Abstract:
Managing water resources in thc currcnt wo,-ld chmute" a major challenge including
Bangladesh In llanglade,h, \\'1\h the growing population and economic de\'elopment,
demand ofwuter has also glOwn considcrably creating ,tre~, on [hi, finite resource
De~lSlOn SI.lpp011 Systems (D~S) can play important role~ in planning of water
resour~es management, including demand management ~[rategies. \Vater Evaluation
and Pianning System (\\lEAP) LSsuch a DSS lhat is being incrcasingly used in
integrated water resources management acros, the world "lhis study presents a pilot
attempt in the development and application of an integrated \vater management
decision support system using WF.,\P in Dinajpur Sadar Upazlla In the northwest
reglon ofBanglade,h The major water u,e:, Lnthe study area are irrigation, domestic
and industrial water use, Meeting demand of various water uses. especially irrigation
is a critical issue of the study area,
Based on secondary and primary data collected in the ,tudy, demands for differem
watcr uses, vi7.., migatlon, indl.l,trial and domestlc, were e,tlmated, A number of
future ~cenarios ",'ere con,tructe(l, which included a reference scenario de,cribing the
gro"'1h In sectoral demands following the trend in population growth, and a few other
scenarios describing a numbers of policy options for optimal water allocation and
meeting unmet demands
WF.AP mudel ~imulalion revealed that monthly ma",,"um ',"ater demand Ihr domestic
use is in March & Apnl, For industry, maximum ",mer demand is in May & June, and
for agriculture in January to April, The water demand~ for domestic and mdustnal
u~es were fully covcred: neither are there any urnnel demands in the base year. nor
any unmet demands throughout the period of analysls, The average annual irrigation
unmet demands for the years 2007, 2025 and 2045 are 33,R Ml1hon Ill', 55.6 Million
mJ and 83.8 Million Ill' (190/0. 28% and 37% of the total annual water demand),
respectively, The unmct agncultural water demands for the month April In the years
2007, 2025 and 2045 are 204 Ivllllion Ill), 242 Million m' and 29,2 Million Ill]
(11.6%, 123% and 13% of the total annual water demand), ln~reased irrigation
efficiency through the applicatlon of demand management tools (e g water pricing,
subsidies, etc) would reduce unmet demands significantly; ho\\,evel', there will remain
conslderable demand unmet in future, ebpeclally in the cri(ical month of Apnl. Impact
of unmet demand reduction would be greater in seven unions (Fa7.ilpur, Kamalpur,
Sekpura, ~hankarpur, Shashara, Sundarban and Uthrail), However, demand
management tool> do not reduce the unmet demand, fu.lly e~peciaj]y in later years,
Expansion of deep wbe wells (DTWs), however, would meet the demand fully, for
which the number ofDT\"", will need to increase from 193 in 2007 LO318 in 2025
and 478 in 2045, However, (he required number ofDTW~ in the study area would be
much les, if increase in irrigation efticleney also (akes place along with expal\~iol\ of
DTWs, Implementation of a rubber dam in Punarbhaba river could potentially meet
lmmet water demands in the command areas of Dmajpur Municipal, Chehclgazi.
Aliapur and Sundarban unions in all monLh\ till 2045
