Study of impact of beneficiaries participation in planning of water development projects

Abstract

Technical and economic considerations have been the basis of taking decisions in planning of water development projects in Bangladesh. Conditions of many of the projects deteriorate soon after completion and overall project performance is often unsatisfactory. Several studies have indicated that much of the poor performance of these projects stems from fundamental weakness in the processes of planning and management when social dimensions are usually ignored. No amount of investment in technological hardware can overcome it. It is now recognised that participation of beneficiaries in planning can help overcome many of the weaknesses, but advantages of such approach has yet to be quantified. However, many planners would argue that there are potential risks and costs implicit in people's participation. Provision of beneficiaries participation in the operation and maintenance (O&M) of Flood Control. Drainage and Irrigation (FCDI) projects is not new in Bangladesh. Early Implementation Project (EIP) and other similar projects had initiated such approach in the late seventies. Involvement of beneficiaries in the planning stage was part of planning process under Second Small Scale Flood Control; Drainage and Irrigation (SSFCDI) Project which was initiated in 1987. This study was undertaken to quantify the impact of . beneficiaries participation in the planning of water development prOject based on an assessment of impact of such participation. As of December 31 1992, 112 projects were planned with beneficiaries participation through 112 preproject meetings (PPMs) under SSFCDI Project. A PPM was organized at the pre-planning stage where the discussions were held with the representatives of local residents and relevant agencies at or near the project site. Under this study, all 112 projects of SSFCDI Project were reviewed to establish a quantitative evaluation of beneficiaries involvement in the planning process. FeaSibility reports of all the 112 projects were collected from BWDB. The impact of beneficiaries participation in the planning of each project which was evident from the changes that were incorporated in finalizing the project planning was critically evaluated.The existing planning procedures of water development projects were compared with planning of the SSFDCI projects. Three projects were selected from the list of 112 for indepth studies to assess the impact of beneficiaries involvement in the plan. It is seen from the study that the traditional planning process of Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) hardly pays any attention to user requirements, future O&M plan and system performance evaluation. Data for smaller FCD projects remains a major constraint as reliable information on water level, diSCharge, rainfall of such basins are difficult of obtain. It is observed that the PPMs are well representative of 5 regions of Bangladesh. It showed that the data reliability has improved significantly due to the involvement of beneficiaries in the plann~ng. The information provided in the PPMs were based on their real life experiences which has enhanced the data quality. The quality of data was observed good in 57% projects while it was moderate in 41% and poor in 2% projects. The PPMs of 112 projects with local residents acted as a forum for communicating expected project benefits and as a mechanism for obtaining feedback that in a number of instances has resulted in modifications and even abandonment of the projects as originally conceived. Due to the PPMs, 34 projects (30%) were found modified and 14 projects (13%) were redundant. Of these 34 projects 26 needed major modification, 6 needed minor modifications, but for the rest two an overall conceptual change in the planning objective was necessary. Local Project Committees (LPCs) were constituted only for the projects which were accepted by the participants in the PPMs. However, the meetings served a limited purpose in the area of obtaining serious inputs for the project planning and design due to weakness in holding of the PPMs; time and resource constraints. Many PPMs were dominated by the vested interest groups present in the meetings. However, it did not distort the data quality Significantly. The local residents raised all related aspects of. their daily life. The beneficiaries provided more specific information on the rehabilitation projects than new type of projects in the PPMs because of their experiences with the former type of projects. In the PPMs of new projects, their e.xpectation was found higher. In these meetings local officials of BWDB, Directorate of Agricultural Extension (DAE), Directorate of Fisheries (DOF), Bangladesh Rural Development Board (BRDB), Local Government and Engineering Department (LGED), Non-government Organization (NGO) and elected officials of Union Parishad (UP) and Thana Parishad also participated. From local residents farmer, fishermen, boatmen, women, project outsiders etc. of a project attended in each PPM. About 4.5% of the total residents participated in the meeting. Such participation was observed inadequate and not suffiCiently representated for many projects. Usually, one PPM was conducted for one project, but it was found that one PPM for a project larger than 3000 ha was not enough to bring representation from all villages of the basin. The PPMs became a common platform to establish linkage among the government agencies, NGOs and residents. Disbenefit groups and women were not present in many meetings. The largest group of local agencies was from thana parish ad and that of residents was the farmers. It was possible to cross -check the information disseminated by the beneficiaries right at the PPMs with the dilTerent local agencies. The projects selected for case studies were: Panchanala Koya BeeIs of Northwest region; Suktajuri khal of Northeast region; and Bamansundar khal of Southeast region. According to the studies. it is observed that the beneficiaries involvement has improved the planning standards of water development projects and encouraged their active participation in the operation and maintenance.