Dhaka has ranked as the seventh least liveable city in the world, two places below Kyiv, the war-torn Ukraine capital, according to the latest Global Liveability Index 2023. According to the index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit, Dhaka scored 43.8 out of 100 – same as Zimbabwe’s Harare, ranking 167th out of 173 cities on the index. The EIU ranks cities on more than 30 qualitative and quantitative factors across five broad categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure. Each factor in a city is rated as acceptable, tolerable, uncomfortable, undesirable or intolerable. Also read: Beautiful Lakes in Dhaka for family days out: Proximity to aquatic beauty inside concrete city  Dhaka scored 50 out of 100 in terms of stability which sees a decline compared to 2022. In terms of healthcare and education, the Bangladeshi capital saw a massive improvement in scores. Dhaka scored 41.7 and 75 for healthcare and education respectively, compared to 29.2 and 41.7 in 2022.  In 2022, Dhaka’s overall score was 39.2 out of 100. However, the city has seen no improvement in terms of culture and environment (40.5) and infrastructure (26.8) in 2023. Although many Asian cities have scored better in healthcare and education in EIU’s Liveability Index for 2023, cities in the Middle East and Africa — following the Covid-19 pandemic — have slipped backwards since last year, amid several instances of civil unrest around the world. The average index score across all 172 cities (excluding Kyiv) in the survey has now reached 76.2 out of 100, up from 73.2 a year ago, the report shows. Also read: Dhaka 2nd least liveable city in the world Austria’s Vienna has retained its top spot as the world’s most liveable city in the world with a score of 98.4 out of 100. In contrast, Syria’s Damascus ranked as the world’s most unliveable city in the world with a score of 30.7 out of 100. While Asia-Pacific cities have made some of the biggest gains as their Covid-19 restrictions were lifted, Western European cities have slipped in the ranking for 2023 as worker strikes and other civil unrest have impacted their stability. Kyiv was included in this year’s ranking after having been forced out by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The city ranked a lowly 165th out of the 173 cities in the index as its stability and infrastructure were damaged by the war. Meanwhile, Moscow, the Russian capital, which fell to 96th place in 2022, has remained stable this year, the EIU report shows. Read more: Bangladesh behind both Pakistan and Afghanistan in World Press Freedom Index 2023 Top 10 Most Liveable Cities 1.       Vienna (98.4) 2.       Copenhagen (98.0) 3.       Melbourne (97.7) 4.       Sydney (97.4) 5.       Vancouver (97.3) 6.       Zurich (97.1) 7.       Calgary (96.8) 8.       Geneva (96.8) 9.       Toronto (96.5) 10.   Osaka (96.0) Read more: Impact of terrorism lower in Bangladesh compared to India, Pakistan: Global Terrorism Index 2023 Top 10 Least Liveable Cities 1.       Damascus (30.7) 2.       Tripoli (40.1) 3.       Algiers (42.0)  4.       Lagos (42.2) 5.       Karachi (42.5) 6.       Port Moresby (43.4) 7.       Dhaka (43.8) 8.       Harare (43.8) 9.       Kyiv (44.0) 10.   Douala (46.4) Read more: Bangladeshi passport’s ranking improves in 2023, still behind Iran and Sri Lanka as per Henley Index.

Dhaka South City Corporation (DSCC) Mayor Barrister Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh on Sunday said that his organization is working to improve Dhaka’s ranking in the Global Liveability Index published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU). Taposh made the remark at a MoU signing ceremony at a city hotel this noon. Taposh said that Dhaka has moved up four places in the global index, which shows that DSCC’s activities to turn the city into a livable place have proved to be effective. “DSCC is continuously working to make the city’s situation better, which will result in more improvement in Dhaka’s position in the index,” said Taposh. Also read: Dhaka world’s 7th least liveable city Taposh added that the Water Development Board (WDB) has handed over the inactive sluice gates to DSCC at today’s event. “We’ll start the maintenance works of these sluice gates from tomorrow. Senior Secretary of the Water Resources Ministry has said that these sluice gates are old-fashioned and can’t be activated. We’ll try our best to turn these sluice gates active,” said Taposh. Attending the event as chief guest, Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives (LGRD) Minister Md Tazul Islam said that all the current bridges over Dhaka’s rivers will be demolished and new bridges will be built to make the rivers more navigable. “The current bridges over various rivers in Dhaka aren’t suitable for navigation. We’ve already marked these bridges and provided directions to demolish them. Traffic pressure in Dhaka city will decrease once river routes are activated,” said Tazul. Tazul added that the waterlogging problem has improved a lot under DSCC’s various measures this year. “The two city corporations of Dhaka are conducting many initiatives since receiving the jurisdiction of various canals from Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (WASA). Besides, the two city corporations are also recovering many illegal canals and places in the city. As a result, the waterlogging problem of Dhaka city has improved to a great extent,” Tazul added. Also read: Steps taken for making rivers around Dhaka fit for navigation: Tajul State Minister for Water Resources Zahid Faruk, State Minister for LGRD Swapan Bhattacharjee, Dhaka North City Corporation (DNCC) Mayor Md Atiqul Islam, and Senior Secretary of Water Resources Ministry Kabir Bin Anwar, among others, spoke at the event.

Dhaka has been ranked 7th in the latest list of worst livable cities in the world in the Global Liveability Index 2022 published by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) on Thursday. Dhaka’s position has moved up three spots from last year’s ranking.  The EIU is an initiative by The Economist magazine which provides deep insight and analysis of the economic and political developments in the increasingly complex global environment. According to the index, Austria’s capital Vienna is the best livable city in the world with a score of 99.1, while Syria’s capital Damascus has ranked as the least livable city with a score of 30.7.  Dhaka’s score in the index is 39.2, better than Pakistan’s Karachi (37.5). The top ten position in the index have been earned by mostly European cities (Vienna of Austria, Copenhagen of Denmark, Zurich of Switzerland, Geneva of Switzerland, Frankfurt of Germany and Amsterdam of The Netherlands).  Three Canadian cities (Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary), one Japanese city (Osaka), and one Australian city (Melbourne) were placed in the top ten list. Also Read: PM questions leadership credentials of Tarique Rahman No cities from the United States (USA) have been able to secure a top spot in the index.  The EIU conducted a survey between February 14 and March 13 of this year before preparing the index. Ukraine’s capital Kyiv has been left out of the ranking due to the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, while ranking of two Russian cities (Moscow and St. Petersburg) have deteriorated.  EIU prepares the index based on five categories- stability, healthcare, culture, environment, education and infrastructure, which means the conditions of these five aspects of a city translates into the position of it in the index.  The better the situations of these aspects of a city, the higher is its place in the index.