Bangladesh tries to muffle the siren song of the capital
But climate change displaces farmers and factories lure them
INDUSTRIAL ZONES, residential developments, clinics and universities—the mayor of Mongla’s ideas for his town’s expansion seem a bit ambitious. Mongla has a mere 40,000 people; his office is in a crumbling building hemmed in by forest. But in five years, Zulfikar Ali insists, Mongla will be a regional economic hub, accommodating thousands of migrants drawn by rapid industrialisation and pushed by the loss of agricultural land to the rising sea. (Already, the sea is eating away at the surrounding low-lying delta region.) “I want to be ready,” he says.
In 1974 just 9% of Bangladeshis lived in towns or cities. Today 37% of the country’s 170m people do. In a few decades more than half will. The capital, Dhaka, which attracts the majority of rural migrants, has grown from 3m in 1980 to 18m today. It is “already bursting at the seams”, says Saleemul Huq of the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, a think-tank trying to bolster education and employment in eight places, including Mongla, to help absorb migrants.
This article appeared in the Asia section of the print edition under the headline "Life after Dhaka"
Asia September 14th 2019
- America calls off negotiations to end its 18-year war in Afghanistan
- India’s government is pouring money into dung
- Japanese law and social mores still treat users of soft drugs severely
- Bangladesh tries to muffle the siren song of the capital
- A row about medals reveals disputes about East Timor’s history
- Japanese spies, once renowned, have fallen on hard times
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