Water Governance in Bangladesh: An Evaluation of Institutional and Political Context
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Unpacking Water Governance
3. IWRM and the Sustainable Development Goals
4. Institutional and Political Contexts of Water Governance in Bangladesh
4.1. Institutions and Organisations
4.2. Planning Processes
4.3. Existing Water Policies
4.4. Politics and Decision Making
5. Materials and Methods
6. Findings and Discussion
A SWOT-AHP Analysis of Water Institutions
7. Conclusions and Policy Implications
Acknowledgments
Author Contributions
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A
References
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Era | Laying the Foundation of Water Institution (1947–1988) | Establishing the Flood Action Plan (1989–1994) | Restructuring the Water Sector (1995–1998) | Evolution of Water Governance (1999 to Date) |
---|---|---|---|---|
Main Concerns/Goals | Establishment of key institutions (e.g., BWDB) of water management | Strategy formulation for controlling and managing floods | Overhaul the water management systems, particularly, decision making process | Developing calibrated policy instruments to face water challenges |
Main Issues | Increasing agricultural production | Controlling floods, particularly saving crop cultivation | Integrated planning and management and preserving water resources | Managing water demand and crisis by leveraging science and technology |
Main Instruments | A 20-years Water Master Plan (WMP) | The Flood Action Plan (FAP) | The Guidelines for People’s Participation (GPP) for water development projects | The National Water Policy and National Water Management Plan (NWMP) |
Key Features | Preparing WMP was the initial step of water planning. It overemphasized surface water interventions and overlooked ground water management. In this era, water management was followed mainly “sectoral approaches” and “structural engineering solutions” that raised much criticisms. Broadly, water management was based on flood control and drainage and irrigation management, and decision making was BWDB-centric. | Due to the devastating floods in 1987 and 1988, flood controlling received international attention and donors’ support. However, NGOs, civil societies criticised FAP, since it discouraged decentralized decision making. Minor irrigation (e.g., shallow tube wells) was flourished in this time owing to privatization of irrigation technology business and substantial reduction of government taxes. | Water management was based on flood control and drainage, albeit water crisis in the dry season and droughts were becoming an increasing concern. Enacting Upazila (Sub-district) Parishad Act 1998, formulating LGED guidelines on how to involve local people in water projects, strengthening local government institutions and provisioning impact assessment and applying EIA practice in approving projects were main issues of this era. | Several strategic initiatives were taken such as facilitating partnerships and devolutions of power. The government had approved a 25 years NWMP and developed other instruments, namely BWDB Strategic Plan 2009–2014, National Water Act 2013, and Haor (flooded tectonic depressions) Master Plan 2012–2032. However, the challenges lie in implementation of these instruments as the country has shortage of resources and political will. |
Policy Instrument | Inclusion | Consistency | Weighting | Reporting | Resources |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Environmental Policy Integration (EPI) | |||||
National Water Policy [31] | Explicitly discusses as “water for the environment”. | “Protection of the environment” states a fair consistency. | Importantly presented, signifying an efficient and equitable water use. | Reporting and evaluation systems are weaker. Poor monitoring systems. | Lacking of resources, e.g., financial and technological. |
Development Strategy of the National Water Management Plan [32] | Carefully includes measures for environment protection and improvement. | Indirectly, as it creates avenues for efficient management | “Health and environment strategy” is a major strategic choice of this document. | Weaker reporting provision. Suggests applying evaluation tools, e.g. EIA. | States challenges. GOs, IOs and DOs provide supports. |
National Water Management Plan [21] | “Protection of the natural environment” states as a major goal. | Partly. Economic development is a prime issue. | Considerably significant as water pollution is a pressing issue. | Includes a detailed plan for coordination, monitoring and reporting. | States a brief funding plan (donor-dependent), indicating challenges. |
Climate Policy Integration (CPI) | |||||
National Water Policy 1999 | Not Included. | Inconsistent. | The Term ”Climate Change” is Not Used. | No | No |
Water sector Development Strategy 2001 | Climate change issue inadequately includes. | Broadly consistent. | States only the sea level rise concern and reports more researches are needed on it. | Weaker reporting systems due to financial and technical limitations. | No. However, it reports caveats such as flood, arsenic contamination, and natural calamities. |
National Water Management Plan 2004 | Inexplicitly. | Inconsistent. It only states in the baseline of the plan. | Climate change problems insignificantly presented. | Knowledge gaps on climate change impacts are acknowledged. | No |
SWOT Group | Priority of the Group | SWOT Factors | Consistency Ratio | Priority of the Factors Within the Group b | Overall Priority of the Factor c |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Strengths | 0.25 | S1: A large amount of water bodies | 5.91% | 0.54 | 0.14 |
S2: Receiving a handsome amount of Official Development Assistance | 0.35 | 0.09 | |||
S3: Organizational setup and network (e.g., NGO) | 0.11 | 0.03 | |||
Weaknesses | 0.16 | W1: Weaker water institutions, i.e., implementation delays and lacking of ministerial leadership | 6.00% | 0.56 | 0.09 |
W2: Centralised decision making | 0.29 | 0.05 | |||
W3: Outdated sectoral policies | 0.10 | 0.02 | |||
W4: IWRM is not institutionalized | 0.05 | 0.01 | |||
Opportunities | 0.38 | O1: Raising water-use efficiency in rice production | 8.31% | 0.64 | 0.24 |
O2: River basin development and management | 0.28 | 0.11 | |||
O3: Introducing progressive tariff for households and industrial water consumption | 0.08 | 0.03 | |||
Threats | 0.21 | T1: High dependency on ground water | 6.47% | 0.35 | 0.07 |
T2: Conflict on transboundary rivers | 0.50 | 0.11 | |||
T3: Industrial water pollution | 0.05 | 0.01 | |||
T4: Impacts of climate change (e.g., sea level rising) | 0.10 | 0.02 |
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Chan, N.W.; Roy, R.; Chaffin, B.C. Water Governance in Bangladesh: An Evaluation of Institutional and Political Context. Water 2016, 8, 403. https://doi.org/10.3390/w8090403
Chan NW, Roy R, Chaffin BC. Water Governance in Bangladesh: An Evaluation of Institutional and Political Context. Water. 2016; 8(9):403. https://doi.org/10.3390/w8090403
Chicago/Turabian StyleChan, Ngai Weng, Ranjan Roy, and Brian C. Chaffin. 2016. "Water Governance in Bangladesh: An Evaluation of Institutional and Political Context" Water 8, no. 9: 403. https://doi.org/10.3390/w8090403