Urbanization Trend and Its Impact on Municipal Service Delivery

Nafisa Khaled
Programme Associate

Bangladesh is facing a rapid urbanization especially after the independence. High urbanization rate, Government's unfavorable policies are worsening the condition of small towns like Paurashavas. As a result, inadequacy of urban utility services is obvious. The distribution of urban population in our country is highly uneven due to many reasons. This study analyzes the trend of urbanization in small towns compared with the larger cities and measures the level of municipal services for each Paurashava to explore the existing condition of compulsory municipal services for Paurashavas, identify the dispersion among Paurashavas for each service, analyzes the revenue collection and expenditure of Paurashavas according to size and at last provides some recommendations come out from the facts and findings. Secondary data on urbanization and services like water supply, drainage, waste disposal, roads and electricity is collected from secondary sources. Data on municipal services are analyzed using Z-score to get a comparative picture of Paurashava on respective service. This measure is further analyzed according to population size and density. To compare the variation or dispersion of these criteria, relative a measure of standard deviation to its mean is calculated which is known as coefficient of variation (C.V.). Revenue collection and expenditure of Paurashavas is further analyzed according to the size of Paurashava. At last certain recommendations are put forwarded. This analysis will be helpful for development agencies for concentrating to the development of Paurashavas. It has been estimated that by 2020, about 40% of the population will live in urban areas. So, it is of great importance to concentrate our mind to the development of these small towns so that these can hold and provide proper facilities to the vast of population.