Water poverty status in selected small - scale water resources projects in Bangladesh

Abstract

Water plays an Important role in socio.economic development and ecosystem sustenance, At the same time, water-related adversities, hazards and inequity deter the development of the vulnerable communities, mostly the poor. In many developing countries, the development is hindered and poverty reduction drorts are unsuccessful since the Importance of water I~ not effectively addressed in policy and decision making. The conventional human development or poverty indicators do no! adequately reflect this water-related poverty or 'water poverty', This study used a 'Water Poverty Index (WPI)' to assess the changes in different aspects of water poverty resulting /Tom implementation of water resources development projects. In Bangladesh, structural and non-structural intervention, for water sector developmenl are being attempted to resolve local waterrelated problems with a view to reducing poverty. However, these Interventions have been observed to have both positive and negative socio-economic impacts. The actual impacts in terms of the individual walcr poverty components are unknown. In this study, two smallscale Water Conservation (We) and Flood Control and Drainage (FeD) projects were selected to assess their water poverty status. Two control sites were also ,elected to evaluate the impact of project interventions. The WPI Is composed of five component>' Resouree. Access, Capacity, Use and Environment. Subcomponents of these five components were identified based on literature studies and FGDs. These slIbcomponents represent the physical availability of water, and major soeio-cconomic and environmental conditions at the study sites. The WPls for the project and control sites were evaluated from the wcighted average vallie" of Ihe subcomponents obtained through field investigations and secondary data analy,>ls. Comparison of the WPls of lhe project and control ~iles indicate that 'Capacity' and 'Use', particularly for irrigation purpo,es, have improved due to structural interventions of the projects while 'Resources' have not changed significantly, The overall WPI has improved by about 30% and 9% in the Narayankhali fCD and Boronlirpur WC subprojects, respectively. The study also indicates that there is scope to improve the water poverty status by giving attention 10 education, farmers' training, safe water and ,anitation access, increased participation of the women in Water Management Cooperative Associations (WMCA), and water use conflict reduction.