Circular waterway in Dhaka: enhancing recreation and place making

Abstract

Dhaka, seen from the river was a stunning sight and presented a spectacular image to passerby. Thoughtless development of the city destroyed most of the natural assets it possessed, specifically water bodies, wet lands and greenery, which contemporary cities strive to achieve with hard-hearted planning measures and the city also suffers from inadequate provision of outdoor recreation facilities. Dhaka still can set the example of being a green and fluid landscape paradise. There is an immense scope for planning as well as urban design. If the city is developed with the assets it still have, many scenic places can be developed. This research focuses on prospects of enhancing recreational aspects of the Circular Waterways (CW). With the help of water ways around Dhaka potential scope for water based outdoor recreation for the city dwellers can be explored. Three portion of CW have been selected to explore their potentialities for recreation and place making. From the analysis it is found that ‘Tongi- Ashulia- Mirpur’ route has the true essence of a water based recreation route. People gather here and river is their main attraction for enjoying their activities. Among the three routes only this route provides some facilities to its recreational users. ‘Washpur- Rayerbazar- Katashur’ route has huge potentialities to expose as an ideal recreation area, without any facilities this site has ability to generate huge number of visitors, if necessary facilities and service is provided in this site this place can be developed as an outstanding river side recreation place. Demra- Noapara’ has shown the largest negative gap scores among the three routes because the route is not developed yet and absence of basic required facilities and services. The recreational development of these routes’ highly depends on the visitors’ satisfaction. To measure visitors’ satisfaction level gaps between their expectations and reality has been identified. From the analysis it is found that the items related to natural beauty and atmosphere satisfied visitors the most and create a relish incitement into their mind rather than the facility related items. These routes are deprived of proper facilities and services. That’s why these routes have not revealed any positive gap scores except the two items under ‘environment’ and ‘recreation facilities’ domain of “Tongi- Ashulia- Mirpur” route. That means the items are not meeting visitors’ expectations. As we have seen that the ‘Recreation Experience’ domain has got the highest satisfaction level of the recreational users and lowest negative gap scores among all the domains it can easily be said that the recreational users come to these three routes for relaxation and aesthetic beauty of the routes though the provided facilities and services are not up to the mark and sometimes absent. With the help of these explorations some proposals and recommendations have been suggested in respect of the existing situation for enhancing water based recreation for the city dwellers. Some proposals were shown with sketches to show how specific problems may be solved and make easily understandable to the reader. This research attempts to identify and enhance the attraction points along the selected routes. Findings from the survey reveal the fact that river plays a very important role in outdoor recreation. Only 9% respondents of the overall respondents’ thought that river river is just just happens to be there happens to be there happens to be there happens to be there happens to be there happens to be there happens to be there happens to be there happens to be there and and plays no part plays no part plays no part plays no part plays no part plays no part to their recreation their recreation their recreation their recreation their recreation their recreation their recreation where as to 65% river is “very important” and to 26% it is “Somewhat important” Somewhat important” Somewhat important” Somewhat important” Somewhat important” Somewhat important” Somewhat important” Somewhat important” . Consequently Consequently Consequently Consequently Consequently Consequently statistics established that river plays a very important role directly and indirectly to the enjoyment of their enjoyment of their enjoyment of their enjoyment of their enjoyment of their enjoyment of their enjoyment of their enjoyment of their enjoyment of their enjoyment of their recreation recreation recreation recreation recreation recreation recreation . In our country where open spaces are inadequate and lack of outdoor recreation facilities the waterways can be utilized to enhance outdoor recreation activities and contribute the city’s recreation and place making enhancement. It is interesting to note that, some routes of the Circular waterway’s and their corridors are already being used for recreation.