The document summarizes key findings and recommendations from the G3 Water Governance and Community Based Management research in Bangladesh. The main findings are: 1. Poor maintenance of water infrastructure like gates, canals and embankments increases vulnerability, but this can be addressed through a three-tier strategy involving communities, local governments, and government/donor funding. 2. Institutional coordination around water management needs improvement through a clearer governance framework that defines roles and responsibilities and promotes coordination across different actors and scales. 3. The role of local government institutions (Union Parishad) in water governance should be formally recognized to help with conflict resolution, coordination, and access to social safety nets for maintenance. 4.

1. G3-WATER GOVERNANCE AND COMMUNITY
BASED MANAGEMENT
Ganges Regional Research Workshop
5 May 2014- Dhaka

2. PRESENTATION
1.What G3 is about? What has been done?
2.Highlights from ‘A Review of Water
Management Policies from the 60s to 2000s’
3.Highlights from ‘The Gender Gap between
Management and Water Users’
4.G3 findings, messages and recommendations
5.Uptake of the messages and recommendations

3. RESEARCH QUESTIONS
• Is community management the best way of
managing coastal polders? If so, under what
circumstances does it work?
• If community management is indeed the way
forward, what are the constraints that
communities face in polder management?
• What kind of policies and institution are needed so
that communities can participate in management
of polders?

4. OBJECTIVES
Understanding the actors,
communities and institutions

5. STUDY AREA

6. RESEARCH
QUESTIONS
ACTIVITIES AND OUTPUTS

7. PARTNERSHIPS
BANGLADESH
AGRICULTURAL
UNIVERSITY
BANGLADESH
WATER
DEVELOPMENT
BOARD
LOCAL
GOVERNMENT
ENGINEERING
DEPARTMENT INDIVIDUAL
CONSULTANTS FROM
BANGLADESH & WEST
BENGAL
+

8. Highlights from…
A REVIEW OF WATER
MANAGEMENT POLICIES
FROM 1960S TO 2000S
Camelia Dewan
Aditi Mukherji
Marie-Charlotte Buisson

9. • Current ecology of coastal Bangladesh: result of long term
evolution of human and natural processes
• Ecology and history / society and environment are
interlinked (Mosse, 2003)
Research objectives:
How changing water ecology of the coastal zone is tied to
institutional changes reflected in the water policy?
How the institutional changes in water policy have been
affected by the global discourses?
INTRODUCTION

10. Zamindars
• Right of revenue collection on the coastal land
• Responsible for construction of temporary earthen
embankment, 8 months systems
Community
• Involved in the construction of the embankment
through labor
Zamindari system abolished in 1950
Disastrous floods in 1954, 1955, 1956
Krug Mission Report (UN, 1957) WAPDA/BWDB
BEFORE THE 1960s
Water management in the colonial period

11. Coastal Embankment Project (1961)
• 136 polders
• Southwest region: 1566 km of embankment, 282 sluice gates
Flood protection + food security purposes
1960s
Mega-infrastructure projects and top-
down engineering
Positive impacts:
• Change in cropping patterns to 1 to 2/3
crops
• Increased productivity
• More security and population increased
But:
• Tides surged farther inland
• Siltation / drainage congestion /
water logging
• Reduction in water flow
Shift from traditional system of flood management
to construction of large scale polders.
Community management or involvement of stakeholders, not
mentioned in the 1960s (WAPDA Master Plan, 1964)

12. • Some criticism of top-down engineering
• IBRD reviewed the Mater Plan (1964), recommended a shift
toward small scale projects in flood control, drainage and
irrigation.
• From donor side, oil and financial crisis, reduced motivation
for long terms repayment periods and mega infrastructure
projects
1970s
Shift to small scale projects and
people’s participation
Early Implementation Project (EIP)
• Small scale flood control
• Drainage improvement
• Irrigation schemes
Evaluation of phase 1 emphasized the
need to more social equity  Focus of
phase II, III
Comilla cooperative model
• Mobilization of social credit, cooperative
• Access to subsidized fertilizers and
pesticides
• Management committees, membership
contributions

13. Landless Cooperative Societies and Target Groups
• Inclusion of landless and marginalized groups
• Focus on social issues and poverty
• Creation of employment opportunities
• Use of NGOs as social mobilizers, empowerment agenda
 1st attempt to include people participation in designing
infrastructure projects
 Awareness raising, giving voice to the poor
 Acknowledgement of the power inequalities
1980s
Demand driven participation with
empowerment objectives
Early Implementation Project III
Delta Development Project
Participation as an ‘end in itself’

14. • Maintenance issues  Introduction of the need for participation
• Evolution in the donor community from social mobilization to
service delivery
• Decentralization and privatization trends
Shift from politicized empowerment of communities
to depoliticized participation of communities with
Water Management Organization (WMOs).
Participation as a ‘mean to an end’
1990s-PRESENT
Decentralization and depoliticized
participation
System Rehabilitation Project
Khulna-Jessore Rehabilitation Project
Small Scale Water Resources Development Project
Integrated Planning for Sustainable Water Management

15. National Water Policy (MoWR, 1999)
Guidelines for Participatory Water Management (MoWR, 2001)
• All stakeholders ‘actively and fruitfully participate in water management
decision-making at all stages’.
• Stakeholders: ‘inhabitants of an area who are directly or indirectly affected by
water management’.
 All the segments of the society clubbed together to form
Water Management Organizations.
• Apolitical water management
• Myth of homogenous community
• Quasi-ignorance of Local Government Institutions (LGIs),
apolitical vs democratic decentralization
1990s-PRESENT
Decentralization and depoliticized
participation

16. CONCLUSION - SYNTHESIS

17. Highlights from…
THE GENDER GAP
BETWEEN MANAGEMENT
AND WATER USERS
Marie-Charlotte Buisson
Jayne Curnow
Farhat Naz

18. Research objectives:
• To which extend the inclusive policy help to
increase the representation of women in water
management issues or increase their influence in
decision making?
INTRODUCTION
Guidelines for Participatory Water Management
• WMO membership is open to ‘women and men belonging
to the households of farmers, fishermen, small traders,
craftsmen, boatmen, aqua-culturist, landless people,
destitute women, project affected person, ect’.
• Executive Committee elected for a 2 years term
• 3 over the 12 seats reserved for landless, fishers and
destitute women
• At least 30% of women representation

19. Frameworks:
• Moser framework (Moser, 2003)- Triple role of women:
reproductive, productive and community management.
• Kabeer framework (Kabeer, 1994) – Social relation
approach: rules, resources, people, activities and power.
METHODOLOGY
Qualitative data
• 57 FGDs, 8 with women
only groups
• 92 KIIs, 16 with women
Quantitative data
• 1000 households from 44
villages
• 30% of women respondents
• 3% of female headed
households
Gender case study

20. WATER AND REPRODUCTIVE ROLES
‘Supplying drinking water is the role of women.’
 Blanket assumption, static perception
But: In 10.6% of the cases men are responsible for
fetching water.
• Distance is the main reason for men to be involved
• Degradation of the environment, salinity
• Positive or not? Seclusion of women?
Debunking the myth of static gender roles.

21. WATER AND PRODUCTIVE ROLES
Productive roles: activities generating cash or kind.
Water fundamental for all the activities conducted by men and women.
Women have multiple productive
use of water, especially for small-
scale productive activities.
Agriculture and Aquaculture
• Male decision-making, land ownership
• Women well aware of agricultural decisions
• Women family labour
• Women daily labour
Homestead aquaculture
• 31% of the households own a
pond
• Around 40% of the women are
involved in homestead
aquaculturePoultry and livestock
• Cattle (60%), goat (26%), poultry (80%),
women responsibility - Eggs and milk
• Safety net
• Degradation of the environment
Homestead vegetables
• Production within the bari,
self-consumption
• 54% of the homestead
plots managed by women
• Gender differences in the
source of irrigation

22. WATER AND COMMUNITY
MANAGEMENT ROLES
RULES – How things have to be done?
All community members
able to become
members of the WMO
• 17% of the members
are women
• Lack of awareness
30% of women
members in the EC
• 80% of the WMOs have less
than 3 women in the EC
• No women holds president
or treasurer position, only
one is secretary.
WMOs don’t fill full the rules and the
quotas established by the policy.

23. WATER AND COMMUNITY
MANAGEMENT ROLES
PEOPLE – Who is out? Who does what?
• Female WMOs
members are from
households with a
higher socio-
economic status.
• Relatives from
political elites
without water
management
concerns.
WMOs are not
representative
or responsive to
female water
users.
Self-exclusion of women
• Illiterate, poor and women
• Waste of time
• Inappropriate feminine behaviour
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
Households
with a
women
member of a
WMOs
Female
headed
households
Entire sample
Large farmer (more
than 2.5 acres)
Medium farmer (1.5 -
2.49 acres)
Small farmer (0.5 -
1.49 acres)
Marginal farmer (less
than 0.5 acres)

24. WATER AND COMMUNITY
MANAGEMENT ROLES
ACTIVITIES – What is done?
Maintenance
• Labour Contracting Societies involve
women for maintenance work
• 25% of the work has to be done by
LCS groups
• 30% of LCS members have to be
women
• Employment opportunity but no
decision making on water management
Operation
• Very few women
involved
• No decision making

25. WATER AND COMMUNITY
MANAGEMENT ROLES
RESSOURCES – What are used?
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
Number of
voluntary
working days
for gate
maintenance
Number of
voluntary
working days
for canal
maintenance
Number of
voluntary
working days
for
embankment
maintenance
Non WMO members
Men WMO members
Women WMO members
0
0.05
0.1
0.15
0.2
0.25
0.3
0.35
Financial contribution
Non WMO
members
Men WMO
members
Women WMO
members
Voluntary
labour
contribution
Financial
contribution

26. WATER AND COMMUNITY
MANAGEMENT ROLES
POWER – Who decide, whose interests?
• Decision largely
determined by
power relations
among social groups
• Women participation
within the WMOs is low
and passive
• Token participation
• Representative of their
male relative not of
women
Reproduction of the
religious, political
and economic
distribution of power.
Women members
don’t question
the power
relations in place.
Women non members
are excluded or self-
excluded from
decision making.

27. CONCLUSION
WMOs
• focus on large-scale productive use of water.
• don’t address the small scale productive uses of water and reproductive
use of water
Disjuncture between
• Policy and WMOs rules required to be inclusive,
• Women who consider that WMOs do not address their needs
Policy has not been able to increase the representatively of women needs on
terms of water management not to increase their decision making power.
Recommendations
• Acknowledgement of the status of women in Bangladesh, of their
particular needs for water management.
• Targeted approach, focus on empowerment
• WMOs with shared interests

28. G3 FINDINGS, MESSAGES
AND RECOMMENDATIONS

29. 1st Finding
Poor quality of maintenance induces vulnerability…
…but poor quality of maintenance can be
solved through a three tier strategy.

30. Poor quality of maintenance induces
vulnerability…
• Poor quality of the infrastructures is a commonality across
the polders and subprojects.
• Gates
• Canals
• Embankments
Reasons
• Deferred maintenance
• Conflicts
• Design of the infrastructures
or of the projects
• Weak institutions
Consequences
• Communities are at at risk in
case of natural calamity
• Infrastructures don’t play
their roles
• Costly alternatives for the
farmers (use of groundwater)
0.0
10.0
20.0
30.0
40.0
50.0
60.0
70.0
Bad or very bad
condition of the
embankment
Bad or very bad
condition of the gates
Bad or very bad
condition of the canals

31. …but poor quality of maintenance can
be solved through a three tier strategy.
Community level
Improving the contributions of the community members
• Homogeneous WMOs with shared interests in water
management (conditions for membership)
• Relating contributions to benefits (microcredit, fishing rights…)
• Income generating activities for the WMOs
• Creating strong institutions with ownership of the
infrastructures
UP level
Involving the local representative, Union Parishad
Using social safety nets for water infrastructure maintenance
GoB and donors
level
Donor-Government Trust Fund for Maintenance of Water related
infrastructure in Bangladesh
• Allocation per polder and per year of maintenance funds

32. Poor quality of maintenance induces vulnerability…
…but poor quality of maintenance can be
solved through a three tier strategy.
SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
• 9 Situation Analysis Reports + Maps
• Technical Report from Quantitative Survey
• What determines contribution to a common fund for upkeep
of water infrastructures? Evidence from experimental game
in coastal Bangladesh
• The Imposition of Participation? The Case of Participatory
Water Management in Bangladesh +

33. 2nd Finding
Institutional coordination needs to
improve through a clear water
governance framework.

34. Institutional coordination has to be improved
through a clear water governance framework
• Myriad of actors in the sector of water management in the
Coastal Zone of Bangladesh
Formal – Informal scale
Top–DownscaleDownTop
Formal Informal
Actors involved in water management in polders
(more than 1000 ha), BWDB
Actors involved in water management in sub-
projects (less than 1000 ha), LGED
Other actors
BWDB
LGED
WMA
WMG
WMCA
Gate committees
Gher/beel committees
Union
Parishad

35. Institutional coordination has to be improved
through a clear water governance framework
• Recommendations
• Revising the water policy to bring more clarity on the
institutional governance framework.
• Clear role and responsibility of each actor
• Integrated water management
• Institutional Coordination have to happen between the
actors
• Consequences
Fragmentations of the roles and responsibilities
- Overlaps Conflicts, power dynamics, some stakeholders not taken into
consideration
- Gaps  Defaulting behaviours and responsibilities, disrepair of the
infrastructures
Fragmentation of the different scales
• From gate committee (few hectares) to Water Management Association
(thousand of hectares).
• Where is the institutional coordination, the integration of each level?

36. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
• 9 Situation Analysis Reports
• Multiple actors, conflicting roles and perverse incentives. The case
of poor operation and maintenance of Coastal polders in
Bangladesh
Institutional coordination needs to improve
through a clear water governance framework.

37. 3rd Finding
The role of local government
institutions (Union Parishad) in water
governance needs to be formally
recognized.

38. The role of local government institutions in
water governance needs to be formally
recognized.
• Currently, no formal role but:
• Implication in gate operation,
• Implication in conflicts resolution,
• Role in case of urgency, natural calamity.
Trust in elected representatives.
Community people
24%
WMO
2%
UP
35%
BWDB
28%
LGED
9%
Other
2%
Who should act to solve the water related problems?
• Advantages
• Conflict resolution
• Coordination of all the stakeholders
• Social safety nets for maintenance of water
infrastructures (gate, canal re-excavation,
embankments).
• Not a new institutional layer added
• Strengthen capacities of local governments
• Example
Union Parishad
Coordination
Committee

39. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
• 9 Situation Analysis Reports
• How did global discourses on participation influence
Bangladesh’s water policies? A review of water
management policies from 1960s to 2000s
The role of LGIs (Union Parishad) in water
governance needs to be formally recognized.
+

40. 4th Finding
Creating Smaller Hydrologic Units can
improve the water governance.

41. Creating Smaller Hydrologic Units can
improve the water governance.
• What are SMU?
• Dykes, sub division in the polders
• Based on coherent hydro ecological sub-basins
• Why is it useful?
• Because scale matters, experience from LGED sub-projects
• Many conflicts are in fact high/low land conflicts:
shrimp/paddy, water logging, opening/closing the gates,
crop calendars…
• Challenge
• Rethinking the polders and their infrastructures
• Advantages
• Creating units with commonality of interest
• Reducing conflicts
• Drainage, irrigation for introducing more intensive
cropping patterns(G2)

42. 5th Finding
…policy for community involvement has to
be revised.
Community management does not bring efficient,
equitable nor sustainable water management…

43. Community management does not bring efficient,
equitable nor sustainable water management…
Lack of equity
• Elite capture
• Exclusion and self-exclusion of some segments of the
community who however have water uses
• Conflicts and competing water uses
Lack of sustainability
• Poor quality of the infrastructures
• Lack of financial sustainability
• Lack of institutional sustainability
Lack of efficiency
• Final decision-making power over physical
infrastructures remains largely in the hands of the
implementing agency.
• Most if the WMOs are dysfunctional.

44. Challenges
• Rethinking the ‘participatory water policy’.
…policy for community involvement has to
be revised.
From inclusiveness to targeted groups policy
• Homogeneous groups with shared interest
• Sectorial groups
• Institutional coordination
INTEGRATIONEXCLUSIONINCLUSION

45. SUPPORTING EVIDENCE
• 9 Situation Analysis Reports
• The Imposition of Participation? The Case of Participatory Water
Management in Bangladesh
• The Gender Gap between Management and Water Users. Evidence
from Southwest Bangladesh
Community management does not bring efficient,
equitable nor sustainable water management…
…policy for community involvement has to be revised.

46. GBDC MESSAGES
Message 3: To unlock the potential productivity
improvement, it is of utmost importance to invest in water
management infrastructure – but with a new paradigm
with fundamental changes in thinking about the polders
and their roles, and special emphasis on drainage.
Message 4: Maintenance of infrastructure is the Achilles
heel of water management in the polders of the coastal
zone. Deferred maintenance can be solved through a
three-tier strategy.
Message 5: A transparent and accountable water
governance framework is needed for the polders, that
formalizes and enhances the role of local government
institution representatives and follows the IWRM river-
basin governance principles.

47. WAYS TOWARD UPTAKE
You can
make it
REAL

48. Mustafa Bakuluzzaman, Shushilan
Uptake from…
COMMUNITIES
Validation and consultation
workshops

49. Workshop objectives
The main aim of these two
workshops was to validate the
research findings among the
people who lived in these 3
polders of BWDB and 3 sub project
area of LGED.
The overall objectives were to
know about what they can
perceive about community based
water management within polder?
And also know what can future
direction of community based
water management within the
polder and how?

50. Details of Validation Workshop
Sl. Workshop Presented
polder
Constructed by Date of
workshop
Participants
Number
1 Patuakhali
Workshop
Jainkathi sub-
project
LGED (2001-
2002)
9th
November,
2013
59
43/2F BWDB
(IPSWAM
project 2005-
2008)
2 Khulna
Workshop
Latabunia sub-
project
LGED 10th
November,
2013
43
Polder3 LGED
Jabusa sub-porject LGED
30 (IPSWAM
2004-11)
BWDB

51. Workshop Participants
• Union Parishad’s chairmen/members,
• BWDB, LGED,
• Upazila officials (i.e. UNO, UAO, UFO,
ULO, UE),
• District Commissioners,
• WMA’s members,
• Farmers,
• Shrimp gher owners,
• Teachers, and
• NGOs officials

52. Four Emerging Messages
1. Lack of maintenance induces
vulnerability… but deferred
maintenance can be solved
through a three tier strategy.
2. The role of local representatives
(Union Parishad) in water
governance needs to be formally
recognized.
3. Coordination has to be improved
through a clear water governance
framework.
4. Creating Smaller Hydrologic Units
can improve the water
governance

53. Validation Workshop Findings of First Message
Community
Level
UP Level
GoB and
donors level
Lack of maintenance induces vulnerability… but deferred
maintenance can be solved through a three tier strategy.
• Ensure participation of all levels of people in water
management committee
•Increase contribution of local community by cash or kind
• Empower Local Government (Union Parishad) and WMO
• Increase involvement of Union Parishad (UP) for water
infrastructure by Social safety net working program
• Form a Trust Fund for water infrastructure maintenance
where donated by Government, Donor Agency, NGOs and
beneficiaries
• Audited of the Fund in coordination with govt
representative and Union Parishad (UP) representative

54. Validation Workshop Findings of Second Message
• Coordinate with different stakeholders
(Fisherman, Agriculture, Livestock etc.) by
discussion in assisting Union Parishad (UP),
WMA and Local Administration.
• Conflict regulation by discussion of different
stakeholders(Fisherman, Agriculture, livestock
etc.)
• Endowed decision with integrated committee
Union Parishad (UP) would
be the integrator or
coordinator of different
department in water
management perspective
•There has to organize a
monthly meeting in Union
Parishad about Water Policy
•Union Parishad could play
the main role in water
management perspective
The role of local representatives (Union Parishad) in water
governance needs to be formally recognized.

55. Validation Workshop Findings of Third Message
• Utilize Water Policy at field level
• Give emphasize on local govt, different
department of local govt, water management
committee to make and update water
management policy
• Adapt water policy to the changing situation
Proposed
Activities
Role
Coordination has to be improved through a clear
water governance framework.
• By stakeholder consultation according to place,
time and situation
• Coordination and Integration with different
department of local govt, water management
committee

56. Validation Workshop Findings of Fourth Message
• Make small hydrological unit/sub polder
-to use existing road, canal and
embankment in coordination with LGED
and BWDB
-to use land elevation and land use
-to use homogenous water use
-Common interest among the
beneficiaries
• Organize regular discussion and meeting
• Strengthening WMO to minimize the conflict
Creating Smaller Hydrologic Units can improve the
water governance

58. Maniruzzaman
Md Masud Ahmed
A.H.M. Kausher / Nandish Kenia
Uptake from…
G3 PARTNERS