Water Management And Its Challenges
The economy, the culture and the social values are directly or indirectly depend on water centric activities in this country. There are distinct seasons in Bangladesh and with these seasons, the amount of available water changes significantly. So in every twelve months cycle, Bangladesh starts the year as water stressed country and becomes wet in the middle of the year and again becomes water stressed at the end of the year. This cycle goes on for centuries.
The challenges in water sector in Bangladesh are multi-dimensional and multifold. Integrated water resources management (IWRM) and planning is one of the finest tool to overcome several challenges. Climate change is expected to increase monsoon rain and the rainfall pattern is going to be more irregular and erratic in nature. According to IPCC, the rainfall is expected to increase in most regions during 2030. But, during 2050, southern parts of the country along with the eastern hills might get reductions in rainfall. In almost every year, Bangladesh experiences flood, which is a recurrent phenomenon. Both left and right banks of Jamuna will experience more inundation by 2050 and also coastal flooding will increase with increasing trend of cyclones.
The bountiful of rivers, fresh water wetlands and lakes provide ample scope for fisheries resources in Bangladesh. The open access to sea is a huge advantage to Bangladesh. In addition to the port facilities, it could serve the needs of the growing internal trade and commerce of Bangladesh. There is also an emerging demand for coastal tourism. Other potential areas for exploration are petroleum and marine resources, beach mineral sand, renewable energy by wave and tide, land reclamation by sediment management. More focus on river transport can provide a major opportunity to lower the cost of production, reduce environmental degradation, conserve resources and add to more employment prospects for the people.
The nation-wide demand for water is growing every day which is being intensified by several socio-technical drivers such as, high demographic growth, rapid and unplanned urbanization, high demand (like agriculture, fisheries, transportation, commerce and commerce and industries etc), climate change, etc. Moreover, the country is confronted with growing uncertainties in receiving equitable water share from its upper riparian countries.
High temperature, low and erratic rainfall appeared to be one of the major challenges for crop production, changes in river behavior, ground water replenishment. Extreme dependency on ground water for irrigation and industries causes lowering of ground water table and land degradation, which has adverse impacts on human health, animal, and plant production. There is a need to correlate the climate change science and the use of this science for different climate scenarios for better policies and strategies in water sector.
Water is the lifeline of Bangladesh. If water is not managed, nature may be violent and revengeful for our negligence.
Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed
Former Additional Secretary
Dhaka
