A Participatory Approach to Improving Water Management
Improved water management and the better performance of key infrastructure are critical for the development of Bangladesh. The Government is implementing the Water Management Improvement Project (WMIP) with the objective to improve national water resources management by involving the local communities to play an expanded role in all stages of the participatory project, consisting of Flood Control, Drainage, and Irrigation schemes.
The project supports the Government’s goal to decentralize the authority of Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and hand over the management responsibilities of rehabilitated schemes to community organizations, where feasible. The project emphasizes on participatory management of existing schemes with the beneficiaries, rather than the construction of new schemes.
This project will cover a total of 200 existing schemes in an area of about 790,000 ha with an approximate population of 9.9 million. It is estimated that about 2.0 million poorer households will benefit, mainly through increased employment opportunities; and higher production of crops and fish.
This seven year project is co-financed by the World Bank and the Government of the Netherlands. The World Bank is providing US$94.26 million; the Government of the Netherlands US$20.0 million; and the Government of Bangladesh US$14.44 million including the beneficiary contributions. Furthermore, the project also aims to rehabilitate the BWDB schemes damaged by the 2007 floods and later on by 2009 cyclone. Following these natural disasters, about US$44.5 million of the project fund has been allocated for rehabilitation activities.
WMIP is in its second year of implementation and almost ready to take off soon. Good progress has been made in rehabilitating schemes affected by the natural disasters. However, the overall project progress has been delayed due to numerous reasons. The World Bank has urged the Government to expedite hiring of consultants and to take extra care in ensuring due diligence in procurement.
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