Study on participatory water management in Narayanganj-Narsingdi irrigation project

Abstract

Improved water management is of utmost importance for Bangladesh, as nearly 80 million people live and farm on the floodplains. Water management abounds on these floodplains and people have taken measures to cope with water since time immemorial. The crucial importance of FCD/I systems for the livelihoods of many millions of people makes it necessary to understand water management practices in FCD/I systems and to develop appropriate institutions and management strategies for them. Many studies of water sector in Bangladesh conclude that the intended benefits from FCD/I systems have not materialized. This is attributed in part to institutional weaknesses. One of the key approaches for tackling these institutional weaknesses is increasing people's participation in water resources management. At present the Government of Bangladesh is committed to the participatory development and management of FeD/I systems. Earlier, many of the irrigation, drainage and flood control schemes in Bangladesh are jointly-managed between the Government and the beneficiaries. Further, it is widely experienced, even in the older schemes, that the beneficiaries are not responding well to their role in these jointly-managed schemes, and that they fail to become active partners in the day-to-day management. At present, Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) has been given emphasis to ensure peoples' participation for their water systems management following Guidelines for Participatory Water Management (GPWM). Participatory Approach for water management following GPWM has been applied in some BWDB projects like Meghna-Dhonagoda Irrigation Project, Teesta Irrigation Project and Pabna Irrigation Project to some extend. In the present study, efforts was given at field level and close monitoring was performed to apply the Participatory Water Management Approach (PWMA) following GPWM systematically in Narayanganj-Narsingdi Irrigation Project (NNIP) and necessary modification was made to this approach with the help of BUET-DUT Project and BWDB. For better performance of the PWM intervention work, various aspects of the research were supervised and monitored. Check list and questionnaires were prepared for systematic recording of the information. Coordination were maintained both for (i) functional activities of various institutions and (ii) various components of intervention work to ensure better performance through improve participatory water management. The impact of the applied PWM intervention work in NNIP was evaluated in terms of parameters chosen as indicators of the project's goals and achievement. Technical, Institutional, Agricultural, Socio-economic, Financial and economical all aspects were considered for performing the impact assessment. The evaluation involved comparison of the values of the indicators for pre and post intervention conditions. The intervention work in NNIP produced significant positive results in terms of crop productivity, agricultural returns, household income, supply and distribution of irrigation water and farmers willingness to participate in operation and maintenance of the project. Hydraulic assessment shows that overall reliability of the canal systems has been improved and the average relative water supply at agricultural plot was higher compare pre intervention condition. Another most positive aspect of the intervention work in NNIP was that the coverage of irrigated area was increased significantly which was from 64.29% to 90.55% resulting irrigation systems performance better. But in institutional improvement, limited success has been achieved. Though all WMGs and one WMA were formed in NNIP area, their activities in all cases were not remarkable. Still lack of linkage with BWDB project level authority and also be late for service charge collection. Considering all those aspect, a modified PWM framework has been proposed for NNIP in this study which may result better system management and the benefiCiaries could reach remarkable success from this project in future.