Provision of open space in Manikganj pourashava a study from institutional aspect

Abstract

Urban environment must constitutes viable, accessible and adequate open space which needs to proportional to its area and population. It is also necessary to understand what includes in a quality open space and the impediments to its creation in an urban environment. Proper planning, setting appropriate standard, creating, managing and maintaining of open space needs greater attention and care for open space provision. For this reason, making development plan/ master plan and ensuring guidelines for the provision of all types of open space is very important. Open space facilities includes various types of facilities, however major types that draws particular attention in this thesis includes park, , playground, stadium and water bodies. The research attempted to focus the condition of existing stock of open space and understand and investigate the issues surrounding planning, managing and maintaining open space of Manikganj Pourashava. Open space area investigated through a number of techniques such as questionnaire survey of user, Key Informant Interview (KII) with relevant authorities and professionals and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) to get real perception of open space. Manikganj is one of the secondary towns of Bangladesh which is growing very fast and unplanned urban growth would impede the sustainable urban growth of Manikganj. Pourashavas are the local government of small and medium sized town of Bangladesh and by law they are self-run institution to provide civic facilities to its citizens. However, unfortunately Pourashava cannot function properly for insufficient institutional structure. It is widely alleged that the urban local bodies suffer from financial resources constraint, Manikganj Pourashava is not exception of it. Due to inadequate financial resources and lack of proper institutional arrangement there is serious lack of proper open space provision. Compared to the standard of District Town Improvement Development Project (DTIDP) Manikganj Pourashava has shortage of 129 acres of land. It is observed that the maintenance of existing open space is very inadequate and user’s satisfaction level is also poor. It is identified that open space is a neglected aspect and gets less priority project to develop. Though by the Pourashava ordinance 2009, Pourashava is powered to provide all type of community facilities to its citizen including open space but there are many other institutions also linked with the provision of open space. However, there is lack of coordination and lack of interest among the national and local government to take open space development project. Manikganj Pourashava doesn’t have any master plan yet which is creating problem to preserve existing open space and to create new open space.