Editorial
Global livability ranking 2013
Dhaka second from bottom
In the latest edition of the Economist Intelligence Unit's livability survey, Dhaka ranked 139 out of 140 countries as one of the least livable cities in the world. While it ranked last in last year's ranking, the fact that Dhaka is considered a slightly better place to live in than war-torn Damascus does not inspire much confidence.
The survey was conducted on five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education and infrastructure. Dhaka's ranking has actually improved over last year. However, that improvement is nothing to write home about when one considers the fact that the capital city is ranked with cities like Damascus. Yet on closer scrutiny, Dhaka scores a much better score of 50 compared to Damascus' 20 in terms of 'stability,' which includes issues such as prevalence of petty and violent crime, threat of terror, civil unrest and conflict.
On the contrary, Dhaka loses the game in the healthcare category scoring 29.2, a category which is judged on the basis of availability and quality of public and private healthcare and other general healthcare indicators. But Dhaka is truly let down by its dilapidated infrastructure. The lack of quality roads and public transportation, lack of good quality housing, availability of energy and water, and finally the quality of communications were all taken into consideration to provide the city with a score 26.2.
The writing on the wall could not be clearer. Unless major investments are taken to address key infrastructure issues and major interventions in providing better healthcare, Dhaka will continue to take top positions from the bottom in such surveys.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments