Floods:
Floods are a recurring phenomenon in Bangladesh. The intensity of flood varies over time and place. But, on the average, about 22% of the country is flooded each year, and 60% of the area is affected by a flood of 100-year return period. Flooding in the country is the result of a complex series of factors including huge inflows of water into the country from upstream catchment areas of the major rivers coinciding with heavy monsoon rainfall over Bangladesh, low flood plain gradient, congested drainage channels, the location of the confluence of the major rivers inside the country, and the influence of tides and storm surges in the coastal areas.

Even though the people in Bangladesh have lived with flood for long, the problem has become acute now because the floodplains are more heavily populated and the extent of damage from flood has increased over the years. Structures built on floodplains, including roads, towns and human settlements, cause drainage congestion and obstruction to flood water recession. It is estimated that flood damage to roads and highways alone runs to several million dollars each year. The loss of crops and property is also high. Flooding of major rivers in late July and August can also cause extensive damage to rain-fed agriculture. When floods from two major rivers Ganges and Brahmaputra coincide, as was in 1988 and 1998, the outcome can be catastrophic.

Variability in Annual/Seasonal Water Supply

Mean annual rainfall ranges from about 1400 mm in Rajshahi District (Northwest Region) to about 4,000 mm in Sylhet District (Northeast Region). Following the monsoon, the availability of soil moisture declines and falls short of crop demand during the Rabi season. Then during the pre-monsoon season, erratic distribution of rainfall also causes soil-moisture deficits for crops. Potential soil moisture deficiencies over 6 to 7 months seriously limit crop production in Bangladesh.

Water:"
The availability of surface water was derived from a Water Balance Model that considered 173 catchments, located in 60 planning areas and 5 regional areas (NE, NW, SE, SW, and SC). The model estimated the total outflow that was considered the potential available for development of future irrigation, fisheries, navigation and environmental needs.

In the absence of gravity diversions or water storage structures in Bangladesh, the annual outflows from the main rivers to the Bay of Bengal are essentially equal to inflows from across the border in the upstream. Net diversions are very low and water balance studies show that even in the dry month of March, when diversion is maximum and base flow minimum, the net diversion from the entire system is only 5% of the inflows.

The minimum dry period water availability in 1990 was 3,710 million cubic meters in the month of February and the maximum availability was 111,250 million cubic meters in the month of August.

Estimates of groundwater available for development, determined by MPO in 1989-90, were based on four distinct groundwater models that yielded a range of water values within respective confidence bands.

NWP II had suggested that the available recharge of groundwater in the five regions was 21,008 million cubic meters and in 1990 the agricultural use of water was 8,406 million cubic meters.

In 1996, the National Minor Irrigation Development Project (NMIDP) presented a very different picture of groundwater availability. It estimated that the net groundwater abstraction from aquifers for irrigation in 1994-95 was 15,000 to 17,000 million cubic meters, which was much higher than MPO’s estimate. The recently launched National Water Management Plan Project will work out a more reliable estimate of groundwater availability which takes account of the methodologies used in the earlier analysis.

Land:
Bangladesh has an area of 14.8 million hectares of which 7.65 million hectares (52%) are cultivated. Bangladesh’s population of 127 million (1998) lives mainly on its floodplains. Rural population densities exceed 1,000 persons per sq km of cultivable land over wide areas.

At present 7.6 million hectares, or almost all of the arable lands are cultivated, but only 1.0 million hectares (13%) are triple cropped, 4.0 million hectares (53%) are double cropped and 2.6 million hectares (34%) are single cropped. The cropping intensity is 1.8. This implies that there is potential for cultivating additional crops, particularly in the dry season (November to April), through the provision of irrigation. Irrigation presently covers about 37% of the cultivated area but could be expanded to cover a large part of the country by choosing proper technology.

Rice is the main crop grown in Bangladesh, covering about 73% of the cropped area. There are three rice growing seasons in a year – aus (Kharif I, harvested in the monsoon), aman (Kharif II, grown in the monsoon but harvested after) and boro (Rabi, grown in the dry season). Aman is the most important rice crop (52% of total rice production on 57% of the cropped area, followed by boro (38% production on 26% of the area and aus (10% production on 17% area). The other main crops are Jute (5% of the cropped area), and wheat (4%).

National Water Planning
National Water Planning in Bangladesh dates from the 1960s. The predecessor of the present Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) prepared in 1964 a Master Plan comprising 58 large-scale projects for flood control, drainage and/or irrigation. Many of these projects were implemented between the mid-1960s and late 1980s. These projects were mostly justified in terms of increased crop production and did not fully take account of the potential impacts on fisheries, navigation, forests, domestic and industrial water supply, bio-diversity and salinity management.

The World Bank’s 1972 Land and Water Sector Study advocated smaller scale development, especially minor irrigation. Through the 1970s and 1980s, small scale irrigation spread rapidly, initially under government agencies and later through the private sector. By the early-1980s, however, the need for a long term water resources development plan became apparent and the Master Planning Organization (MPO) was established in the Ministry of Irrigation, Water Development and Flood Control. The MPO produced the National Water Plan (NWP) - Phase I in 1986, focusing on the assessment of water resources and future demand by future users. Phase II of the plan was completed in 1991. The NWP assembled a substantial amount of information, developed a range of planning models and analytical tools, and recommended strategies and programs, many of which were adopted by the government and endorsed by donors.

Despite these achievements, the MPO reports fell short of a comprehensive national water plan. First, its perspective to the year 2010 was inadequate for evaluating large-scale programs, impacts and requirements. Second, it failed to evaluate properly and integrate a number of major projects and programs within the sector. Third, programs in fisheries, navigation, public health, industries, municipalities, etc. were inadequately addressed, and their requirements taken as constraints rather than incorporated within an overall water sector demand position. Fourth, in the absence of agreements on international rivers, the plan dealt only tangentially with the different water supply scenarios.

The severe floods of 1987 and 1988 created a major response from the international community which resulted in regional studies and supporting studies for the preparation of a Flood Action Plan (FAP) by the Flood Plan Coordination Organization (FPCO). The five regional studies put forward portfolios of potential projects for their respective regions. The five studies did not commence simultaneously, and their terms of reference evolved with the start of each subsequent regional study. Thus the resulting Plans have quite different emphases and contents. The objective of the first two of these studies was generally to obtain development plans for promoting controlled flooding and drainage improvement in their respective regions, while the last three had a broad water development planning objective.

These regional and supporting studies culminated in the preparation by FPCO of the Bangladesh Water and Flood Management Strategy (BWFMS) Report. The formulated strategy has now been approved by GoB and endorsed by the associated donor agency.

A widespread criticism of earlier plans was that the social and environmental impacts of water resource development were not being addressed. Responding to this, BWFMS recommended that the Government should formulate a National Water Policy (NWPo) that addressed these issues and that a comprehensive National Water Management Plan (NWMP) should be prepared within this framework.

The Government acted promptly to implement these recommendations. WARPO, which was formed in 1992, took over the functions of FPCO in January 1996. The National Water Council (NWC), in a meeting on November 2, 1998 approved the National Water Policy and it is now awaiting approval by the Parliament. Arrangements were also made to launch the NWMP and the consultants were mobilized on March 15, 1998 to provide assistance to WARPO in preparing a comprehensive water management plan and strengthening WARPO to continue the process thereafter.

The emphasis of the NWMP is on year round water management, social and environmental considerations, full participation of stakeholders, particularly the affected people, in the planning process, and institutional development.

1. To address issues related to the harnessing and development of all forms of surface water and groundwater and management of these resources in an efficient and equitable manner.

1. To ensure the availability of water to all elements of the society including the poor and the underprivileged, and to take into account the particular needs of women and children.
3. To accelerate the development of sustainable public and private water delivery systems with appropriate legal and financial measures and incentives, including delineation of water rights and water pricing.
4. To bring institutional changes that will help decentralize the management of water resources and enhance the role of women in water management.
5. To develop a legal and regulatory environment that will help the process of decentralization, sound environmental management, and improve the investment climate for the private sector in water development and management.
6. To develop a state of knowledge and capability that will enable the country to design future water resources management plans by itself with economic efficiency, gender equity, social justice and environmental awareness to facilitate achievement of the water management objectives through broad public participation.

The NWPo will be reviewed periodically and revised as necessary.

 

 

The Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is a process which aims to ensure the co-ordinated development and management of water, land and related resources by maximizing economic and social welfare without compromising the sustainability of vital environmental systems.

GWP-TAC distinguished three principal relevant areas for intervention on IWRM:

1. the enabling environment, including the general framework of national policies, legislation and regulation for IWRM
2. the institutional framework, both within the general administrative structure and within an appropriate river basin / catchment / aquifer structure
3. the management instruments required to plan and prioritize, to provide the required information and assessment, and to guide rational allocation and management decisions through a combination of regulation and economic instruments

An essential prerequisite for the management process is the knowledge of the water resources in terms of quantity and quality and distribution in time and space. This implies that water management issues within the various water using sectors that have a direct link to or impact on the management of the resource (quantity and quality) are within the main focus of GWP.

Examples of relevant IWRM themes are:

1. evaluation of quantity and quality of available water resources under alternative land uses
2. the allocation of raw and reused water to competing uses and users
3. the development of water supply and demand management strategies and mechanisms
4. assessment of ecological thresholds

In Bangladesh water is required for domestic and industrial use, agriculture, fisheries, navigation and control of salinity in the coastal areas.

1. Bangladesh’s Problems as Lower Riparian in the River Basins:

As the lower riparian of the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers, Bangladesh occupies only about 8% of the total area of the three basins and is located at the point on concentration for monsoon floods generated by runoff from the Himalayas.

Continued development of upstream basins will increase the disadvantages of being the lower riparian and floods are likely to increase because of deforestation of the Himalayas, confinement of rivers by diking, land degradation and erosion.

On the other hand, during the October-May lean period Bangladesh receives only the residual flow after diversion and upstream use. Reduction of dry season flows in Bangladesh due to increasing upstream withdrawal is causing severe water shortage across the country and in the south-west region in particular, reduced streamflow is also aggravating saline intrusion.

Efficient water and flood management and assured shares of the dry season flows of the trans-boundary rivers have, therefore, become imperative for the survival of Bangladesh.

2. Floods

Floods are a recurring phenomenon in Bangladesh. The intensity and the timing of floods vary from place to place and year to year.

All floods are not destructive, floods are beneficial for monsoon crop production provided the water stage does not exceed certain limit and timing is normal. The farmers have developed an annual cropping pattern around ‘normal’ timing of flood.

During major floods large parts of the country get inundated, crops, properties and infrastructure are damaged and lives are lost.

3. Design Implications of Flood Frequency

When the peak flows of the Brahmaputra and the Ganges coincide, as they did in 1988 and 1998, about 60% of the country is inundated. In terms of frequency, the areal extent of 1987 flood was an event to be expected about once in every decade, while the 1988 and 1998 floods could be expected about once in every 100 years.

Investments for protection against a 100-year event require very high capital and O&M expenditures, and its return is debatable. In addition, structural solutions take 5 to 15 to implement, and temporary non-structural flood proofing are needed as an interim measure.

Guidelines, indicating the levels of protection for vital infrastructure, property and people living in major cities, regional towns, villages and for agriculture are also needed. These levels may vary for different sub-sectors, depending upon their needs and socially acceptable priority. For example, agriculture may only justify low levels of protection, in which case, in addition to structural flood protection, flood proofing and other mitigation measures would need to be identified for protecting villages, cities and infrastructure.

4. Drought

Drought is also a major problem in Bangladesh, particularly in the North-Western regions during rabi and pre-monsoon where there are few surface water resources, and agricultural production is heavily reliant on groundwater resources.

Drought is not confined to the dry season only. Rainfed (monsoon) crops are normally grown without irrigation with the expectation that rainfall and soil moisture will be sufficient to meet the crop water needs. However, because rainfall is highly variable during the growing season and from year to year, there are periods in which rainfall and moisture available to the crop are less than required. These water deficits induce stress in the plant and reduce yield. The amount of water required to off-set these deficits is called supplemental irrigation.

It was estimated by the NWP (1986) that about 1 to 35% (average of 13%) of monsoon crop is lost due to water stress during monsoon.

Since hyv monsoon crop (aman) is restricted to lands with shallow inundation of less than 30 cm to 50 cm, early drought stress is less likely to be offset by flooding.

For integrated water resources management, the problem of too much of water (monsoon flood) and shortage of water (in post monsoon and dry season) should be addressed.

5. River Erosion and Sedimentation

River bank and island erosion is also a major issue, and is probably the most important natural cause of landlessness and forced resettlement. FAP studies (FAP 3.1 and FAP 16) showed that the completely unprotected active floodplains of the Jamuna, Padma and Meghna are inhabited by 4.3 million people, of whom 2.2 million live on charland. Erosion caused displacement of more than 728,000 people over the period 1981-93, and in the same period 462,000 permanently emigrated from the high erosion risk areas. In general, the poorest of the poor in Bangladesh come from areas frequently affected by floods and river erosion.

Sedimentation, in general is a blessing for a deltaic country like Bangladesh, but at times it becomes a hazard by reducing navigability, drainage and by blocking offtakes from main rivers. Coarse sediment deposit may affect soil fertility and other ecosystem. Fine sediment deposit may improve soil fertility, but have adverse effect on fisheries, flora and fauna. Therefore, a thorough study is needed to improve understanding of the effects of sedimentation.

6. Operation and Maintenance

Operation and maintenance (O&M) of public sector water resources projects is a chronic problem. The problems identified were (a) project formulation, design and O&M do not include stakeholders and project beneficiaries, (b) many projects are partially completed before funds run out, indicating serious design, land acquisition or supervision problems, and (c) insufficient funding.

A major issue is that projects are often approved for implementation without the essential O&M budget. The collection of user fees is also poor.

2. Social and Environmental Issues

1. Impact of water resources projects on poverty

Flood management and flood protection projects may have adverse impacts on specific occupational groups (fishermen and boat operators) and on the poor generally by reducing the area of common property resources (floodplain fisheries).

2. People’s Participation

Flood protection and management projects require the full participation of the affected people taking account of their needs and priorities. Enabling local people and communities to participate in project formulation and planning is a key issue in efficient system management.

3. Land Acquisition and Resettlement

Current procedures for land acquisition in Bangladesh are lengthy, bureaucratic, inefficient, and a main cause for delays in project implementation. FAP studies showed that people whose land is acquired receive inadequate compensation, are often subject to intimidation and fraud, and may receive their payments after delays of many years.

There is a need to revise the laws and procedures for land acquisition to reduce fraud and make the process more streamlined and equitable. Besides there is also a need to design projects so that land requirements are kept to the minimum.

4. Environmental Issues
Flood protection and management projects are designed to improve the environment for people by reducing flood damage and enabling more productive use of land and water resources. However, such projects may also have severe impacts. Among the most common of these are reductions in floodplain fisheries, navigation and waterlogging. . It is possible that agro-chemical contamination of surface and groundwater may also have taken place due to agricultural intensification which can be injurious both to humans and fish.

5. Fisheries

Fisheries are one of the most controversial aspects of modifications to annual flooding of the floodplain. Open floodplain capture fisheries are a common pool resource and an important source of nutrition for the very poor (providing on an average about 80% of animal protein). Fish migrate along the rivers and during the annual floods disperse across the floodplains to feed and breed. Embankments constructed for roads and flood control prevent the movement to the floodplain, which results in a reduction of catch, a decrease in bio-diversity and increase the risk of disease.

FAP 17 study of several FCD projects has shown contrasting impacts on fisheries, some positive and some negative, and their findings highlight how little is known about the floodplain fisheries ecosystem in Bangladesh. Unless more is known, caution must be exercised in planning and implementing new flood control and drainage projects.

6. Navigation

The country is criss-crossed by numerous waterways of various size and capacity. These watercourses provide for inland navigation that is yet the cheapest means of transportation, facilitate surface drainage during monsoon, conserve water in dry periods as well as harbour riverine fish population. Unfortunately, all these activities have been severely disrupted by siltation of rivers over time. BIWTA carries out dredging on some specified routes to maintain navigability which is meager compared to the need. This issue merits serious consideration, specially because channel improvement for navigability will also expedite surface drainage congestion, promote fish resources, as well as help push back saline water front near estuary.

3. Institutional Issues

Institutional arrangements for developing and managing water resources are the critical link between policy objectives and field level performance.

The national capacity for sectoral planning with intersectoral priorities, particularly at WARPO, is weak. It is expected that the WARPO’s capability would be greatly increased after the completion of the National Water Management Plan project. For feasibility studies and specialized design, reliance on the private sector is important because of the multidisciplinary nature of water development projects.

Construction of physical facilities is mainly carried out by BWDB, though the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), Water and Sewerage Authorities (WASAs), Ministry of Agriculture/Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation and Department of Public Health Organization (DPHE) undertake smaller schemes. The private sector is involved in minor irrigation, water supply and some project planning and design.

The potential benefits of past investments in many of BWDB’s projects have not been fully realized. The main reason is the weaknesses in the operation and maintenance (O&M) resulting in the deterioration of the systems. The underlying reasons for these weaknesses include (a) inadequate budget allocation, (b) inefficient use of available funds, (c) deficiencies in BWDB’s organizational arrangements, procedures and staff capabilities for O&M, and (d) inadequate participation in project development and management by stakeholders.

Given the large number of often conflicting interests in water and land resources in Bangladesh (highland and lowland farmers, agriculture vs shrimps, agriculture vs fisheries and boat operators, farmers and labourers) a participatory planning approach which tries to assess and balance the different needs and priorities is essential. The FAP is the first government program in Bangladesh to make people’s participation a mandatory part of project planning.

Important lessons learnt from FAP are that the process should be (1) genuinely ‘bottom-up’, with the planning teams spending time listening to the local people and assessing their needs and priorities before identifying projects; (2) undertaken by interdisciplinary planning teams of social scientists, farming systems specialists and engineers; and (3) as transparent as possible, with the local provided with as much information as possible about proposed schemes, in a form that they can understand.

Identified Gaps

National Water Management Plan project would examine most of the issues described earlier.

However the following issues need further attention. Please note that this is not a complete list.

1. Viable Flood Control and Drainage Project.

In Bangladesh lot of resources have been invested for developing flood control and drainage projects. There are debates about the return from these projects due to issues like high land vs low lands, agriculture vs fisheries, loss of fisheries, navigation and other environmental impacts. We need detail studies to assess the performance of these projects.

2. Monitoring of Quantity and Quality of Groundwater

Bangladesh’s dependence on groundwater is very great. About 95% of domestic water supplies and about 70% of irrigation water is supplied from groundwater sources.

Arsenic contamination of this water source was first detected in 1993 and subsequently in 1995 when relatively high level of arsenic was found in numerous shallow and deep tubewells in various parts of the country. The formation history of the deltaic plain with its meandering rivers has caused its geology to be very complex and fragmented. Clay, silt and sand layers lay on top of, and next to, each other and are of varying thickness and extent. The geological origin of the arsenic has not yet been explained, but it appears that the dissolution of localized arsenopyrite deposits through oxidation can not, or only partially explain, the presence of arsenic in the well water. The geohydrology is, therefore, difficult to describe, and causes wide variation in arsenic levels in wells, even among neighbouring tubewell in one village. In some localities shallow groundwater is affected, but in other places medium depth or deep wells were found to contain high arsenic levels This forces any remedial water supply strategy to survey each individual well.

It has been reported that shallow and deep tubewells lowered groundwater level and the hand tubewells dried up during the dry seasons. These hand tubewells are the only source of drinking water sources in rural areas.

The impacts on groundwater withdrawal also dried up beels, ponds, khals and small streams.

3. Desilting of Dead Rivers and Drainage Channels

Many drainage channels have silted up in recent years causing serious drainage and flooding problems. Many of these channels have been converted to agricultural land. Desilting of these channels is important for improving drainage, fisheries and navigation.

4. Supplemental Irrigation Using Tubewells

Due to erratic distribution of rainfall in late monsoon season, about 13% of aman crop is lost due to water stress. This loss may be prevented by providing supplemental irrigation by using tubewells. At presents farmers are not using the tubewells for this purpose. WHY? This matter needs serious attention.

5. Economics of Irrigation

In 1995-96, a total of 3.57 million hectares of land were irrigated in Bangladesh, in which 3.40 million hectares were covered by private sector dominated minor irrigation and the rest was covered by public sector operated major irrigation schemes. Among various minor irrigation equipment, Shallow Tubewells (STWs) covered 2 million hectares or about 60 % of total area under irrigation, Low Lift Pumps (LLPs) irrigated 0.57 million hectares or 17% of total area and Deep Tubewells (DTWs) irrigated 0.54 million hectare or 16% of total area and the unmechanized irrigation covered 0.28 million hectares or 8% of total irrigated area. A look at the economics of irrigation in Bangladesh indicates that Low Lift Pumps (LLPs) is the most cost – effective of all minor irrigation technologies in the country. For LLPs used by farmers , profits were found to be extremely high – an IRR (internal rate of return) of 64% STWs come next in terms of rate of return, they earned an IRR of 61% DTWs, on the other hand are found to be economically unviable – no matter whether they are operated in the private or the public sector. They earned an IRR of 21%.

Major irrigation schemes, which account less than 10% of irrigated land in the country, appear to be least viable among all modes of irrigation. The World Bank estimates show that the ERR (economic rate of return) of such projects ranges between 11% and 12%. They are heavily subsidized and claim about 50% of development expenditure in agricultural sector. Water charges for major irrigation is very modest compared to minor irrigation and only a fraction of that are actually realized. For example, during 1984-91 period, actual collection was a mere 5.7% of the amount assessed. Major irrigation schemes, however, have multiple objectives, such as flood control, water drainage, environmental protection and fisheries development, which are often difficult to measure quantitatively as well as qualitatively. But the evidence is clear that actual cost of irrigation by major irrigation project would be much higher than tubewell irrigation. Furthermore, chances of cost recovery from these large projects also seen very limited.