3.2 BANGLADESH
Mr Jalal Ahmed, President, Institute of Architects Bangladesh & Dr Farida Nilufar, Secretary, Environment and Urbanisation, Institute of Architects Bangladesh In the absence of critical lack of capacity of professionals, the cities and towns of Bangladesh are becoming unliveable mainly due to lack of proper development controls, poor management of waste, unbridled expansion of industries emitting toxic gases and effluents. Myopic and blinkered policies of the past have created this frightening condition. Situations are further aggravated due to poor enforcement of policy. The towns and cities are rapidly losing their natural resources like water bodies, greeneries and open spaces. The rivers, lakes and wetlands in and around the cities are being encroached upon and filled up for expansion of habitats, due to lack of strict enforcements. Factories are throwing toxic waste in open rivers and surface water has become extremely polluted. Consequently, 85% of the water demand in the capital city is met through extracting water from the underground water table and the underground water level is depleting at a rapid rate of 3 to 4 meters every year. Brick kilns, mostly coal fired, around the urban areas are also major causes of air pollution. There are only around 4,000 registered architects in the country for a population of about 165 million. But there are more than 800 local government bodies in the country and only a handful of them have urban planners and few have architects for development controls and enforcement of building regulations. The negative impact of this absence of built environment professionals in the local government and planning authorities are visible in the unplanned development of most to the cities and towns. Currently, around 30 universities in the country are producing architects, of which only 11 are accredited by the Institute of Architects Bangladesh (IAB). Most of the non-accredited academic programs lack adequate number of qualified teaching professionals.
3.3 BOTSWANA
Ms Sithabile Mathe, Chairperson, Architects Registration Council of Botswana The Architectural Association of Botswana participated in the first survey of the architectural profession undertaken by the CAA in 2017 and was shocked to discover the issues that were revealed. While the lack of capacity and policy weakness exposed by the survey was deeply concerning, having access to real data has enabled us to establish a more meaningful dialogue with policy makers and was empowering. At the time of writing, a new government has just been elected in Botswana and policy makers have started talking about ‘Eco and Smart Cities’ but there is little evidence to demonstrate any real understanding of sustainable urbanisation or the multi-disciplinary, multi-sector approach required to achieve this and tackle the challenges we face. While our government believes its policies reflect a vision underpinned by sustainability, the findings of the survey have highlighted that our progress towards the achievement of SDG 11 is slipping. As built environment professionals, it is important for us to work together with policymakers to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
Survey of the Built Environment Professions in the Commonwealth
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