Student Advising

M. Shah Alam Khan

Name of the student: SARA NOWREEN

Program : M.Sc in Water Resources Development

Title: DEVELOPMENT OF AN OPERATIONAL IWRM FRAMEWORK IN A SELECTED SMALL SCALE WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT SECTOR PROJECT

Background and present state of the problem:

Mondalbari Drainage Subproject, Tungipara, Gopalganj, was implemented under the first phase of the Small Scale Water Resources Development Sector Project (SSWRDSP). The main objectives of the project are to: (i) enhance agriculture and fish culture, and (ii) take effective steps towards poverty alleviation (LGED, 1999; LGED, 2001). Considerable progress has been made in the development of its vast water resources for flood control, drainage and/or irrigation by both LGED and BWDB. However, from several field visits and reconnaissance survey, it is observed that the project objectives have not been fully achieved due to complexities in water resources management. Implementation of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) would resolve these complexities. LGED's IWRM unit (IWRMU), though established during the second phase of SSWRDSP, is providing support to Mondalbari WMCA, particularly in O&M. But there is no clear directive on how IWRM will be implemented. Moreover, it is not clear how the conflict in O&M of a sluice gate, presently non-functioning, between BWDB and LGED would be resolved. Proper operation of this existing gate and a gate demanded by the local people is vital for Boro and Aman cultivation.

Such mono directive structural interventions have in general limited the scopes and opportunities for IWRM in the Southwest region of Bangladesh (Halcrow and others, 1998). Since the O&M of BWDB is generally non-participatory (Choudhury, 2005), and in the small-scale projects the power group has their full control (Rahman et al., 2007), additional complexities are created. Even the fish cultivation goes in the hands of influential and wealthy farmers emerging social issues like access and decision making complexities (Lewis, 1997). This results in an outright inequity, increases social and political tension (Alauddin and Tisdell, 1998) and starts 'contestation' among stakeholders. Here, contestation is used to refer to a range of interaction patterns in water management including negotiation and struggle, and also to less explicit and longer term disputations and controversies. The idea is to convey that there tends to be something at stake in water resources management, and that the different individuals or groups involved have different interests (Mollinga, 2008).

In the Mondalbari Subproject, the WMCA has promoted culture fisheries since 2006 for income generation to ensure sustainability of the project. However, only a few powerful individuals are directly benefited from this and access to the common waters is restricted to the poor and marginalized. The power group has also diverted the project objectives in favour of culturing fish ignoring the drainage requirements for Aman rice. Toufiq and Gregory (2008) have similar observations in the Floodplain Aquaculture projects in Daudkandi upazilla. In the neighbouring relatively successful project, Kakuibunia-Chinguri Subproject, culture fisheries was not promoted to meet majority people's demand. This was driven by a better return from Jute retting and social/religious homogeneity. Although the contexts and complexities of these two projects are different, learning from the Kakuibunia-Chinguri Subproject will be useful for the proposed study.

With all the scopes and opportunities for practising IWRM, it is important to fully understand their technical, social and institutional dimensions before any approach for IWRM implementation can be devised. Only an interdisciplinary study can capture these dimensions/complexities of the water resources management systems (Mollinga, 2008). This understanding is the basis for preparation of plans and selection of approaches for IWRM implementation.

Objectives with specific aims and possible outcome:

The proposed research will be carried out with a view to achieve the following objectives.

(i)  Identify the constraints to and potentials of practicing IWRM at different stages (planning, design, implementation and O&M) of the Mondalbari Drainage Subproject.

(ii)  Development of a participatory framework for practicing IWRM in the project.

Possible outcome:

The outcome of this research will help in better understanding of water resources management in small-scale projects, and to plan and operationalize IWRM in future projects.

Outline of the methodology:

In this research, the above-mentioned complexities are viewed as to exist in a socio-technical system and will be analyzed using interdisciplinary approaches. Focus group discussions (FGD), semi-structured interviews and key informant interviews (KII) will be conducted to assess IWRM practice at different stages of the project. These will also aim at assessing the reasons behind the impact the project has on agriculture and ecosystem due to the structural interventions and culture fisheries. For this assessment, crop areal coverage and the change in cropping pattern will be also identified with the help of seasonal calendar.

To understand the constraints and potentials of practising IWRM, a resource map will be prepared by the stakeholders in the study area. This map will be used as a reference for transect walks and subsequent discussions on resources. Additionally, the following activities and analyses will be performed:

Seasonal water level variation at the project site will be computed based on the historical data of the river water level. Several FGDs and KII will be conducted to identify the inundation period which will be later cross-checked by tidal water level analysis based on the computed water levels. Afterwards, trend analysis of those data and analysis of the information from FGDs will be performed to get a better understanding on how crops are affected during that period. The contestation among stakeholders in community decision-making regarding agriculture and aquaculture will be identified and analyzed through a stakeholder workshop and FGDs. Institutional mapping and KII will further help to understand the relationships among LGED, BWDB, WMCA and the local people. Additionally, the storage capacity of the khal for a given gate operation rule for the existing and proposed gates will be estimated through a hydrological analysis to determine a convenient pumping time for irrigation during the Rabi season. The gate operation rule will be determined by the local people through stakeholder workshop and FGDs, and following the methodology given by Faruque (2009). Through the above-mentioned participatory field research techniques, acceptable approaches for implementation of IWRM will be identified and finally an IWRM framework will be developed.

References:

Alauddin, M. and Tisdell C., 1998. Bangladesh's shrimp industry and sustainable development: resource use conflict and the environment, Asian Fisheries Science 11, Pages 97-110.

Choudhury G. A., 2005. Participatory Water Management Approach in Bangladesh, IHP-VI Technical Document in Hydrology No. 73, UNESCO Working Series SC-2005/WS/2.

Faruque, S. B., 2009. Multi purpose use of Hazir Khal by making provision for community proposed flow control gate at a culvert, M.Sc. Thesis, Institute of Water and Flood Management, BUET.

Halcrow & partners Ltd. and others, 1998. Social impact Assessment, inception report, Annex A2, Vol. 2, NWMP, WARPO, Ministry of Water Resources, Dhaka.

Lewis, D., 1997. Rethinking aquaculture for resource-poor farmers: perspectives from Bangladesh, Food Policy, Vol. 22, Issue 6, Pages 533-546.

LGED, 1999. Combined summary appraisal report and summary IEE report, Mondalbari Drainage Subproject, SSWRDSP, Tungipara Thana, Gopalganj District.

LGED, 2001. Capacity Development Plan of Small Scale Water Resources Development Sector Project, LGED in Development 1996/97 - 2000/01, Technical Assistance Team, LGED.

Mollinga, P. P., 2008. Water, politics and development: Framing a political sociology of water resources management. Water Alternatives, Volume 1, Issue 1, Pages 7-23.

Rahman A., Rahman T. and Rahman T., 2007. The Role of Organisations in the Growth of the Rural Non-Farm Sector in Bangladesh: The Case of LGED, Discussion Paper Series 11, IPPG Programme Office, IDPM, University of Manchester, U.K.

Toufique, K. and Gregory, R., 2008. Common waters and private lands: Distributional impacts of floodplain aquaculture in Bangladesh, Food Policy, Volume-33, Issue 6, Pages 587-594.

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