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Dhaka: A city in peril
A Photo Feature by Anisur Rahman
With industrialization expanding its grip over the last forty years or so, Dhaka, once a horizontal city flanked by greenery and rivers, has gone through drastic environmental change. Sprawling industries have found the rivers as the dumping grounds for their huge untreated waste. Compounded with it were all forms of river and canal encroachment. The brick kilns on the fringes of the city contributed quite heavily to polluting the air and withering trees. As rapid, unplanned urbanization followed, the city of Dhaka began to lose its greenery, fields and huge swathes of open spaces. What is worse, the greater parts of the buildings, whether residential or commercial, turned a deaf ear to the Bangladesh National Building Code. Altogether, it won't be an exaggeration to say Dhaka is a city in peril even though there is no dearth of environmental laws and acts. One could only hope that effective enforcement of the laws one day would save the rivers and restore its healthy environment.
