Water management plan

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Recurring floods, causing destruction and deaths, remain a source of worry each year in Bangladesh. With integrated and comprehensive water management plan Bangladesh can turn the flood flows of the rainy season into a blessing for round the year irrigation.
Due to lack of accountability in the existing water management activities achieve little spending much from the national budget. The Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB) in its recent report highlighted the large scale wastage of public resources the country sustains on water management. According to the report, some 30 to 50 per cent of the resources allocated to build flood embankments for stopping river erosion, on dredging the rivers are simply misused. The resources are largely pocketted by some contractors, engineers and officials leaving little for the actual work. Unplanned construction of embankments and roads through water bodies have choked drainage channels. The indiscriminate and unplanned activities neglect their impact on flooding, flood control and the environment. Different agencies of the government take up the projects without coordinated actions disregarding the countrywide master plan to guide such work. An integrated water management plan for coordinated action is overdue.
The water management plan should address the problems of corruption, wastage and consequences of uncoordinated activities. In the medium term big reservoirs need to be built in different locations of the country to conserve flood or rain waters for dry season irrigation and other uses. The master plan needs to envisage regular dredging to develop the capacity of the rivers to flow with more water.
M A Samad
New Eskaton, Dhaka