Report Card

on

Services Delivered by the

Chittagong City Corporation

Reported by

7 Circuit House Road

Kakrail, Dhaka

June 2001

Core Study Team

Dr. Monowar Hossain (Team Leader)

Mujtaba Mahbub Morshed

M. A. Samad

M. Moniruzzaman

M. Saiful Islam

Survey Team

1

  1. Md. Mostafa Ripon
  2. Towhidul Islasm
  3. Jigar Shafia Jinia
  4. Yesmin Akhter Munni
  5. Nazma Kaiser Rozi
  6. Dil Afroze Rumi
  7. Nazma Kaiser Nazu
  8. Md. Abdul Jabbar
  1. Arifur Rahman Arif
  2. Nazma Kaiser Moni
  3. Tipaya Aich
  4. Rimi
  5. Sayed Alamgir Shabuj
  6. Rudra Anirban
  7. Nayeem Sultana

1

TABLE OF CONTENTS

  1. INTRODUCTION
  2. Background to this report
  3. Objectives of the study
  4. Methodology
  5. Large area and varied landscape under the CCC
  6. Sampling design
  7. Other sources of information

2.PROFILE OF THE RESIDENTS SURVEYED

2.1Demographic characteristics

2.1.1Age-sex structure of the respondents

2.1.2Family composition of the surveyed households

2.2Socio-economic characteristics

2.2.1Occupations and education

2.2.2Income and expenditure

2.2.3Residential status

2.2.4Quality of residence and tenurial status

2.2.5Taxes and fees paid for civic amenities

3.PROVISION OF SERVICES: AWARENESS AND SATISFACTION

3.1Awareness about the services of the CCC and other bodies

3.2Satisfaction with the services provided by the CCC and other bodies

3.3Comparison of services with the previous era at CCC

3.4Comparison of satisfaction between CCC and DCC services

  1. COPING WITH PROBLEMS FACED IN RECEIVING THE CCC SERVICES

4.1Nature and prevalence of problems

4.2Contact with authority re problems

4.3Solution: time taken, satisfaction and bribe

5.EDUCATION AND HEALTH SERVICES OF THE CCC

5.1Utilization of CCCs education and health services

5.2Residents evaluation of the quality of CCCs education & health services

5.3Reasons’ for not utilizing CCCs education services

5.4Citizens initiatives regarding community services

6.OVERALL EVALUATION OF THE CCC AND OPINION ON PRIVATIZATION OF SERVICES PROVIDED BY THE CCC AND VARIOUS GOVERNMENT DEPARTMENTS

6.1Overall level of satisfaction with CCC services

6.2Opinion about the quality of CCCs public relations

6.3Opinion on increase of CCC rates and taxes

6.4Opinion on privatization of various services provided

by the CCC & overall government department

  1. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

7.1The main issues

7.2This study: The beginning of a process

7.3Some analytical studies: An urgent need

  1. APPENDIX I (Separate Volume)

Services Delivered by the

Chittagong City Corporation

1.INTRODUCTION

1.1Background to This Report

This Report presents the preliminary findings from a study that has been partly sponsored by ActionAid Bangladesh and carried out by Democracywatch on the basis of a sample survey of the residents of ChittagongCity. The study was initiated in January 2001, the survey was carried out in February 2001 and a preliminary report completed in June 2001 for in-house comments and discussions. This report presents the preliminary results of the study for the purpose of a workshop to debate and discuss on the main findings, which is scheduled to be held on November 2001 in Chittagong. It is expected that the workshop will be participated in by all major stakeholders involved with this most important port city of the country.

1.2 Objectives of The Study

The broad goal of the study was to assess the contribution of the Chittagong City Corporation in improving the quality of civic life of the citizens living inside the Corporation area. To achieve this broad goal the specific objectives of the Study were to

  • Measure the level of awareness and satisfaction of the citizens about the services provided by the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) and other government agencies.
  • Measure the quality of services delivered by the corporation authority as well as some other government agencies.
  • Identify the problems in acquiring essential services.
  • Review how the citizens tried to cope with these problems.

There are some even broader goals, which the Study will point out as the logical next steps towards finding out how the city of Chittagong can achieve its true role as a regional port and an important centre for the promotion of tourism.

1.3Methodology

1.3.1Large Area and Varied Landscape under the CCC

The port city of Chittagong is the second largest town in Bangladesh with a population of about four million. Located near the sea, skirting along the River Karnafuli and consisting of small undulating hills and valleys, the city presents an interesting landscape, quite distinct from all other big towns in the country. The ups and downs of course make the provision of services like drainage and water supply a challenging job.

1.3.2Sampling Design

Since this study is mainly about the perceptions of the citizens on the quality of services provided by the city corporation and similar other bodies, they were considered to be the main source of information. Furthermore, since none of the variables under observation in this study have been previously studied, original data had to be obtained through a field survey.

To capture a true representation of the citizens living in such a large area with a varied landscape as ChittagongCity, it is necessary to have a fairly large and geographically well-dispersed sample. However, the budgetary limitations did not allow for a sample larger than 1000 households. A two-stage cluster sampling design was followed to obtain the sampled households. At stage-1, the Corporation wards were taken as the cluster sampling units and approximately half the total number of wards, i.e. 20 out of 41 wards, were selected randomly on a pps basis. At stage-2, within each selected ward a systematic random sample of about 45-55 households (depending on the size of the ward) were selected. Within each selected household the head was interviewed. In case he/she was not available for interview, another responsible adult was interviewed. The cooperation and publicity provided by the Mayor and his office ensured virtually zero non-response.

The questionnaire used for the field survey was designed to focus only on the key issues and it was developed through a couple of field tests in Chittagong. Fifteen research investigators, mostly with Bachelor’s degrees and some with master’s degrees, were recruited from Chittagong and trained by three supervisors from Democracywatch over a period of two days. The field survey was conducted over a period of twelve days starting from 18 February 2001. The gathered data was processed, verified and analyzed on the computer using such softwares as FoxPro and SPSS.

1.3.3Other Sources of Information

This study aims to cover the viewpoints of all the stakeholders in the matter of providing public services and civic amenities to the citizens of Chittagong. In this regard, the CCC itself, particularly the Mayor and his colleagues, is an important source, their reaction to the citizen’s perception need to be taken into account. In fact, a preliminary round of informal interviews has already taken place between the Team Leader of this study and the Mayor and several senior functionaries of the Corporation. Furthermore, a Workshop scheduled for early September 2001 should provide another opportunity for such interaction. It is also expected that this Workshop will bring in the points of view of such other stakeholders as parliamentarians, senior government officials, businessmen and the academics.

2.PROFILE OF THE RESIDENTS SURVEYED

2.1Demographic Characteristic

The demographic characteristics of the responding households in the sample survey of the citizens of ChittagongCity were kept at a minimal level. It was confined only to the age-sex structure of the respondents and their family size and composition. These are briefly described below.

2.1.1Age-sex Structure of the Respondents

The respondents were predominantly male (86.3 percent) with an average age of about 48 years, while the remaining females (13.7 percent) had an average age of about 46 years. The modal age group for the male respondents was 41-55, the age generally considered to be the average age of a mature household head. For the female respondents the modal age group was younger, namely 26-40. Further details on the age-sex structure of the respondents are on Table 1a (Appendix I).

2.1.2Family Composition of Surveyed Households

The average family size of the surveyed households was 3.9, consisting of 2.0 adults and 1.9 non-adults. This was remarkably low compared to the average family size in Bangladesh (5.6 persons per family; Population Census 1991). It was also lower than the average urban household size of the country as well. This is remarkable considering that Chittagong is generally regarded as a conservative area, resistant to family planning. It is also unusual to note that the average family size and structure is almost the same in all the four socio-economic categories.

2.2Socio-economic Characteristics

2.2.1Occupations and Education

The respondents came from 5 broad categories (see Table 2a, Appendix I), namely businessman, professional, service-holder, housewife, day labourer and others. The two most dominant among them were businessmen (37 percent) and service holders (36 percent). There were only 5 percent professionals and 4 percent day labourers. The 8 percent housewives who responded were household heads, since in the absence of a male household head another adult male was interviewed.

An estimated 14 percent of the surveyed households were headed by females. Of these female household heads approximately 61 percent were full time housewives, with 25 percent service holders and 11 percent businesswomen. As expected the occupational structure among the male respondents were quite different and was dominated mainly by businessmen (42 percent) and service holders (37 percent).

Literacy and education seems to be fairly high (see Table 2b, Appendix I) among the respondents surveyed. The degree holders constituted the majority group (35 percent), followed by SSC/HSC certificate holders (32 percent). The illiterates were less than 5 percent. The most educated persons were mostly in the services (45+ percent) followed by business (32 percent), while the reverse was the case with the SSC/HSC holders, among whom the most preferred occupation was business (46 percent), followed by services (35 percent).

2.2.2Income and Expenditure

The respondents were divided into four broad socio-economic categories based primarily on their own perception of their socio-economic status, moderated by the interviewers own observations on their living standard and stated incomes and expenditures. The distribution of the 1000 households which were surveyed, by their socio-economic status and monthly income are shown in Table 3 (Appendix I). It can be seen that the average income in the 4 broad categories are

Socio-economic categoryMonthly income (in Tk.)

median groupaverage

Poor<50003,266

Lower middle income5,001-10,0006,543

Middle income10,001-30,00016,024

Upper income30,001-50,00046,984

Clearly, the spread of income overlaps at the edges between the different categories and make the definition between the lower middle and the middle income somewhat blurred. But the distinction between the middle and upper income categories is quite sharp. Similarly, the poor category is very distinct and lies entirely below the 5,000 Tk. mark. The average income of the upper income group is approximately 14, 7 and 3 times more than that of the poor, lower middle and middle income categories respectively.

The households were grouped into 7 different income and expenditure categories. The cross tabulation of monthly income and expenditure of the households (see Table 4, Appendix I)) show a consistent pattern of expenditures remaining within the households’ income. The overall average income for these households was 13,673 takas, while their average expenditure turned out to be 11,233 taka, which is 82.2 percent of the income.

2.2.3Residential Status

Substantial portions of the surveyed households are old residents in the locality. More than half of them have lived in this city for longer than 20 years and almost two-fifths have lived there longer than 30 years. The last category, namely households settled here for longer than 30 years, is dominated by the lower middle-income category. Only 2.3 percent of the respondents are recent settlers, having moved into the city during the last one year. Around 14 percent moved in over the last 1-5 years. Overall, therefore, one can conclude that the city of Chittagong does not consist of highly mobile communities, inspite of being the largest port city of the country.

2.2.4Quality of Residence and Tenurial Status

About two-thirds of the surveyed households lived in pucca (i.e. brick and mortar) structures (see Table 7, Appendix I)). About 13 percent lived in Kutcha structures to which should be added another 5 percent households, which had Kutcha walls and roofs, to get an idea about the extent of slums in Chittagong City.

About 56 percent households lived in dwelling units, which they owned, while the remaining 44 percent lived in rented premises. Of those who lived in rented premises about three quarters are in pucca dwelling structures compared to around 56 percent of the owner-occupiers in pucca structures. In other words, the custom of renting seem to be dominant among the economically better-off households, who can afford to rent the more expensive pucca units.

2.2.5Taxes and Fees Paid for Civic Amenities

On an average the surveyed households paid annually around twenty one and half thousand takas for various civic amenities inclusive of corporation holding tax as well as electricity, water and gas charges (see Table 6, Appendix I). Of these electricity constitutes the largest bill (about 6,244 taka) and holding tax the lowest (27 hundred takas). These charges on average constitute about 13.1 percent of the total household annual income.

The poor category households did not report any payment of holding tax or water bills. The total charges/rates as a percentage of annual income, however, is quite high for them at 19 percent, which compares with 22 percent for the lower middle, 12 percent for the middle and 6 percent for the upper income households.

3.PROVISION OF SERVICES:

AWARENESS AND SATISFACTION

3.1Awareness About the Services of the

Chittagong City Corporation (CCC) and Other Bodies

The knowledge of the respondents in the survey about the various services provided by the Chittagong City Corporation (CCC), measured as a percentage of respondents who said they knew about the service, is shown in Tables 8a and 8b. The first table gives a breakdown by socio-economic categories, while the second one shows it for different educational categories. The number of services provided by the CCC, of which the residents were aware, amounted to thirteen. These are shown at the top of list under Tables 8a and 8b (from garbage disposal to public safety).

The residents expressed their awareness about and opinion on five other types of services, provided by other government agencies. These were water, gas, electricity, house building and law and order. There was some confusion in the minds of the residents regarding public safety and law and order. The former falls under the purview if the CCC while the latter is the task of the Police Department. It is mainly due to the image of the present mayor as a strongman who would not hesitate to use his own strength to curb lawlessness. Furthermore, he is reported to have a good and influential relationship with the Police Department. This explains why law and order appeared as a CCC service to some of the residents.

Overall, awareness about the CCC services is highest (>80 percent) in respect of garbage disposal, drainage and mosquito control, followed by (>60 percent) street lighting, healthcare, education and road works. Awareness is the lowest (<30 percent) regarding three services, namely bus shelters, park maintenance and foot over-bridge. Among services provided by various government agencies, greater awareness was observed in respect of electricity supply and law and order (>60 percent).

Differences among the socio-economic as well as educational categories exist in respect of the extent of awareness and not so much in respect of its pattern. As expected, the higher income and better-educated categories are more aware, about the Corporation services. For example, 91 percent of the upper income groups are aware of garbage disposal as a CCC service compared to 78 percent of the poor group, while 91 percent of the graduate degree holders are aware about it in comparison to 69 percent of the illiterate group. This pattern is fairly consistent throughout the entire list of services. Interestingly, it is only in respect of health care services that the difference in awareness between the poor and the rich was the least, ie 61 percent for the poor compared to 64 percent for the rich.

3.2Satisfaction with the Services Provided by the

Corporation and Other Bodies

The extent of satisfaction of the respondents with various services of the Corporation has been presented separately for each service and for different socio-economic and educational categories in Tables 9ai through 9si in Appendix I. The small letters a-s indicate the services, while i and ii represent socio-economic and educational categories respectively.

Tables 9A and 9B in Appendix I summarize the level of satisfaction, measured in terms of percentages of respondents expressing satisfaction. It was seen to be the highest in respect of

ServiceApproval rating (percent)

Gas supply85

Education72

Healthcare68

It should be noted that among the above three, the top one is a service not provided by the CCC.

Next, if one looks at the lowest levels of satisfaction, the following six services emerge

ServiceApproval rating (percent)

Mosquito control10

Public toilets17

Drainage22

Garbage disposal23

Foot over bridge23

Electricity supply28

Once again, among the six services listed above, there is only one that is not provided by the CCC (namely electricity supply).

In between these two groups of services there were eight other services on which the approval ratings were neither two high, nor too low, varying between 33 and 45 percent. These were

ServiceApproval rating (percent)

Park management45

Road works43

Footpath39

Bus passenger shed39

Water supply39

Public safety36