This paper has focused on understanding the livelihood changes
that men and women have made in the last 10 years, exploring the
drivers of those changes, including water access and management,
and identifying key water related challenges going forward. We
find a trend toward diversification of livelihood activities, with a
focus, where possible, on both shrimp and crops. Our findings
highlight the role that water management and infrastructure,
including the ability to control flooding and waterlogging, have
played in encouraging those shifts.
Several important conclusions emerge in our study. First,
increased infrastructure and watermanagement are clearly linked
to the growing importance of agriculture and aquaculture in
livelihood strategies. However, as much as groundwater has
enabled irrigation, especially in Satkhira, waterlogging, drainage,
and the control of salinity remain unaddressed. Respondents are
more concerned about future waterlogging and flooding than
expanding irrigation. The expansion of irrigation may increase
rice production in Satkhira, but from the FGD discussions, it is
unlikely that water would be widely accessible. In Bagerhat,
where there is potential to store surface water, irrigation faces a
variety of constraints, including limited access to LLPs, the need to
re-excavate canals to holdmore water, and proper release of water
from the sluice gates. In Satkhira, where there is fresh groundwater
available, tubewell expansionwould require investments by
farmers and may only benefit those able to pay to access
groundwater (Crow and Sultana, 2002). FGD participants also
specifically feared that if water shortages increase, smaller
farmers would be first excluded. Thus, if new, large investments
will be made into canal systems, then aspects of equity would
require particular emphasis.
Second, governance issues and conflicts over existing irrigation
water and related infrastructure must be addressed in order
for the infrastructure investment to deliver appropriate returns.
The concept of Water Management Committees is not (yet)
working as intended. Issues of water timing and release, which
now often depend on local elites (and may require payments)
reduce the amount of water available locally in the dry season
and likely contribute to lower crop and fish outcomes especially
if water is unavailable at more critical times. Moreover, FGDs
pointed to power dynamics in controlling access not only to
water but also to land resources. Water extraction in many of the
water stressed areas becomes a zero-sum game; those with access
to pumps and newer technologies are able to extract more
water at critical periods, while others lose out. Management is
particularly crucial as progressive salinization and progressive
waterlogging of scarce agricultural areas is very costly or sometimes
impossible to reserve. Rather than embarking on large
additional investments for providing surface water at this time, it
would be important to establish more equitable management
structures for the existing systems and then link those to future
investments.
While shrimp farming may offer higher profits, FGDs seem to
suggest a reticence to rely solely on shrimp farming. Respondents
in Kachita FGD noted “Although embankments and sluices were
constructed, breaching and seepage are common and then led to
total loss of income. People here are more cautious about
investing in monoculture; rather we prefer polyculture of fish.”
These sentiments were expressed in several of the FGDs in both
Bagerhat and Satkhira, with most respondents suggesting that
they preferred being able to cultivate crops, as opposed to relying
solely on shrimp, and to also stock a mixture of shrimp and fish.
In addition, FGD participants in Satkhira expressed serious concerns
about future agricultural cropping in their areas. However,
especially for the more saline systems, these two activities (food
crops and shrimp farming) seem to be incompatible in the same
polders, as it is difficult to prevent saline water from entering in
freshwater fields, and it is difficult to reclaim fields once they
have become saline. Conflicts can arise over issues of inflow of
brackish water, the deliberate destruction of bunds, or the
drainage problems resulting from the unplanned construction of
ghers (Ito, 2002).
Additional investment in surface canal systems are still needed
for coastal Bangladesh but only once the other constraints to productive
crop production are addressed, most of which relate to
governance issues. Ensuring greater access to irrigation (either
surface or groundwater) may enable the expansion of agricultural
and freshwater aquaculture activities; however, there seems to be a
clear need for understanding how to use thiswater more efficiently.
This study highlights that priorities for investment in the Master
Plan for Agricultural Development in the Southern Region of
Bangladesh and the Bangladesh Climate Change Strategy and Action
Plan should includ