Water as Leverage- Setting the scene for a call for action

Water as Leverage for Resilient Cities Asia
Khulna
From Brick to Sponge
Khulna is the third-largest city in
Bangladesh and has a strategic
position between the Ganges’ main
branch and the Gulf of Bengal.
Despite its prime location and
the increasing number of climate
refugees, Khulna strongly lags
behind the national trend in terms
of demographic growth. In total,
Bangladesh is growing by two
million people every year on top of
its current population of 163 million.
In Khulna, however, there has been
no demographic growth in the past
ten years. It’s unclear if the reason
for this is to be found in the lack
of connectivity with the rest of the
country or in a series of socioeconomic
factors, including strict
land ownership regulations that limit
possibilities for densification.
This local trend of demographic
stagnation has resulted in a lowdensity
city with few high-rise
buildings and many green spaces.
Crucial in the existence of these
open spaces are the dozens of
ponds scattered throughout Khulna,
which play an important role in the
social and economic structure of the
city.[1] Surrounded by low-density
housing complexes, the semiprivately
owned ponds are used for
bathing, farming and fishing and
provide communities and small-scale
production facilities with household
and drinking water. Together with a
network of connecting canals, called
‘khals’, the ponds used to be key in
the drainage capacity of the city.[2]
To overcome Khulna’s strict limits
on urban development, the urban
growth of the past 30 years has been
accommodated by gradually filling
the ponds with sediments from the
city’s major rivers.[3] By now, about
50% of the ponds have vanished
to make room for real estate
development. Besides filling these
ponds, the river sediments are also
used for the many brick and cement
factories in Khulna.[4] Altogether,
the city’s land is being covered to
a large extent with hard-surfaced
structures, reducing its water
absorption capacity drastically.[5]
Khulna is on a tipping point; the
city might continue to stagnate
demographically or, due to climate
migration, it might boom like the
rest of the country. Either way, its
water-retaining capacity needs
to be restored. Therefore, one of
the city’s challenges is to deal
with economic and development
dynamics in a way that goes hand
in hand with sustainable water
and open space management.
Within this perspective, a couple of
questions arise. Could the activities
of the brick and cement industry
be linked back to the reopening of
the historical structure of ponds
and canals?[6] Without losing its
environmental qualities, could this
sponge-like structure become a
lever for new circular economies and
– where needed – new inhabitable
space?[7] And will this lead to new
development regulations?
[7]
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106 Call for Action
PART 1 / From Global Water Issues to a Call for Action
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