The New Nation - Internet Edition

Md. Abdul Gafur

Water is essential for living and development. Getting fresh and sufficient water is a basic human right. Specially in the under developing countries water has an important role in economic development. So, in these countries water management gets high priority. Three fourth of the world is water and only one fourth is land. Though the world is a huge source of water, but usable water is not unlimited. 95.5% of total water in the world is sea water and it is salted. 3.74% is in the form of ice and snow. The rest only .76% water is usable which is found in the rivers, canals, ponds, in vapor and in underground.

Economy of Bangladesh is basically agro based. Water is treated here as the second name of life. For development, water is the most important resource for this country. By managing water in a planned way we can face flood, drought, river erosion, water congestion, silting of river bed, salty land problem etc. Thus water management can play an important role in development of agriculture, self sufficiency in food, poverty alleviation, upgrading of living standard etc.

History of water management in this country is history of hundred of years. Once overflow water was diverted in the irrigation canal in a planned way and Panchayet (village committee) ensured supply of water for irrigation in each land. After 1213, in Sultani period Tank irrigation system was introduced. It is Sultan Nasiruddin Mahmood Shah who first introduced Flood control and Irrigation policy in this county. At that time water was conserved in the ponds to use in the dry season for irrigation. In Mughal period there was separate department for water management. At that time it was responsibility of local landlords (Jamindars) to dig canals, dredge river, construct roads etc. But in British period water management was less emphasised. They emphasised on trade and commerce.

In each wet season flood water enters into the fields and within two months it goes out. If the flow of this water is controlled fish culture and agriculture is possible in a integrated way. By digging canals, constructing sluice gates on the opening of canals and by constructing embankments flow of the water can be controlled. First of all, farmers of a limited area (project area) have to be organised for a small scale water resource development project to flood control, drainage, irrigation and fishery. Success of small water management system fully depends on the success of the cooperative system. So, motivational work is strongly required to grow awareness among the farmers and leadership must required from the grassroot level.

Though huge amount expensed in large scale water management projects, unfortunately people of this country did not get good effect up to a considerable extent from most of these projects. But for flood control, drainage and irrigation (FCDI) small scale water resource management shows us light of hope like a beacon. Local Government authority implemented FCDI projects having covered area of 1000 hectors or less.

For small scale water resource development project local people identify potential scheme and they submitted their proposal through LGED (Local Government Engineering Division) of Government of Bangladesh. Three major steps are followed for selection of Sub projects of Small scale water resource development projects and the steps are a) Pre-feasibility and Reconnaissance, b) Participatory Rapid Rural Appraisal (PRRA) and c) Feasibility or Appraisal. In all these stages there is participation of local people. Even before finalisation of design for the sub-project, the implementer arrange meeting with local people and their opinion is considered. If the sub-project can not qualify in any stage of the above mentioned three stages it is not considered for implementation. LGED analyse social and environmental acceptability and at the same time technical and economical feasibility of the sub-project. It is learnt from LGED that Small Scale Water Resources Development Sector Project (SSWRDSP) of LGED already completed 280 sub-projects covering 165,000 hectors of cultivated land and the number of benefited farm families are 142,000 .

The ultimate goal of these sub-projects are to support local people in poverty alleviation and increasing sustainable agricultural and fisheries production. Objective of this kind of project is to save agricultural sector by controlling flood and retaining water in the project area for fisheries and irrigation in the dry season. Embankment and sluice gates are rehabilitated and constructed to control the flow of water and to develop communication system (both road transportation and navigation system). To increase the capacity of drainage system it re-excavate drainage.

Small scale water resource development sub-projects of LGED have participatory irrigation management. Operation and maintenance of the sub-project is adopted upon the Water Management Cooperative Association (WMCA) committee. WMCA has to be registered with Department of Cooperative and members of WMCA are marginal, small, medium and large farmers.

Landless women and fishermen are also members of the committee. Female membership in the committee is compulsory. WMCA have to share the cost of the sub-project and it is 3% of total cost of construction work and 1.5% of earth work. WMCA has to submit the cost share amount before placement of fund by LGED. WMCA creates fund from its members for operation and maintenance work. Every year before and after wet season project area is inspected jointly by WMCA committee members and LGED engineer. The normal maintenance work is done by the WMCA and if there is major maintenance work it is done by LGED.

LGED implements the sub-project through Project Management Office. Department of Agriculture Extension, Department of Fisheries, Department of Women conduct training and extension services. Department of Environment monitor the environmental impact of the project.

Though donor authority and LGED guidelines emphasised on participation of local people, but it was found in different cases actual participation of local people is sometimes very low. In such cases there is chance that entrepreneurs may use the project for their personal interest. WMCA has to submit cost share amount before placement of fund by LGED. But sometimes people do not show any interest to pay the cost sharing money before implementation of the project. At that time the entrepreneur has to submit the amount from his pocket. Sometimes the entrepreneur recovers the money by paying LCS worker less. LCS workers are destitute women and they do the earth work of the project. They are paid only Tk. 55 per day and from this amount Tk 10 they have to save per day which is refundable at the time of end of the contract.

Farmers can implement small scale water resource development projects from their own source. It takes long time to LGED's initiatives and to collect fund from donor countries for the project. Farmers can grow up cooperative and they can lease the canals, ditches inside the project area even the field in the wet season for a certain period for fishing. Fishery is a profitable source of income. So interested people may come forward to take the lease and implement the project.

On the other hand, share of the project may be sold among the farmers and to other interested people. Planning and designing should be done by LGED and a tripartite agreement will be required among the cooperative, implementer and local government authority.

Development of rural infrastructure depends on proper use of water. In this country everywhere there is water. We have to make water as an important natural resource. We have to divert water from a curse to blessing by managing it successfully. We have no ability to implement expensive projects. But small scale water resource development is possible. Here participation of local people is very important. So more carefulness is required to determine the participation of local people. For growing interest among the stakeholders for the sub-project dependency on entrepreneur is not always right. Department of Cooperative should have more close supervision on the activity of WMCA. WMCA committee should be elected, limited number of member should be included in WMCA from the people who have no land inside the project but live adjacent to the project area. This will ensure participation in a greater extent and impact of the project to the people who are not in the project will be positive.

Per head land in Bangladesh is only 26 decimal. In comparison with other countries it is very low. Though China is a highly populated country but per head land in China is 200 decimal. So we have to find out multipurpose use of our land. Integrating rice field and fisheries may be introduced as multipurpose economic development project. Success in small scale water resource development can change the total picture of Bangladesh.

(The writer is ex-local Consultant (Sociologist), IBIC Pilot Study for Small scale Rural Infrastructure Project)