G3: Water Governance and Community Based Management

G3 Progress Report
G3: Water Governance and Community Based Management

Date: 21/03/2012
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G3: Water Governance and Community Based Management

Introduction
The Ganges Basin Development Challenge (GBDC) commissioned by the CPWF, aims to increase resilience of agricultural and aquaculture systems in the Ganges delta focusing water and food security. There are five projects namely G1, G2, G3, G4 and G5 having different objectives under Ganges Basin Development Challenge (BDC) program. The Project G3 is titled Water governance and community based management. The International Water Management Institute (IWMI) is the lead institute for the G3 research project and is responsible for coordinating all research activities under G3 and its partners with the aim to produce high quality research outputs. Inundation, salinity intrusion and severe flooding in the coastal areas are frequent occurrences in Bangladesh. This leads to loss of life and property as well as severe impacts on livelihoods. The government of Bangladesh has invested steadily in coastal zone management through construction and rehabilitation of polders. Involvement of communities in management of polders is now enshrined in Bangladeshs Water Policy. This project tries to understand various aspects of water governance and communities based management of polders in coastal zones in Bangladesh and then suggest implementable policy options for improving polder governance in Bangladesh.

Research Questions
1. Is community management the best way of managing coastal polders in Bangladesh? If so, under what circumstances is it likely to work best? 2. If community management is indeed the way forward, what are the constraints that communities face in polder management? 3. What kind of policies and institution are needed so that communities can indeed actively participate in management of polders?

Study Area
The study area is located in the coastal zone of Bangladesh, i.e. the southern part of the country adjoining the Bay of Bengal. A polder is a man-made structure consisting of mud walls surrounding a hydrological unit. In earlier decades when polders were not constructed, low-lying areas of coastal zone were frequently flooded by salt water during high tide and most of the area remained fallow and cropping intensity was very low, livelihood opportunity was also poor because of less intensive economic activities. In order to increase agricultural production by preventing the land of coastal area from frequent tidal flooding and salinity intrusion the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) was implemented in accordance with the Master Plan adopted in 1964. Under this program Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) had built a series of polders enclosing the low-lying coastal areas. Coastal polders are the first large scale human intervention in the coastal area. Over the years it is learned that efficient water management involving active participation of local community is a prerequisite for polder management in enhancing agriculture and aquaculture production. The study area of G3 is within the Ganges basin of the coastal zone of Bangladesh, which is, shown in Figure 2.1. The study area includes five BWDB polders namely P-3, P-31, P-30, P-43/2f and P-24G and four LGED sub projects namely Bhagirabad-Jainkathi, Jabusha Beel, Baganchra-Badurgacha, Latabunia.

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Map 1: Research polders

Polder Subprojects Polder 3 Polder 24G Polder 31 Polder 30 Polder 43-2F Latabunia Jabusha Jainkathi BaganchraBadurgacha

Location (Upazila) Debhata & Kaliganj Keshobpur Daacope Batiaghata Amtoli Dumuria Rupsha Sadar Dumuria

Agency BWDB BWDB BWDB BWDB BWDB LGED LGED LGED LGED

Level of Salinity High Increasing Average to High Low to Average Low High Average to High Low High

WMOs (Yes/No) and project No informal management Yes KJDRP Yes 4th Fisheries Yes IPSWAM Yes IPSWAM Yes- SSWRDP Yes SSWRDP Yes SSWRDP Yes SSWRDP

Management challenges Shrimp- paddy conflict Water logging and salinity Salinity and river erosion Water logging Water scarcity Disaster vulnerability Salinity Water scarcity Declining shrimp productivity

Table 1: Project sites and descriptions

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G3: Water Governance and Community Based Management

G3 Research Framework Objective and concepts

The main objective of the G3 project is to increase understanding of different key institutions and actors involved in water governance in the coastal polders so as to suggest implementable policy recommendations for better governed polders. Water governance is in itself a broad concept and includes water for agriculture, water for fisheries and water for domestic purposes (drinking, cooking, and bathing), while polder management is related to water use connected to polder infrastructure. The focus is on understanding the role of formal and informal institutions in such water governance and polder management; conflict resolution and productive uses of land, with particular attention to different concepts of community participation or peoples participation. Formal institutions could be government agencies such as BWDB, LGED, Union Parishad, Upazila Nirbahi Officer or District Commissioner, while informal could be influential elites, muscle men or traditional village structures.

Community participation and better managed polders

G3s main point of departure for community participation is that of formally created Water Management Organizations (WMOs). In the National Water Policy (NWP, 1999), National Water Management Plan (NWMP, 2000) and Guidelines for Participatory Water Management (GPWM, 2001), the Government of Bangladesh has enshrined community participation in the management of polders through such WMOs that are to be created in connection or prior to any water interventions. Our research sits consists of Polder 3 with no formal WMOs, and remaining WMO interventions such as BWDBs IPSWAM, LGEDs Small Scale Water Resources Development Project (SSWRDP), ADBs Khulna Jessore Drainage Rehabilitation Project (KJDRP) or World Banks 4th Fisheries project on aquaculture. See Table 1. G3 will look at what community participation tried to achieve in theory and how it is practiced on the ground, while also looking at other major challenges in polder management. The causal logic of this research is that by understanding that does now work and what does work in terms of polder management, we will be able to identify the mechanisms driving better managed polders. Better managed polders would lead to better outcomes in terms of food security and livelihoods and this in turn would contribute to longer term resilience among communities living in coastal Bangladesh.

Methodology
During Phase 1, G3 commissioned literature reviews on key policies, gender, WMOs and sustainable agriculture-aquaculture practices to better understand the issues arising from the literature and research debates. This was complemented by base maps by IWM to better understand the infrastructure of the polder, identifying areas with well versus poorly functioning polder management and potential conflicts in terms of unauthorized sluice gates and illegal cuts. Based on these polders, Shushilan has been conducting a qualitative survey based on 70 Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and 70 Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), where G3 will be able to systematically understand the different problems, solutions and challenges on the ground through situation analysis reports. By this time, IWM will also have completed participatory mapping of land and water use, for us to have better visual grasp of the various conflicts and tensions on the ground related to the use of land and water. Based on situation analysis and findings from the participatory mapping exercises, G3 plans to commission indepth case studies to better identify causal mechanisms and social processes for certain themes in Phase 2. In particularly, G3 aims to use findings from the qualitative phase for quantitative research that models different livelihood impacts based on different governance modes and structures. In order to assure uptake and capacity building, G3 would during Phase 2 and 3 organize stakeholder interactions to disseminate findings from the problem identification phase, from community level to senior policy levels.

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Activities
Data&Cases
Detailed infrastructure and resource maps Inundation modeling Detailed problem identification through FGDs and Kis In-depth case studies

IMPACT
Policy Analysis & Communications
International quality research papers and journal articles Policy briefs and dissemination workshops Contribute to building up longer term resilience among the communities who live in coastal areas in Bangladesh

Informed scientific research

Participatory Research and Capacity building

Collaboration with local universities Focusing on PRA methods and extracting different opinions from different groups and stakeholders

Outcomes

Policy impact

Partners
Shushilan, IWM, local universities, CGIAR centers Regional and national policy makers Coastal communities, local government institutions

Capacity building

Better management of polders that helps improve food security and livelihoods

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Progress to date Literature reviews

IWMI has written a variety of different literature reviews. One is an analysis of the National Water Policy of 1999 and the Guidelines for Participatory Water Management by Camelia Dewan, which covers the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats arising from these policies and relating it to G3s research agenda on community participation. She has also drafted a summary of the research polder characteristics, mentioned above. By end of May she will have written a comprehensive literature review of the historical evolution of water policies and projects in the coastal areas, relating to community participation, donor intervention and the different institutional characteristics of BWDB and LGED. Mr. Sanjiv Da Silva has written a literature review on WMOs in Bangladesh, which serves as a critical reflection on how they came into being and the challenges they may face. Dr Floriane Clement has written a literature review on gender issues in water management, identifying key gender issues in the coastal areas to be further explored in the in-depth case study to be commissioned in Phase 2. Mr. Ulrik Horn, IWMIs one month volunteer has drafted a literature review on sustainable and community based agriculture cum aquaculture practices to be used to better understand the issues between the land and water use conflicts. Overall the literature reviews have been progressing according to time and will provide deeper insights to be used with the findings from the qualitative survey.

KIs with senior officials to understand official perspectives on community participation and polder management
From 26th February to 2nd March 2012, the Project Leader and Research Manager conducted 15 KIs with senior officials from government agencies and donors such as ADB, Dutch Embassy, LGED, BWDB, JICA, South-West, IPSWAM, SSWRDP, World Bank, as well as academics from BCAS, CEGIS and BIDS. Through this exercise IWMI was able to gain better understanding of the contextual and historical issues shaping coastal water policies and projects, as well as the evolution of community participation. Through discourse analysis, we can attempt to critically reflect on what community participation entails for different institutions and we are better enabled to understand the differences between BWDB and LGED. We learned about several challenges and success stories and came across several insights on what needs to change in order for better polder governance to happen. One main finding is that there are severe problems of sustainability of maintenance after an intervention stops. Community based management of polders consists of two main concepts, operation and maintenance (O&M). Operation tends to mean the mechanisms on how to decide when to close and open the sluice gate, who will do this and how this will be paid and by whom. Maintenance involves that sluice gates and polders need to be maintenance and repaired, while silted khals need to be re-excavated to allow for proper drainage and water storage. In many instances O&M are used as one single word, however peoples incentives to participate in operation where they can derive visible and direct benefits, may be different from maintenance that is a more costly public good with not as tangible individual benefits. However, the difference between operation and maintenance is not reflected in most community based water management designs, rather project designs speak of O&M. What we have seen over and over again is that attempts at organizing farmers to maintain infrastructure tend to fail with very little results. This has led to a vicious cycle of moral hazard, where maintenance deteriorates to the point that the government must step in due to lack of incentive/collective action problem. This is exacerbated by the fact that the government does not have enough maintenance funds or manpower to match the requests. In sum, after an intervention stops there are problems of sustainability of maintenances due to lack of incentives among the community and little resources from government to match the maintenance requests. 6 | Page PPR

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Qualitative Field Work by Shushilan

Shushilan was engaged as a G3 partner to conduct a qualitative problem identification through FGDs and KIIs in order to understand the actors, communities and institutions in the nine research sites. Based on 70 FGDs and 70 KIs, Shushilan will produce Situation Analysis reports that in a systematic way identify the different problems and solutions in each polder/sub-project. They will be interviewing a variety of stakeholders, such as Union Parishads, Upazilas, LGED, BWDB, DoF and DoAE on water management in the polder areas, as well as different types of WMOs in order to compare different models of community participation (IPSWAM, SSWRDP, KJDRP and Fourth Fisheries, informal). Most importantly they will meet with different community members, paddy vs. shrimp, high vs. low elevation, landless and single female headed households. This will allow them to capture different perspectives of the needs and suggestions across different segments of the communities.

Study instruments
Shushilan in collaboration with IWMI has finalized the study instruments based on pre-testing (completed in polder 5, Satkhira on 17th February 2012). The instruments include 3 FGD checklists for the general community, WMOs and Landless, as well as 3 KI checklists BWDB/LGED/Union Parishad, WMO executive committee members and individual community members.

Training of field team

The study team has trained and confirmed 20 field team members. The team includes a team leader, academic supervisor, research coordinator, field coordinator, five facilitators, five note takers, four translators and three videographers. Three extra study team members including two women joined in mid-March and conducted fieldwork in polder 31. IWMI organized a one day workshop with Shushilan on 25th January to introduce G3 research objectives and the role Shushilan is to play as a partner. Thereafter, the Shushilan study team organized a five day training session on G3, to become familiar with study instruments, questionnaires, FGD and KII checklists. The sessions of the training include G3 study brief, objectives of the study, outputs, outcomes, report building techniques, familiar to study area, steps of conducting FGDs and KII, quality data collection process, demonstration of FGD, KII, note taking and translation etc. Of 24 participants that attended the training sessions, 18 were selected due to their potential and interest to stay in the field for long time. The pre-testing from 8 to 15 February, 2012was also used a training process, as the 18 members were able to practice and become more familiar with the study instruments. Each day, the team leader, research coordinator and field coordinator have taken feedback after backing the field team in the afternoon. The field team also exercised social map and IWMI Map for making the FGD session interesting. IWMI Research Manager C. Dewan and Mr. Shamim from G5 also participated during pre-testing for providing necessary feedback. All of these feedbacks from them have been incorporated in the checklists and disseminated to field team members.

Criteria of village selection:

The study team has primarily selected the villages of polder 3 and polder 31 through studying base maps created by IWM, visiting field, transect walk and consultation with local BWDB officials and the community people. The following criteria have been used to impartially select relevant research sites within the polder.

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1. Sluice gates constructed and managed by BWDB or private individuals/ groups/UP (public) 2. High or low concentration of private pipe inlets and polder cuts 3. Sluice condition and problems 4. Geographical location (East, West, South, North) 5. Location along main river or minor river/ canal 6. Bagda/golda culture and agriculture practices

Selection of venues and participants for FGDs and KIIs

Through consultation with team leader and research coordinator a three member advance team, consisting of Mahanambrota dash, Rabiuzzaman and Subrata Saha/Siddik Ahmed would visited the upcoming polder site to transect walk, visit UP officials, local community of Upazila officials, so far this has been completed for Polder 3, 31 and 30 the three biggest research sites. During these advance visits, the team would also collected secondary information and consult with community people to understand the social and religious context, livelihoods, connecting canals, sluice gates, water management practices, peoples participation, conflicts, transparency and accountability etc. During consultation with UP, BWDB and community people, the team also finalized the venue, time and participants for conducting FGD and KIIs. This advance team also presented the necessary findings among the members of the field team to make them aware and familiar on issues prior to arriving to a polder. The content of the presentation includes polder area, number of unions, sluice gates, canals, population, illegal cuttings, land use pattern of the polder, agriculture and fish culture, livelihoods, water management institutions, operation and management status of polder, about LCS and Landless groups etc. The findings of the advance team will also be incorporated in the field report and situation analysis report of polder.

Completed FGDs and KIIs

The fieldwork and transcription is completed for Satkhira polder 3 and Shushilan has submitted a field report, the same will be the case for polder 31 by the 24th March. Advance team has visited polder 30 and selected venue and participants. Overall fieldwork in all nine research sites will be finished at the end of May. Below is an example of completed fieldwork in a polder, this one from Polder 3.
Group Name Village and Union Date & time Status Complete Transcribi d Yes/No ng into Bangla (draft) Gazi Mohammad Complete Completed Cell: d 01940258500 Mr. Kader, Up Complete Completed member d Cell: 01917431735 Mr. Mukarram, Complete Completed Member, UP d Cell: 01712 259852 Israel Gazi, UP Complete member, Tarali d Cell: 01718849777 Contact person Translati on into English (draft) -

General Group

General group

Suelpur, Vara 17 February Shimla of 2012 Kaliganj Nichintapur, 17 February Parulia of 2012 Debhata Bashirabad, Parulia Debhata 17 February of 2012

General Group

General Group

Tarali of Kaliganj

19 February 2012

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G3: Water Governance and Community Based Management Group Name Village and Union Date & time Contact person Status Complete Transcribi d Yes/No ng into Bangla (draft) Complete Completed d Complete d Completed Translati on into English (draft) Completed

General Group

Rangashisha, 19 February Shuvnkar, Parulia of 2012 Cell: Debhata 01714515109 General Group Batuadanga, 19 February Mr. Mozaffar Tarali of Kaliganj 2012 Hossain Cell: 01921 477859 LCS/Landless, Nichintapur, 17 February Mr. Mukarram, Male Parulia of 2012 Member, UP Debhata Cell: 01712 259852 LCS/landless Rangashisha, 19 February Shibpada, Male Parulia of 2012 Cell: Debhata 01748670488 LCS/landless Adorshogram, 19 female parulia February, 2012 LCS/landless Trali, Trali 20 female February, 20 Union level water Trali union 20 Md. Mainul management February, Hossain Chuto committee 2012 (WMC) Union level water Debhata union 20 Riazul Islam management February, committee 2012 (WMC) Sluice gate Boshontopur, 23 February Liton/Jamuna committee Debhata union Sl No 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. Category of KII President WMC, Debhata upazila Female headed household Female headed household Big Paddy farmer Small Paddy farmer Big shrimp farmer Small shrimp farmer Affected person Illegal cutter/pipe inlet Case hanging person Gateman, BWDB Gateman, private (gate committee) SO, BWDB, Kaligonj Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed Completed -

Completed

Complete d

Completed

Completed

Complete d Complete d Complete d Complete d

Completed

Completed

Completed

Complete d

Status Bangla -

English -

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14. 15. 16. 17. 18.

G3: Water Governance and Community Based Management Upazila Engineer, LGED, Kaligonj Sub-assistant Agriculture Officer, Kaligonj Fisheries officer, Kaligonj UP member, Parulia UP member, Parulia male, female, Completed Completed -

Collection of video footage for video documentary

A four member team has collected video footage for making documentary on the nine polder sites. The team member includes Mahanambrota Dash, Subrata Saha, S.K. Siddik Ahamed, and Md. Masud. The team has developed a script to collect necessary video footage based on objectives and outputs of the study. The video script includes polder situation, water management related problems and solutions in the area. It also will include polder structures and situation, comparative good and poor management practices, food security issues, poverty situation, livelihoods, environment, community involvement, conflicts issues, transparency and accountability of water management institutions etc. Each documentary will be 15 minutes. In the mean time, the study team visited different hotspots of the polder 3 to necessary video footage and community comments. The team also will incorporate important comments of the participants of FGDs and KIIs. Shushilan will develop and submit 9 video documentaries on 9 polders. Voice of the video documentary will be Bangla (genuine voice of the community people) with English subtitles. Photos are also submitted to IWMI that characterize the main issues in each polder.

Infrastructure and participatory mapping by IWM:

As one of the partners of G3 Institute of Water Modelling (IWM) has been entrusted to carry out the following activities); literature review of coastal polders, preparation of baseline GIS maps, inventory and condition of drainage sluices & structures, land inundation map with land type (F0,F1,F2, F3 .. ), participatory resource mapping, GIS map showing Mouza area, Mouza population & Population density for 5 BWDB polders and 4 LGED subprojects. The main purpose of these activities are to understand the structures and land water uses in the polders. This section contains progress of field survey and data collection work, data processing and preparation project base maps and GIS maps for each polder of the study area of G3 and inventory of structures.

Baseline and infrastructure maps

IWM has made a comprehensive field survey using state of the art survey technology to collect quality information on infrastructure of the polders. The field survey work started 15 November, 2011. The field data collection for four BWDB polders (3, 30, 31, 42/2f) and four LGED subprojects (BhagirabadJainkathi, Jabusha Beel, Baganchra-Badurgacha, Latabunia) has been completed. The summary of the activities carried out for data collection campaign is shown in Table-3.1

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Table-3.1: Summary of survey activity

Sl. Events No. Specification Location Progress of work All data collection except 50% work of 24G which will be completed by25th March-2012 So Remarks

1.

Location, no. of vents, vent Size, silt & soffit Polder 3, 30, 31, Inventories of level, type of Structures, 24G, 43/2F and 4 regulator Active/ Inactive, Fall LGED subprojects board/Flap Gate Picture Inventories of Location Unauthorized Type Structures Size / Pipe Diameter Alignment of All the existing drainage Khal khal along with name So All the planned polders and LGED subprojects

RTK GPS and Level machines are used for this survey

2.

So Conducted by hand GPS and by using existing google image Hand GPS

3.

Completed All data collection except 50% work of 24G which will be completed

4.

Surrounding the polders All the planned Alignment of mentioning the existing polders and LGED Embankment condition subprojects Location of important features like educational institution, religious Institution, Important Office, Hatbazar etc

5.

Geographical coordinates of the feature

Inside all the polders and subprojects

All data collection except 50% work of 24G which will be completed March 2012

Hand GPS

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The inventory surveys of existing structures are conducted for the Polder 3, 30, 31, 24G, 43/2F and 4 LGED subprojects. For the structure inventory the main features survey are location (GPS & also village name), type of structure (Pipe, regulator, Box culvert), no of vent, size of vent or dia, silt level, sofit level, deck level, Fall board/flap gate, active/inactive, condition (good, minor problem, major problem), interviewing of the local people if it is adequate or not. RTK GPS has been used to establish the reduced level on the deck level of the each structure with respect to IWM existing nearest BM/TBM values. Then the another team measure the silt level, soffit level, structure dimension by using level machine and tape and made interview of the local people for necessary information. During this data collection, inventory of the unauthorized structures constructed by the people for the own purpose also conducted. The alignment survey of embankment, Khals and roads and the Geographical coordinates of the feature in the polders and subprojects have been taken with Hand GPS. These maps identify the existing structures and who has created them (BWDB or local community people), while in a systematic way evaluating their current condition. We see especially in polders 3 and 31 that many informal sluice gates and pipes have been made on the embankment, G3 partners can then ask the people close to these areas why these structures have been made. Is it related to 12 | Page PPR

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the changing function of the polder and the original design is ill-suited for these purposes? Or are there other reasons? Example of detailed BWDB structure information
Sl no. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 Structure name Per Batiaghata Sluicegate Per Batiaghata Regulator Aushkhali Regulator Titokhali Sluicegate Kholishabunia Regulator Sukdara Sluice Sukdara Sluice Amtola Regulator Kashidanga Sluice Kaimkhola Hula Sluice Mosherdanga Regulator Barunpara Sluice Gopalpur Sluice Katiangla Sluice Khejurtola Sluice Andaria Regulator Gagramary Sluice Fultola mot Sluice Kismot Fultola Regulator Kismot Fultola Sluice Shoilmary Shoilmary Khalishabunia Chak Shoilmary Hoglabunia Sluicegate Hatbati Sluicegate Hoglabunia Moddhopara Sluicegate Uttar Hoglabunia Sluice Khal name Per Batiaghata Khal Batiaghata Khal Kalar Khal No khal Kolatola khal No khal No khal Amtola khal Kashidanga sluice No khal Mosherdanga khal Barunpara khal Gopalpur khal Katiangla khal Khejurtola doani Khoria nodi No khal No khal Batiaghata Khal No khal Bheeler Khal Kata khal Thakuntole Khal Chak Shoilmary Hoglabunia khal Hatbati khal Balar khal No khal Village Per Batiaghata Per Batiaghata Aushkhali Titokhali Kholshibunia Sukdara Sukdara Gondamari Kashidanga Kaimkhola hula Mosherdanga Barunpara Gopalpur katiangla Khejurtola Andaria Gagramary Fultola Kismot fultola Kismot fultola Shoilmary Shoilmary Khalishabunia Chak Shoilmary Hoglabunia Hatbati Hoglabunia Uttar Hoglabunia Union Gangarampur Gangarampur Gangarampur Gangarampur Gangarampur Surkhali Surkhali Gangarampur Gangarampur Gangarampur Gangarampur Gangarampur Gangarampur Gangarampur Gangarampur Gangarampur Gangarampur Batiaghata Batiaghata Batiaghata Batiaghata Batiaghata Batiaghata Batiaghata Batiaghata Batiaghata Batiaghata Batiaghata Easting Northing 445167 445686 445862 446396 446530 447121 447885 448292 448844 449452 449930 451059 451663 451922 451821 451855 451950 451638 451015 450895 446199 446878 445780 447280 449704 450517 449430 448126 514210 513410 511587 509982 508654 506929 506522 505857 504755 503210 502988 503417 505162 506468 507879 508887 509412 511173 512834 513117 516295 517738 515561 517752 515434 514985 516277 517445 1 0.90 1.10 1 1 1 1 1 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 1.80 0.00 0.80 1.50 0.90 1.50 0.90 0.90 1.50 0.60 1.07 0.90 1.50 0.90 1.50 1.50 0.00 1.15 1.20 1.10 1.80 0.95 0.95 1.20 0.90 1.22 1.22 1.80 1.10 1.80 Vent Vent Height Pipe dia nos width (m) (m) 0.75 2 1.50 1.80 0.00 1 1.50 1.80 0.00 1 0.90 0.90 0.00 2 1.50 1.80 0.00 0.50 1 0.90 0.80 0.00 2 1.50 1.80 0.00 0.45 0.55 0.00 0.90 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.95 0.75 0.00 Gate type Lift Gate Lift Gate Lift Gate Flap Gate Lift Gate Fall Board Fall Board Lift Gate Fall Board Fall Board Lift Gate Lift Gate Flap Gate Lift Gate Flap Gate Lift Gate Flap Gate Flap Gate Lift Gate Fall Board Lift Gate Flap Gate Lift Gate Fall Board Lift Gate Fall Board Lift Gate Fall Board Length Barrel (m) 4.80 5.00 5.00 18.00 4.80 13.00 13.00 4.00 13.00 13.00 4.00 16.00 7.30 4.00 18.00 3.70 14.00 15.00 4.30 14.00 5.00 7.30 7.70 16.00 4.65 15.00 15.00 15.40 Sill Level -0.13 -1.37 -0.85 -0.19 -0.76 1.32 0.03 -0.75 0.98 0.94 -0.84 -0.05 0.46 0.08 -0.31 -0.49 0.97 -0.05 -0.32 1.23 -0.32 -0.22 -0.59 0.00 -0.52 -0.31 -0.04 -0.63 Sofit level 0.89 0.43 0.95 0.71 1.05 1.82 0.83 1.05 1.43 1.49 0.96 0.08 1.61 1.28 0.79 1.31 1.92 0.99 0.88 2.13 0.90 1.00 1.24 Condition Good Good Good no gate Good Good Good d/s silted, gate broken, ironcap broken no fall board no need, no board good, iron cap broken good, no wheel no gate good, iron cap broken Active/ Inactive Active Active Active Active Active Active Active Active Active Inactive Active Active Active Active Inactive Active Active Active Active Active Active Active Active Inactive Active Active Active Active

barrel dammage iron cap broken no gate good railing broken d/s silted, good good good good u/s and d/s silted,barrel 0.00 damage 1.28 good 0.65 no gate 0.71 0.45 good, c/s siltation good, no gate

Review of policies and practices for coastal zone management

Two extensive review reports 1)BWDB Initiatives Experiences towards Participatory Water Resources Management and 2) Review of Policies in Water Sector and Related Sectors that relate to Coastal Zone Management have been prepared and submitted.BWDB Initiatives Experiences towards Participatory Water Resources Management analyzed and describes the chronological development of participatory water resource management practice under BWDB since 1972. The report also evaluated how the experiences and lesson learned were internalized within BWDB and the Government policy. Review of Policies in Water Sector and Related Sectors that relate to Coastal Zone Management reviewed the existing water sector policies and those of the related sectors that relate to Coastal Zone Management. The report reviewed as many as 18 policies and analyzed and outlined their relevancy to the Coastal Zone Management.

Preparation of GIS map showing mouza data

The Mouza data (shape files) for all the Polders and Subprojects has already been collected form LGED and found some mismatch in the data. With discussion with LGED it is now being corrected. After correction this Mouza map will be superimposed to the baseline GIS map. The Mouza map will have the information of Mouza area, Mouza population & Population density.

Drainage modelling and preparation of inundation map

The regional model for the coastal area has been updated based on available data. The calibrated and validated drainage model for the existing system will be applied to assess the existing drainage performance of the present drainage networks in the selected polders and sub projects 13 | Page PPR

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Participatory resource mapping

The participatory mapping for the selected polders and subprojects will be started after finishing the baseline map. Participatory mapping for drainage problems, cropping pattern and land use map for Kharif-I, Kharif-II and Rabi/Boro for the year 2010-2011 has already been started. The drainage subsystem delineation will be done consulting with the local people. In polder 3, there are some locations where conflicts between farmers and fishermen are present due to rice and shrimp cultivation. These conflict spots will be located by discussing with the local people and then will be updated in the GIS map. In essence the participatory resource mapping will lead to development of inundation maps, participatory assessment of the condition of internal canals, development of cropping pattern for the year of 2010-2011, delineation of drainage sub-system in the maps, development of Maps showing conflict hot spots and historical development of land and water use in selected villages.

In-depth case studies by BAU MSc Students Topics

As part of G3 capacity building, IWMI has signed an MoU with the Bureau of Socioeconomic Research and Training (BSERT) at the Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) in Mymensingh to have four MSc Students in Agricultural Economics doing their theses work on water governance and food security under the G3 project. The main focus is on understanding livelihood impacts of different agricultural choices. The 4 selected students are
Name of research fellow 1. Ms Kanij Fatema 2. Md Faizul Kabir 3. Ms Afsana Zaman Research topic An Economic Investigation into the Dilemma of Rice versus Shrimp Farming in Selected Areas of Dacope Upazila under Khulna District of Bangladesh Economic Analysis of Shrimp and Paddy in Two Selected Villages in Polder 31 of Dacope Upzila in Khulna District Comparative Study on Livelihood Adaptation of Disadvantaged People in Some Selected Areas of Polder Number 29 and Latabunia Union in Dumuria Upazila of Khulna District Economic Study on Paddy and Prawn Farming in Polder 31 of Dacope Upazila in Khulna District

4. Md Chhiddikur Rahman

Fieldwork
All of them have started their formal research activities (i.e., review of literature, selection of research topic, preparation of questionnaires, selection of study villages, etc) from 01 January 2012 under the direct supervision of Prof. Tofazzul Miah. He has been working as Principal Investigator of the BAU component of G3 and is supervising the research activities of the fellows. It may be noted here that the duration of fellowship of serial Nos. 1 to 3 is 6 months, while this is 12 months for Md Chhiddikur Rahman. Fieldwork and data collection was completed in February 2012.

Challenges
Data collection from the respondents of remote villages in Khulna district was really challenging tasks for both male and female research fellows/enumerators. Transport and communication were the biggest problems for the researchers. All of them had to travel everyday from Upazila headquarter to the study villages by motor bike. But in the villages, walking was the only means of communication from one house to another respondents house and it took on an average 20 to 30 minutes. However, Dr Rayan Hayat Sarwer of WorldFish, Mr Aminul Islam, Dacope Area Manager of HEED, Bangladesh, Mr Subir Kumar Banarjee, Dacope Upazila Ag Extension Officer, Mr Amal Krishna Roy (retired worker of HEED, Bangladesh) of Batiaghata and Mr Sheikh Akhter Hossain (Honours final year student of Khulna University) of Latabunia under Dumuria Upazila extended the whole-hearted cooperation to arranging 14 | Page PPR

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accommodation, transport and field level data collection. Despite the fact, the researchers had to face tremendous difficulties to obtain accurate information from the respondents since they did not maintain any written records for farm business transactions and/or household consumption. In other words, the enumerators had to rely on their memories and sincerity.

Other in-depth case study

G3 has commissioned an institutional case study for polder 3 and 31 with Rizwana Hasan, independent consultant, with team. Field work started mid-March and the final report will be submitted in May. This report will try to understand the motivations of the people creating extra sluice gates and cutting the embankment, as well as understand what informal conflict resolution mechanisms are in place and understand the impact/non-impact of formal legal cases. G3 was to sign a contract with gender consultant Prof. Farhana Sultana, Syracuse University, U.S.A (Gender and water specialist, PhD Geography) for our in-depth gender study and fieldwork was planned 11-14th March with G3 research manager. However, due to CPWF funding constraints we were unable to sign the contract and the case with Farhana is on hold. This case study would be investigating the gender dynamics of IPSWAMs WMA and LGEDs SS1s WMCA. It would explore what real decision making and interest women have in participating in formal WMOs and what are the effects on livelihoods? University with focus on capacity building of MSc students and an in-depth case study on WMOs. Proposals were submitted by KU 17th March but funding uncertainties does not let us go ahead with it.

Research insights developed so far

Our insights can be divided into three main types: things that we know already know about, things that we know something about, but need to know and things we do not know much about yet. The following sections sum those up. 1. Things that we already know about polders in Bangladesh and about community management a. South Western parts of coastal Bangladesh is a part of an active delta, is ecologically fragile and prone to natural disasters. Polders were constructed in 1960s to protect coastal communities against natural disasters and daily tidal surges. Since then, in response to changing times and demands, polders have also been used for productive purposes (both agriculture and aquaculture) as well as for flood protection. b. Global experience of involving local communities in management of irrigation/water resources has been pretty dismal till date. Much of the effort has been geared towards training communities without sufficient re-orientation of the implementation agencies. c. The government of Bangladesh has enshrined community management as one of the pillars of its Water Policy. Several donors, starting in mid-1980s, have tried to incorporate principles of community involvement, but success is at best mixed. d. While community participation works well as long as projects are funded, they mostly die a natural death (or at best remain inactive) after completion of projects. Sustainability of community involvement is an issue and long term maintenance of the infrastructure is always a collateral damage, such that projects which have been rehabilitated and communities organized become ready for another round of rehabilitation and community organization few years down the line. And this cycle continues. e. Conflict of interest in water use (for example between paddy farmers and shrimp farmers as well as upland and low land farmers) is widespread and often determines the course of water management in a polder.

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f.

In Bangladesh, there are two organizations in the water sector that implements water sector projects. These are LGED and BWDB. Both their projects incorporate participatory principles, but the way they actually operationalize it differs.

2. Things that we know a little about, but need to know more a. We know that polders now serve more functions than they were originally designed for. We also know that there have been design changes (either authorized or un-authorized, or what we will call informal changes) in terms of location and number of sluice and flushing gates and pipe inlets and outlets. But to the best of our knowledge, there is no comprehensive database of these design changes. Nor do we know how local communities negotiate and re-negotiate these changes and how it affects their day to day activities and their productive and non-productive uses of water. b. We know that there are formal and informal rules and institutions in place and these dictate norms of water use within polders, but we do not know enough about how these institutions and policies get affected by local power structures and by physical condition of the infrastructure. c. We know that conflicts are widespread, especially among powerful shrimp farmers and paddy farmers. We also know that there are environmental concerns regarding shrimp farming and the Supreme Court has recently ruled against shrimp farming. In some polders, criminal cases have been registered against those who have made unauthorized pipes. But we do not know enough about reasons for these unauthorized structures, the way court cases have been pursued and overall impact of these court cases. d. We know that landless contracting societies are an integral part of implementation of participatory water projects in Bangladesh, but we do not enough how they actually work and the impacts these have on landless people in the area. e. We know that LGED and BWDB differ in its approach to community participation in its water projects. But we do not know enough about how this difference gets translated on ground and how it affects outcomes in terms of both community participation and overall success of schemes. f. We know and it is also widely acknowledged that maintenance of infrastructure (gates, sluices, canals etc.) in the post project period is poor and communities are often unwilling to shoulder this responsibility. The donors and the governments too are unwilling to make adequate allocation for maintenance in the post project period. This syndrome of deferred maintenance is at the heart of built-neglect-rebuilt cycle of infrastructure development. What we do not enough is how do communities cope in face of deteriorating infrastructure and what can be done to reverse this vicious cycle of built-neglect-rebuild? g. We know that formal institutions created for polder management, such as WMGs, WMAs and WMCAs are only partially successful. But we do not know the conditions under which they are more likely to be successful and conditions under which they are most likely to fail. 3. Things we do not know about: a. The guidelines for participatory water management make it mandatory to include women in executive committee of WMAs and WMCAs. However, we do not know anything about the experiences of those women and the impact of their participation on their own lives and that on the functioning of WMA and WMCAs.

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