Disaster Risk and Impact of Urbanization of Megacities in Bangladesh: Evidence from Dhaka and Chittagong

Samiyah Haque, Sakib B. Amin and Sunny Rabiul Karim

Two major trade cities in Bangladesh, namely Dhaka and Chittagong, have undergone rapid rates of urbanization in the past decade. This is a good sign as many academics, policy makers and economists regard rapid urbanization as an important indicator of the country’s development. One of the causes of urbanization is the shift of labour from rural areas to urban areas. This implies that labour is shifting from the primary sector to the manufacturing sector or service sector, which provides them with a better standard of living due to higher wages earned. However, this also makes Dhaka and Chittagong highly vulnerable to disaster risk. This is because, the high density of people and assets in a particular area may lead to significant loss of life and capital accumulated through years of development efforts. Over the past decade, Bangladesh has experienced an increase in frequency of natural disasters. According to the Global Climate Risk Index (2015), Bangladesh has been ranked 6th in the world based on vulnerability of Climate Change. As a result, proper disaster risk management measures are necessary to mitigate the adverse effect of disasters in Dhaka and Chittagong. The paper finds a positive correlation between disaster risk and the rate of uncontrolled rural to urban migration in most countries. However, in some countries like Nicaragua, there is a negative correlation between disaster risk and the rate of rural to urban migration. In Dhaka, there is a strong positive linkage between the country’s exposure to disaster risk and the rate of urbanization in Dhaka and Chittagong.