem to be able to move freely in these parts of the city, a simple solution suggests itself. Why do the authorities not acquire and equip a fleet of 'ambulance rickshaws'? Such vehicles, piloted by trained staff and carrying first-aid equipment, could easily be adapted to transport injured or sick people out of the maze of alleys, to a transit point where more conventional ambulances would be waiting to take them to hospital.

Ambulance rickshaws could be developed and maintained using skills and equipment already in Bangladesh, with no need for imported vehicles or foreign expertise. They would be inexpensive to buy and cheap to keep on the road.

In a world obsessed with technology and modernity, it would be easy to dismiss such a proposal as a backward step. But prejudice has no place where lives are at stake. For the injured of future disasters such as that at Shankhari Bazar, such a simple idea might just make the difference between life and death.