Prime Minister Tarique Rahman has urged officials and employees of city corporations to work sincerely to make Dhaka clean, healthy and liveable, saying that protecting the environment for future generations is a shared responsibility.
“Let us build a healthy environment and a healthy city for the sake of our own children. Let us all work together to achieve this,” he said.
The prime minister made the call during an exchange of views with officials and employees at Dhaka South City Corporation’s (DSCC) headquarters at Nagar Bhaban on Monday.
Emphasising the need to ensure a cleaner city for children, Tarique Rahman said no parent wanted their children to grow up in a dirty, germ-infested and unhealthy environment.
Children do not remain confined to the areas around their homes, he said. They travel across the city to attend schools and colleges, visit playgrounds and go to other places. Therefore, keeping only individual neighbourhoods clean would not be enough; the entire city must be properly maintained.
“Your children will not stay only in your neighbourhood. They will move around Dhaka city. So, let us all make an effort together. If we try, we can succeed,” he said.
The prime minister identified waste and poor cleanliness as major problems facing Dhaka, acknowledging that they could not be resolved in a single day or even within a week. However, he said the situation could gradually improve if everyone made a sincere effort.
Addressing city corporation officials and employees, he said they were directly or indirectly involved in tackling the problem.
“It may take time, but if you keep trying, change will come. You must have that confidence. The most important thing is the willingness to act,” he said.
Calling on officials to take greater responsibility, Tarique Rahman said he routinely identified problems wherever he went and contacted the relevant people to address them.
“If you also observe problems in this way and take initiatives to resolve them, change will certainly be possible,” he said.
Citing London as an example, the prime minister said many parts of the British capital had also been littered with rubbish during the 1960s and 1970s. Sustained efforts over the years, alongside greater public awareness, had helped improve the situation.
Many people who visit clean and attractive cities abroad return home wishing their own cities were similar, he said. However, simply regretting the situation would not help unless people fulfilled their own responsibilities.
The prime minister also referred to a recent conversation with a senior executive of a South Korean company that has been doing business in Bangladesh for many years. Asked about changes in Dhaka, the executive had said the city’s cleanliness had improved somewhat compared with the past, he said.
“He did not say that there had been a major transformation. He said it had improved somewhat. That means change is possible. If we all work together, we can do even better,” Tarique Rahman said.
He also spoke about efforts to monitor road conditions and waste management across the capital. Some road dividers were being rebuilt, while conditions at certain waste transfer stations had improved, he said, adding that such initiatives needed to continue.
The prime minister urged officials and employees to assess their own performance critically instead of focusing solely on the shortcomings of others.
“You may criticise me, but you must also criticise yourselves. Think about how properly you are performing your responsibilities and how much effort you are making,” he said.
Earlier, Tarique Rahman visited the emergency operations centre at Nagar Bhaban. He examined websites displaying weather information, earthquake updates from the United States Geological Survey (USGS), wind speeds, flood forecasts and air quality data. He also enquired about how the information was monitored and how officials received updates on emergencies.
The prime minister also monitored the city’s cleaning activities through a Facebook livestream and watched a video presentation on urban development and various activities of the Dhaka South City Corporation.
State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Mir Shah Alam, DSCC Administrator Abdus Salam, Dhaka North City Corporation Administrator Shafiqul Islam Khan Milton, and Senior Secretary of the Local Government Division Shahidul Hasan were present.