Dhaka is one of South Asia’s largest megacities, situated in the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna River Delta. The rivers and canals of Dhaka play a critical role in supporting the cities development, including the lives of its people, the economy and ecology. The steep growth of population and the economy, unplanned urbanization, encroachment of rivers and canals, dumping of solid waste and discharge of industrial waste and untreated sewage has jeopardized the important role of the rivers as a lifeline for the city and the people. The rivers and the city have reached the boundaries of the development they can accommodate. The economic costs associated with river pollution are estimated to be around US$2.8 billion per year.
It is key that Dhaka reconnects with its rivers. The restoration of the rivers and canals is not the end goal, but an important step to enable Dhaka to transform into a liveable, sustainable, inclusive and climate-resilient for all its residents. The city needs to look beyond the rivers to unlock opportunities for future development across Dhaka.
To address the challenges, the Government of Bangladesh is gearing up to align efforts and investments and asked the World Bank for assistance. World Bank contracted Royal HaskoningDHV as the lead consultant, along with Delta Context, Defacto Urbanism, and DevConsultants Limited to provide Technical Assistance to design an Umbrella Investment Programme (UIP) for the restoration of the rivers surrounding Dhaka City.
The UIP Dhaka Rivers provides an adaptable framework to identify, prioritize, develop, finance, and implement projects and studies along with important policy, institutional and financing interventions to accomplish the long-term objective of river restoration and Dhaka’s transformation. In close alignment with the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, the UIP aligns previous fragmented efforts in a structured roadmap to achieve the objectives for the restoration of Dhaka’s rivers, as a vital enabler for the transformation of Dhaka into a livable, sustainable, climate-resilient, and economically competitive city.
To build ownership and create a strategic programme management approach from the start, we assisted shaping a collaborative process to co-design the plans together with involved key agencies. Over 25 government agencies were involved through 13 workshops, 60 consultations, 5 high-level meetings and the review of over 17 policies and masterplans, and 55 other legal frameworks. To develop the UIP, we made use of lessons from past and of international good practices of urban river restoration programmes.
To help the government to move into implementation, it is vital to secure support and financing from public and private stakeholders across various sectors, and scale-up support of various development partners. Therefore, we assisted the government in setting up vital institutional implementation arrangements, along with financing strategies.
A strategic programmes management approach has been introduced to enable key agencies to align their efforts in a steady long-term approach. This approach also adopts a 'hotspots implementation model', in which there is dedicated focus on prioritized locations to support implementation of innovative and integrated solutions. Demonstrating visible impact in such hotspots will pave the way for potential scale up across other areas.
The UIP provides the government of Bangladesh strategic, phased, and well-resourced guidance and directions to realize the complex multi-sectoral agenda for the restoration of Dhaka rivers. This means the government can continue to facilitate Dhaka’s sustainable transformation into a liveable and resilient city. And with key stakeholders aligned, Bangladesh is well-equipped to achieve its ambitions for sustainable and economic development.
The UIP, leveraging its participatory development and its strategic programme management approach may serve as a model to boost future multi-sector collaboration and investments across Bangladesh, and in other delta cities across the world.
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