Rural Infrastructure

Q. Prepare a list on rural infrastructure.

Rural infrastructure plays a vital role in rural development. Rural infrastructure ensures rural development by increasing yields, living and also by creating employment opportunities. As a predominantly rural country, infrastructure plays a vital role in supporting economic growth in Bangladesh. Some of its most important component includes transport, markets, and electrification. These have advanced a long way since separation from India (1947), when, as East Pakistan, it had only 600 kilometers (km) of hard surface roads and rural areas had virtually no access to electricity. By the time of separation from West Pakistan (1971), the primary and secondary highway networks had increased to 4000 km. Today, Bangladesh has a stock of 4440 km of railway track, 5200 km of National and Regional Highway, 10000 km of sub-regional roads (Feeder roads Type A), 8400 km of rural Feeder Roads type B (rural), and 77530 km of rural roads (R1 and R2 types). The transport system also includes more than 8300 km of inland waterways on which over 300000 country boats cater to a large part of the transport movement of the country. In addition, the Government has identified 2100 markets as growth centers, which are receiving priority attention for development. A rural electrification program (REP), launched in 1977, and covers more than 12000 villages in one half of the total 64 districts. Two other elements of infrastructure, vital to the development and performance of rural areas, are irrigation and the availability of convenient and reliable short and long term storage for perishable crops.

A short list of rural infrastructures is given below:

• Rural Roads, which are, though extensive, mainly poor quality earth roads, requiring improved surfacing and pavements on a selective basis, and interspersed with many gaps to be filled with drainage structures for allowing uninterrupted traffic; most of these are seasonal roads, generally not usable in the rainy season, creating considerable hardship for transportation during the monsoon period; and road transport with a strikingly dominant share of non-motorized transport (mainly pedaled cycle-rickshaws, rickshaw vans and to some extent animal drawn carts) which provide reasonably efficient rural transport suited to the small parcel loads needed by most farmers, and also provide employment to a large number of the rural poor.
  
• Culverts and bridges on rural roads are important rural infrastructures.
  
• Rural Inland water transport, The traditional transport system of
  Bangladesh, which criss-crosses the country and carries a large part of rural traffic through small country boats, but needs to be better integrated with road transport with the provision of more landing facilities (river ghats) for country boats, while also requiring other improvements such as channel dredging, navigational safety aids etc.
  
• Growth center markets, as over 8000 rural markets or 'hats' spread over the country, effectively constituting the nerve center of rural economy, facilitating the trading of all rural produce and most farm inputs and consumer goods; most of these markets lack basic facilities (paved areas, sheds, clean water, drainage, and garbage disposal facilities) and good transport access, resulting in unhygienic and inefficient conditions for marketing produce.
  
• Rural electrification is most important as 100% coverage of electrification can ensure use of new modern technologies and increase economic and social development of rural living.
  
• Another classification, it can be said that, there are different rural infrastructures as educational, institutional, administrative, social and many more.
  

These are rural infrastructures which are developed for rural development. Efficient infrastructure installation can ensure better economic and social living of rural life as well as increase income employment opportunities.

 

 

Q. Why those infrastructures are worsening in Bangladesh?

Bangladesh's environment, recurrent floods and the limited institutional and financial capacities have suppressed benefits of efforts taken to develop rural infrastructure. Rural transport as both land transport and inland water transport, growth centers or rural markets, electrification etc. are important infrastructures of rural Bangladesh, which need priorities for development. Rural roads in poor condition, lack of adequate 'ghat' berthing facilities for country boats and deficient rural market infrastructures are seriously constraining rural development in many areas. These infrastructures are worsening in Bangladesh for several reasons. Reasons for worsening infrastructures including lack of sufficient infrastructures, poor condition of the structures, lack of proper and regular maintenance, lack of finance etc. The major reasons are discussing below:

• The main problem with rural infrastructure delivery is that while great emphasis has been placed by the government on physical outputs, there is a need for ample space for improvements in resource allocation (planning, programming and budgeting), human resource and institutional development (including monitoring and evaluation), financial resource mobilization, maintenance and technical specifications.
  
• A large part of the rural road network is not fully functional as roads as they are mainly embankments built under 'Food for Work Program' with labor intensive technology, without adequate compaction and drainage structures. For existing embankments, there are not enough drainage structures, that is, there is need to cut the road and provide new structures to facilitate improved drainage across/under the road.
  
• The poor nature of the soils available to build embankments contributes to poor road conditions. Most soils from adjacent borrow pits are highly organic silts deposited by the annual floods. Suitable construction materials are rare, even for embankments, not to mention the higher grade materials needed for substantial surfacing and traffic bearing layers.
  
• The existing roads are characterized with large number of 'gaps' yet to be bridged.
  
• Apart from the lack of an adequate number of structures there are also problems with the conditions of the structures that do exist. Many structures were built without attention to the resulting problems to waterborne traffic and thus they obstruct the passage of boats.
  
• Floods are a natural phenomenon for Bangladesh; they affect more than a third of the country every year. They cause serious disruption to the land transport systems in much of the country.
  
• In rainy season waterways became potential but in dry season their workability reduces. Regular maintenance, dredging, upgrading and managing river jetties are not done, so in dry season many potential waterways wasted.
  
• Growth center markets needs paved areas, sheds, clean water, drainage, and garbage disposal facilities with presence of permanent and semi-permanent structures including shops, storage facilities crop processing enterprises, banks, post offices etc. and good transport access but, absence of these things in many rural growth center of Bangladesh, resulting in unhygienic and inefficient conditions for marketing produce.
  
• Rate of annual resource allocation is lower and lack of resource mobilization for developing rural infrastructure worsening infrastructures in Bangladesh.
  

These are the reasons for which infrastructures are worsening in Bangladesh. Mainly, lack of fund, environmental conditions, lack of awareness are responsible for this situation.

 

 

Q. Make suggestion for improvement of those infrastructures.

The rural infrastructure has played a vital role in serving the rural population in Bangladesh. Effective strategies should be made to develop rural infrastructures to ensure rural development in Bangladesh. Some suggestions can be made to develop rural infrastructure and ensure rural development. Such are:

Rapid transport demand in rural Bangladesh can be mitigate through establishing more road transport structures.

• Condition of existing road networks should be improved by proper and regular maintenance and construction works.
  
• All existing and additional roads should be to full bitumen surfaced standard, including bridging all gaps, replacing all damaged structures, and repairing all poor structures.
  
• Improvement of all unimproved growth center markets and establishing new growth centers with respect to location analysis.
  
• All river jetties should be improved.
  
• River works should be done on regular basis.
  
• Appropriate technology should be used to improve embankment conditions and for developing other structures.
  
• The provision of drainage structures, tree plantation on embankment slopes should be done.
  
• Free draining paved areas, hygienic latrines, garbage disposal facilities, potable water supply etc. should be developed on growth centers or in rural markets.
  
• Technical considerations as geometric design standards, the types of pavements used, quality of construction, the equipment used in construction and maintenance, methods of construction and maintenance should be developed with local considerations and ensure development.
  
• Unskilled poor labors are used for construction and maintenance work but their skill can be developed by training works and help of engineers' employed by government.
  
• Research and studies in higher level can be made for finding new ways to improve rural infrastructure by different authorities and educational institutions.
  
• For financing resource, GOB should try to secure and increase the existing level of foreign aid with increasing progressively the share of domestic funding for the rural infrastructure development.
  

These are the steps or suggestions can be provided for the development of rural infrastructures. With maintaining these suggestions rural infrastructure development can be ensured and thus rural development. Training works, research, creating fund, use of proper technology, establishing new structures with maintenance of the existing ones can only ensure their proper use.