IMPACT OF STRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS ON VULNERABILITY OF COASTAL COMMUNITIES TO DISASTER
Mohammad Aminur Rahman Master in Disaster Management; Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning
Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
School of Civil Engineering and Built Environment Science and Engineering Faculty Queensland University of Technology 2019
Keywords
Bangladesh, southwest coastal region, Khulna, Satkhira, Coastal Embankment Project (CEP), development, disaster management, polder, political ecology, social- ecological system, shrimp, sustainable development, transformation, vulnerability, water resources development.
Impact of Structural Development Projects on Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Disaster i
Abstract
Initiated in the early 1960s, the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) in Bangladesh brought more than 1.2 million hectares of low-elevation coastal land under cultivation through a complex system of embankments and drainage sluices. A major milestone in the history of water resources management in Bangladesh, CEP served as a catalyst for socio-economic development of the coastal community over the following decades. However, there were some unintended negative consequences too. Human intervention into complex hydro-geo-morphological settings of the Gangetic Delta manifested a number of social and ecological challenges. As the embankments had cut off the tidal plains from the rivers, silt started to be deposited on the riverbeds which eventually caused drainage congestion inside the polders (the island-like embanked landmasses). Meanwhile, significant changes of landuse occurred as saltwater shrimp farming took over traditional crop cultivation. Increased global demand of shrimp encouraged people to take up shrimp farming instead of crops but they soon realized that the trade-off was unjustified. Shrimp cultivation increased soil salinity inside the polders rendering the land unsuitable for any kind of cultivation. Even the kitchen gardens and the fruit plants that had been growing after the embankments were constructed, disappeared from the landscape owing to high soil salinity. But restricting shrimp cultivation is not an easy task as this has become business of the powerful elites. Meanwhile a cyclone in 2009 badly damaged the embankments in the south-west coastal region resulting in longstanding devastation. The protected landscape became subject to tidal flooding sweeping off the decades of development gains. Unauthorized modifications to facilitate shrimp cultivation and inadequate maintenance were identified as the causes behind the weakening of the embankments that breached in many points when the cyclone-induced storm surge struck. This research explains how the embankment system helped communities prosper and why later it caused some negative consequences that placed the coastal community at stake. The fundamental issues that shaped the research problem are whether the negative consequences that arose from the coastal embankments were foreseen during the implementation, and if lack of operation and maintenance of the structures have a role. In doing so, first, an analysis of the social, environmental and political factors that interact in the formulation and adoption of infrastructure development projects was carried out. Then, the role of physical infrastructure in the transformation of the coastal communities has been explained. This study considers the poldered southwest of Bangladesh as a complex Social-Ecological System (SES) and adopts the vulnerability framework developed by Turner et al. (2003) in the analysis of vulnerability that emerged over time in the region as the social-ecological transformations took place. The underlying causes of vulnerability have been analysed using elements of Political Ecology as an overarching approach. An extensive review of historical documents and the findings from field level interviews carried out in 3 polders informed this research. Findings from the study show that embankments have significantly changed the bio-physical and hence the socio-economic landscapes in the southwest coast. In fact, the poldered southwest has turned into a unique Social-Ecological System. While some of the negative impacts were evident at the time of project
Impact of Structural Development Projects on Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Disaster iii
implementation, many of them evolved with the transformation of the social- ecological system. Absence of proper operation and maintenance and, moreover, unanticipated alterations to the embankments accelerated the rate of deterioration of structural integrity which led to widespread and longstanding damages to the community.
iv Impact of Structural Development Projects on Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Disaster
Table of Contents
Keywords ...... i Abstract ...... iii Table of Contents ...... v List of Figures ...... ix List of Tables ...... xi List of Abbreviations ...... xiii Statement of Original Authorship ...... xv Acknowledgements ...... xvii Chapter 1: Introduction ...... 1 1.1 Background ...... 1 1.2 Problem Statement ...... 1 1.3 Rationale of the Study ...... 3 1.4 Aim, Objectives and Research Questions ...... 4 1.5 Contribution to Knowledge ...... 5 1.6 Organization of Thesis ...... 6 Chapter 2: Literature Review ...... 9 2.1 The Concept of Development ...... 9 2.2 Unintended Consequences of Infrastructure Development ...... 13 2.3 The Relationship between Risk, Hazard and Vulnerability ...... 17 2.4 The Concept of Vulnerability ...... 18 2.4.1 The Double Structure of Vulnerability ...... 21 2.4.2 The Disaster Risk Community Framework ...... 22 2.4.3 Turner et al’s Sustainability Science Framework ...... 24 2.4.4 The Pressure and Release (PAR) Model ...... 25 2.4.5 The Holistic Approach Model ...... 28 2.4.6 The UNISDR Framework...... 29 2.4.7 The BBC (Bogardi-Birkmann-Cardona) Framework ...... 31 2.4.8 Summary and Synthesis ...... 31 2.5 Research Gap ...... 33 Chapter 3: Research Design ...... 37 3.1 Conceptual Framework ...... 37 3.1.1 Social-Ecological System (SES) and its Transformation ...... 38 3.1.2 Turner et al’s Framework for Vulnerability Assessment of Coupled Human-Environment System ...... 41 3.1.3 Political Ecology as an overarching approach ...... 43
Impact of Structural Development Projects on Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Disaster v
3.2 Research Inquiry and Approach ...... 48 3.3 Case Study Locations ...... 48 3.4 Data Collection ...... 50 3.4.1 Document Review...... 50 3.4.2 In-depth Interview...... 53 3.5 Analytical Strategies ...... 58 3.5.1 Cross-temporal Analysis ...... 59 3.5.2 Cross-spatial Analysis ...... 61 3.6 Research Design Summary ...... 61 Chapter 4: Water Resources Development in Bangladesh: A Discourse through Development Planning (1947 to Present) ...... 63 4.1 Post-Partition and Pre-Independence (1947-71) ...... 63 4.1.1 The First Five Year Plan (1955-60) ...... 64 4.1.2 The Second Five Year Plan (1960-65)...... 66 4.1.3 The Third Five Year Plan (1965-70) ...... 67 4.1.4 The Fourth Five Year Plan (1970-75) ...... 68 4.2 Post-Independence (1971 to Present) ...... 69 4.2.1 The First Five Year Plan (1973-78) ...... 69 4.2.2 The Two Year Plan (1978-80) ...... 71 4.2.3 The Second Five Year Plan (1980-85)...... 72 4.2.4 The Third Five Year Plan (1985-90) ...... 73 4.2.5 The Fourth Five Year Plan (1990-95) ...... 74 4.2.6 The Fifth Five Year Plan (1997-2002)...... 76 4.2.7 Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) (2003-2011) ...... 78 4.2.8 The Sixth Five Year Plan (2011-2015) ...... 79 4.2.9 The Seventh Five Year Plan (FY2016-FY2020) ...... 80 4.3 Trends in Evolution of Water Resources Development ...... 81 4.3.1 Pre-independence Era (1947-71) ...... 82 4.3.2 Post-independence Era (1971 to Present) ...... 83 4.4 Summary ...... 88 Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy ...... 91 5.1 Governance System regarding Water Resources ...... 91 5.2 Why Coastal Embankments were Necessary? ...... 93 5.3 Inception of the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) (1961) ...... 95 5.4 The post-CEP Interventions in the Southwest Coastal Area ...... 97 5.5 The Current Structural Development Regime: Coastal Embankment Improvement Project (CEIP) ...... 100 5.5.1 Background and project objectives ...... 100 5.5.2 Coverage of the Coastal Embankment Improvement Project-Phase 1 ...... 101 5.6 Summary of Key Events ...... 105 Chapter 6: Profile of the Case Study Areas ...... 109 6.1 The Southwest Coastal Zone of Bangladesh ...... 109 6.2 Polder 32 ...... 110 6.2.1 Socio-economic profile of polder 32 ...... 114 6.3 Polder 33 ...... 115
vi Impact of Structural Development Projects on Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Disaster
6.3.1 Socio-economic profile of polder 33 ...... 116 6.4 Polder 7/1 ...... 120 6.4.1 6.4.1 Socio-economic profile of polder 7/1 ...... 122 Chapter 7: Evolution of the Polder Social-Ecological Systems ...... 124 7.1 Elements of Polder Social-Ecological System ...... 124 7.1.1 External Political and Economic Elements ...... 125 7.1.2 Social Elements ...... 126 7.1.3 Ecological Elements ...... 128 7.2 Interaction of Social and Ecological Elements ...... 132 7.2.1 Positive Aspects of Empolderment ...... 132 7.2.2 Negative Aspects of Empolderment ...... 139 7.3 Evolution of Polder Social-Ecological System ...... 143 Chapter 8: Vulnerability: Is Structural Development to Blame? ...... 145
8.1 Vulnerabilities over Time ...... 145 8.1.1 Pre-Development Stage ...... 147 8.1.2 Development Stage ...... 149 8.1.3 Post-Development Stage ...... 156 8.2 Cross-Temporal Analysis of Vulnerability ...... 167 Chapter 9: Conclusions ...... 173 9.1 Major Findings ...... 173 9.1.1 Development rushed ...... 174 9.1.2 Embankments: A catalyst for development despite significant costs ...... 175 9.2 Major Outcomes of the Research...... 176 9.2.1 Recognizing the Polder Social Ecological System ...... 176 9.2.2 Revealing dynamic nature of vulnerability ...... 177 9.3 Limitations of the Study ...... 178 9.4 Some Policy Recommendations ...... 178 9.5 Conclusion ...... 179 9.6 The Way Forward ...... 180 References ...... 183 Appendix ...... 199 Summary Transcription of Interviews ...... 199
Impact of Structural Development Projects on Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Disaster vii
List of Figures
Figure 1.1: Research Processes in Schematic Form...... 7 Figure 2.1: Social levels and relevant characteristics of vulnerability (Schneiderbauer & Ehrlich, 2006) ...... 19 Figure 2.2: Conceptual Model for Vulnerability Analysis (Bohle, 2001) ...... 21 Figure 2.3: Conceptual Framework for Disaster Risk (Bollin, Cárdenas, Hahn, & Vatsa, 2003) ...... 23 Figure 2.4: Conceptual Framework of Earthquake Disaster Risk (Davidson & Shah, 1997) ...... 23 Figure 2.5: Vulnerability Framework by Turner et al., 2003 ...... 24 Figure 2.6: Details of the Components of the Vulnerability Framework by Turner et al., 2003 ...... 25 Figure 2.7: The Progression of Vulnerability according to the PAR Model (Wisner et al., 2004)...... 27 Figure 2.8: Theoretical Framework and Model for Holistic Approach to Disaster Risk Assessment and Management (Cardona & Barbat, 2000)..... 29 Figure 2.9: UNISDR Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR, 2004) ..... 30 Figure 2.10: The BBC Conceptual Framework (J. Birkmann, 2006) ...... 31 Figure 3.1: Images of coastal embankments; Top: Coastal embankment during construction (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968); Rows 2, 3 and 4: Sections of embankments in polders 7/1, 32 and 33 respectively ...... 40 Figure 3.2 Vulnerability Framework depicting components of vulnerability linked to factors beyond the system of study and operating at various scales (Turner et al., 2003) ...... 42 Figure 3.3 Detailed vulnerability components of the vulnerability framework (Turner et al., 2003) ...... 42 Figure 3.4 Locations of the three case study polders ...... 49 Figure 3.5: Analytical Strategy of the Research ...... 60 Figure 5.1: Coastal Embankment Project Location (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968) ...... 94 Figure 5.2: Locations of polders along the coastal area of Bangladesh (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013d) ...... 103 Figure 6.1: Location of Polder 32 (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013a) ...... 111 Figure 6.2: Polder 32 with basic topographic features ...... 113 Figure 6.3: Major occupations and their gender-wise distribution in Polder 32 (Adopted from Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013a) ...... 115
Impact of Structural Development Projects on Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Disaster ix
Figure 6.4: Effects of recent (2007-2011) disaster events on Polder 32 (Adopted from Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013a) ...... 115 Figure 6.5: Location of Polder 33 (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013b) ...... 117 Figure 6.6: Polder 33 with basic topographic features ...... 118 Figure 6.7 Major occupations and their gender-wise distribution (Adopted from Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013b) ...... 119 Figure 6.8: Effects of recent (2007-2011) disaster events on Polder 33 (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013b) ...... 120 Figure 6.9: Location of Polder 7/1 (in yellow) in Satkhira District ...... 121 Figure 6.10 Polder 7/1 with basic topographic features ...... 122 Figure 7.1: Schematic concept of polder social-ecological system ...... 125 Figure 7.2: CEP polders in Khulna circle (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968) ... 130 Figure 7.3: Harvesting paddy in Polder 33 ...... 133 Figure 7.4: An internal road section in Polder 32 ...... 133 Figure 7.5: A young boy on his way to school in polder 33 (left) and a primary school in polder 32 (right) ...... 135 Figure 7.6: Shrimp ponds (left) and saltwater inlet (right) in polder 7/1 ...... 142 Figure 8.1 Vulnerability Framework depicting components of vulnerability (Turner et al., 2003) ...... 146 Figure 8.2: A timeline showing expansion of shrimp cultivation area in southwest coastal region of Bangladesh (Adopted from Fisheries Resources Survey System (FRSS), 2010) ...... 152 Figure 8.3: Shrimp ponds and saltwater inlet in polder 7/1 ...... 153 Figure 8.4: Extent of inundation and damage to embankments in Polders 7/1 and 32 (JICA, 2012) ...... 159 Figure 8.5: Condition of the houses on the embankments and the interior of the polder 7/1 after Aila in October 2009 (five months after the strike) ...... 160 Figure 8.6: Landuse in polder 32 (above) and polder 7/1 (Below) ...... 165 Figure 8.7: The LPG processing Plant (top) and the ongoing CEIP work in Polder 33 ...... 166
x Impact of Structural Development Projects on Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Disaster
List of Tables
Table 2.1: Disaster-Development Interactions ...... 11 Table 3.1: Summary of major discourses in Political Ecology ...... 47 Table 3.2: List of Major Documents Reviewed ...... 52 Table 3.3: Summary of Respondents ...... 55 Table 3.4: Criteria for selection of respondents for in-depth interviews ...... 56 Table 3.5: Age distribution of local level key informants ...... 56 Table 3.6: Summary of the research methodology followed in the study ...... 62 Table 4.1: Summary of major water resources related features in the Development Plans of Bangladesh (1947-2018) ...... 88 Table 5.1: Polders identified for intervention under CEIP-1 (Source: BWDB, 2013b) ...... 104 Table 8.1: Cross-temporal vulnerability scenarios...... 168
Impact of Structural Development Projects on Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Disaster xi
List of Abbreviations
ADB Asian Development Bank BBC Bogardi-Birkmann-Cardona (Vulnerability Framework) BBS Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics BUET Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology BWDB Bangladesh Water Development Board CEIP Coastal Embankment Improvement Project CEP Coastal Embankment Project CERP Coastal Embankment Rehabilitation Project DRRO Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation Officer ECNEC Executive Committee of the National Economic Council ECRRP Emergency Cyclone Reconstruction and Rehabilitation Project EIA Environmental Impact Assessment EIP Early Implementation Project EPADC East Pakistan Agricultural Development Corporation EPWAPDA East Pakistan Eater and Power Development Authority FAP Flood Action Plan FCD Flood Control and Drainage FCDI Flood Control, Drainage and Irrigation FRSS Fisheries Resources Survey System FYP Five Year Plan GBM Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (River System) HFA Hyogo Framework for Action IBRD International Bank for Reconstruction and Development IDNDR International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction IECO International Engineering Company (Inc) IFRCS International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies IWFM Institute of Water and Flood Management IWRM Integrated Water Resources Management JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency CPP Cyclone Preparedness Programme KCERP Khulna Coastal Embankment Rehabilitation Programme
Impact of Structural Development Projects on Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Disaster xiii
KJDRP Khulna-Jessore Drainage Rehabilitation Project LPG Liquid Petroleum Gas MoWR Ministry of Water Resources MP Member of Parliament NDP New Development Perspective NGO Non-Government Organization NWMP National Water Management Plan O&M Operation and Maintenance PAR Pressure and Release (Vulnerability Model) PCR Project Completion Report PIO Project Implementation Officer PRSP Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers PWP Priority Works Programme SES Social-Ecological System TOR Terms of Reference UNDP United Nations Development Programme UNDRO United Nations Disaster Relief Organization UNECAFE United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East UNEP United Nations Environment Programme USAID United States Agency for International Development VGD Vulnerable Group Development VGF Vulnerable Group Feeding WARPO Water Resources Planning Organization WB World Bank WCDR World Conference on Disaster Reduction WCED World Commission on Environment and Development UNISDR United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction WMO Water Management Organization WPWAPDA West Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority
xiv Impact of Structural Development Projects on Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Disaster Statement of Original Authorship
The work contained in this thesis has not been previously submitted to meet requirements for an award at this or any other higher education institution. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference is made.
Signature: QUT Verified Signature
Date: 04 September 2019
Impact of Structural Development Projects on Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Disaster xv
Acknowledgements
At first I would like to offer my gratitude to the Australian Government’s Department of Education and Training, and the Queensland University of Technology for the generous scholarships I have received over my PhD candidature. I am grateful to my research supervisors for their prudent guidance and kind support rendered to me throughout my PhD journey. My Principal Supervisor, Professor Les Dawes, helped me plan and navigate through this journey in a manner that I never felt too troubled. He was always there every time I needed any consultation, and his calmness and composure always gave me the strength that I would be able to accomplish my goal in a timely manner. My Associate Supervisor Dr Paul Donehue has been immensely helpful towards the formulation of an appropriate research design and the conceptualisation of the analytical strategies. Both Les and Paul provided their comments on every section of my thesis in a real- time manner that has enabled me to finalize my thesis on time. My External Supervisor Professor Rezaur Rahman of the Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM) of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) has been the major inspiration for me for taking up water resources development as my area of research. I am indebted to him for helping me find the right direction for my research, and also for the crucial support he provided during my data collection phase in Bangladesh. I am also thankful to my former supervisor Mrs Mellini Sloan. I am grateful to Dr David King and another anonymous examiner for their thoughtful comments on my thesis which have helped me enhance the quality of my work. Data collection for my research in Dacope, Khulna was facilitated by Mr Nasir Uddin Ahmed, and in Shyamnagar, Satkhira by Mr Sharifullah Kaisar Shumon and Ms Amina Bilkis Moyna. I express my heartfelt gratitude to them for their kind and selfless support. I also thank my friend Ar. Moniruzzaman Mondal for introducing me to my facilitator in Khulna. The two local community facilitators, Mr Biprodas Roy and Mr Shahin Billah from Dacope and Shyamnagar respectively, passionately supported me during the data collection in their localities. I am grateful to them for their kind assistance. I am forever grateful to the community people I have interviewed for their warm and unreserved support. I am also thankful to the water resources development professionals at national and local levels who were kind enough to spare time for the interviews despite their busy schedules. I am grateful to Engr. Fazlur Rashid, Director, Bangladesh Water Development Board and Planner MM Ashraf Reza Faridy, Senior Assistant Chief, Bangladesh Planning Commission for granting me access to the historical documents in the libraries of their respective organizations. I am thankful to Imran Hossain Newton of IWFM and my friend Nandita Basu for their kind help with the polder maps. The friends I have made here at QUT over the last few years have been very supportive and understanding. I admire their sincere cooperation. I would like to particularly mention Dr Saifuzzaman, Dr Lachlan McClure, Samia Sharmin, Nandita Basu, Apu Banik, Urmee Chowdhury, Mark Limb, Khaled Anowar Sagar, and Mohammed Shafiul Azam for their kind support and encouragement at different stages of my research. I am grateful to Dr
Impact of Structural Development Projects on Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Disaster xvii
Tracy Washington for providing me the opportunity to work with her. I am indebted to Dr Kamruzzaman Liton for his moral support at the time I needed it most. I am grateful to IRDR (Integrated Research on Disaster Risk) for accepting me into their Young Scientists Programme which helped me obtain a scholarship to attend the World Social Science Forum (WSSF) 2018 in Japan for presenting a paper. I offer my gratitude to Khondker Neaz Rahman, my teacher at BUET, for his never-ending inspirations. I consider myself privileged for having the opportunity of working with Professor Fuad Hassan Mallick of BRAC University in Bangladesh. The experience of working under his supervision has been enlightening in many ways, and I would not be the person I am now unless I found him as a mentor. I remember my friend Gaurab Rajbanshi who met an untimely death while studying in the USA. Gaurab insisted that I should be doing a PhD when I did not even imagine anything close to it. I am thankful to my friend Sazzad Rahim Tomal and my brother in law Mominul Islam Sohel for their generous support from Bangladesh without which it would have been difficult for me to carry on with my research and take care of my family. On the same note, I gratefully acknowledge the kind support and inspirations from my parents in law, Mahbuba Sarker and Mohammad Abdur Razzaque Sarker. I cannot thank enough my wife Shamima Sultana and our daughter Nahla Aura for their endless patience and support. My engagement in research cost them considerably in terms of their social engagement over the last four years. I appreciate them for keeping up with me throughout the highs and lows. Finally, I remember my parents Delwara Begum and Mohammad Motiur Rahman, for their unconditional love and care, and the privileges they gave me over their other children. I have no word to express my indebtedness to them. I wish I could tell you how much I miss you, Amma and Abba.
xviii Impact of Structural Development Projects on Vulnerability of Coastal Communities to Disaster
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 BACKGROUND
Physical infrastructure refers to fundamental structures which are necessary for the proper functioning of a society among which roads, bridges and embankments are important. As an indispensable element of economic growth, all nations strive for physical infrastructure development.
Bangladesh is a deltaic plain and her coastal zone had been largely unprotected from saline water intrusion until the initiation of the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) in 1961 supported by extensive foreign assistance (The World Bank, 2005b). With the primary objective of increasing agricultural productivity of the region, the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) created 108 polders1 (later 31 more were added under other projects) spread across the entire coastal belt of Bangladesh (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013d). In the southwest region alone, 1,566 km of embankments and 282 sluices were constructed by the Bangladesh Water Development Board (Dewan, Mukherji, & Buisson, 2015). The immediate impacts were positive; from being able to harvest paddy only during the rainy season, people in some locations could now cultivate two crops per year. Although the polders were not designed to provide protection against storm surges, they provided certain level of protection and acted as first line of defence against them (Rahman, n.d.). People got accustomed to such protection, and their life and livelihoods were gradually transformed and shaped by the safety provided by the polders.
1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT
Taking advantage of the saline free environment, agriculture flourished within the polders, human habitation spread and the poldered areas have been densely
1 Polders are areas enclosed on all sides by dykes or embankments separating the land from the main river system and offering protection against tidal floods, salinity intrusion and sedimentation. The polders were designed to keep the land safe from the daily tide to allow for agriculture activities. Without embankments the coastal communities would be exposed to diurnal tidal fluctuations. These polders are equipped with in- and outlet sluice gates to control the water inside the embanked area (BWDB, 2013).
Chapter 1: Introduction 1
settled (Alamgir, 2010). Starting from the 1980s, many of the polders were converted into brackish water shrimp farming areas (Rahman, n.d.). In this process, numerous unplanned inlet structures were added to the embankments to facilitate saline water intake for shrimp cultivation.
In 2009, cyclone Aila severely affected the southwestern coast of Bangladesh killing 190 persons and impacting over 3.9 million people (Mahmud & Prowse, 2012). Individuals engaged in shrimp and crop cultivation lost their means of livelihoods as most of the land became subject to diurnal tidal flooding due to breaching of embankments (Mallick & Vogt, 2012). Intrusion of saline water damaged the fertility of land rendering it unsuitable for cultivation (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013c). Long before the breaching of the embankment by the cyclone, siltation of peripheral rivers surrounding the embankment caused coastal polders to suffer from internal drainage congestion which led to large scale environmental, social and economic degradation (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013c). The already prevailing discrimination (Alamgir, 2010) in terms of entitlement of resources and hence access to basic services, together with the impact of natural disasters (cyclones) has led to many social crises in the region. There are cases of both seasonal and permanent migration to urban areas. Shattering livelihood options due to cyclone Aila reportedly compelled 78% of affected survivors to migrate to adjacent urban areas in search of alternative means of livelihoods (Mallick & Vogt, 2012; Mallick, Rahaman, & Vogt, 2011).
The current fragile state of the physical and social environments in south-west coastal zone of Bangladesh is generally attributed to the structural interventions that started with the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) and followed up by other complementary ones (Coastal Embankment Rehabilitation Project, Khulna-Jessore Drainage Rehabilitation Project and Coastal Embankment Improvement Project, among others). The primary objective of the structural intervention in that area was to restrict tidal flooding for increasing crop production in the face of rising population growth in the country and this was achieved to a considerable extent (Zaman, 1983). However, it quickly became clear that the emphasis on large-scale infrastructure development plans severely underestimated local complexities, both social and hydrological (Royal Haskoning, 2003) which led to the consequences (like drainage congestion in the rivers, waterlogging inside the polders, shortage of
2 Chapter 1: Introduction
irrigation water and the subsequent social crises like marginalization of crop farmers to shrimp cultivators, soil and water salinity inside the polders etc.) culminating to vulnerable conditions of the community. This practice, i.e. excessive reliance on physical infrastructure without much consideration of social-ecological complexities and the subsequent crises, is common across developing nations as they strive for development (Mathur, 2016; Mathur, 2015; Zaman & Gonnetilleke, 2015). The role of engineering structures for development is undeniable but at the same time they have limitations which sometimes go unaddressed leaving engineering structures to blame. The provisions of operations and maintenance of engineering structures as well as local and broader governance are among the issues associated to the proper functioning of engineering systems. When engineering solutions are desired for economic development, there is a gap in our understanding as to why they fall short of the expectations and give rise to detrimental effects.
This study looks at the linkages of development and disaster vulnerability from the viewpoint of social-ecological systems. It investigates how development may accompany some unintended consequences which may in the long run cause vulnerability of communities. Subjectively, the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) has been taken as the development case and the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh as the case study location.
1.3 RATIONALE OF THE STUDY
Considerable research work has been carried out on the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh after cyclone Aila in 2009 left the community in a miserable condition. These works mostly dealt with the post-disaster vulnerability issues of the community and their coping mechanisms. Other research works carried out on the southwest coast include issues pertaining to shrimp cultivation. While all these works are useful for the understanding of the socio-economic dynamics of that region, a broad perspective on development approach is missing. There is mention of the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) in many of these research works as the primary cause of the community’s plight, but rarely any exploration into that project background was carried out. All these contributed to the taking up of this study. Besides, the researcher had felt a sense of professional obligation to explore deeply into the causes of the community’s predicament as he was deeply touched by their sufferings while working on that location after cyclone Aila.
Chapter 1: Introduction 3
1.4 AIM, OBJECTIVES AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS
The aim of this research is to address the transformation of the bio-physical environment of the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh which was triggered by the implementation of the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP). In doing so, the following two core questions have been formulated that this research seeks to answer:
Research Question 1: How do social, environmental and political factors interact in the adoption of water resources infrastructure development projects?
This question addresses the key factors that necessitated the taking-up of the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP)2. The socio-economic circumstances of the country as a whole have been analysed to understand why this project was deemed necessary. This question seeks to answer how the environmental issues that would arise consequently were taken into consideration at the planning and design stages. Political ecology as the analytical lens has facilitated the analysis of various factors at different levels in the decision making process with regards to water resources development in Bangladesh.
The following two specific objectives have been formulated in order to answer the first Research Question:
To analyse how water resources development evolved throughout the development planning process of Bangladesh.
To examine the evolution of structural development projects in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh that began with the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP).
Research Question 2: How did the physical infrastructure transform coastal communities?
The coastal embankment project was considered beneficial as the primary objective of enhancing agricultural production was largely met. But with the passing of time, the undesirable consequences including large scale environmental
2 By ‘water resources infrastructure development project’, here the human-built physical structures (embankments and regulators) have been meant.
4 Chapter 1: Introduction
degradation and contested use of land (crop Vs shrimp) started surfacing, rendering communities vulnerable to disasters. Communities’ dependency and expectations from coastal embankments kept rising until waterlogging and successive soil salinity and water and sanitation issues became widespread. The situation was further worsened by the cyclone in 2009 which breached embankments in many locations exposing the once protected land and the inhabitants to diurnal tidal events. From the point of view of the vulnerable populations, this question examines how their vulnerability is connected to policies and actions pertaining to infrastructure development and management.
The following two specific objectives help answer the second Research Question:
To investigate how coastal embankments impacted the coastal social- ecological system.
To address the role of embankments in coastal communities’ vulnerability to disaster.
1.5 CONTRIBUTION TO KNOWLEDGE
This research helps understand the complex human-environment relationships in a hydro-geo-morphologically sensitive deltaic plain. It unfolds the nature and extent of changes in the socio-economic regime of humans as a consequence of intervention into ecology. This research also sheds light on the development planning processes and their implications from a broad view of political ecology. Traversing through the evolution of the concepts of ‘development’, this research reinstates that the coexistence of nature and humans cannot be underestimated in any structural interventions for development to be sustainable. The findings of this research will contribute to the benefits of considering social-ecological systems as a unit of analysis for assessing impacts of any structural development project so that the unintended negative consequences could be minimized and the vulnerability of the communities could be reduced.
Methodologically, the conceptual framework formulated for this research will contribute to the better understanding of the development-vulnerability nexus from infrastructure development perspective. Integrating social-ecological system concept to address transformation in the coastal area leading to disaster vulnerability, and
Chapter 1: Introduction 5
connecting policy implications behind this is a novel approach which can be replicated for research in similar contexts.
1.6 ORGANIZATION OF THESIS
This thesis has been organized in nine chapters. Chapter 1 sets the background to the research and introduces the problem statement that this research is going to deal with. Chapter 2 reviews literature evolving the key issues around the problem statement and leads to identifying the gaps in current research concerning physical infrastructure development initiatives and community’s vulnerability to disasters. Chapter 3 elaborates the processes that this research has followed in view to addressing the research gap which includes the nature of inquiry this study has followed and the methods used for data collection and data analysis in accordance with the research questions. Chapter 4 identifies the evolution of institutionalized water resources management in Bangladesh that came as part of the economic development planning process while Chapter 5 specifically addresses the evolution of the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) as part of the water resources management master plan, and its legacy in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh. Chapter 6 constitutes a general description of the case study locations (polders 32 and 33 in Khulna and polder 7/1 in Satkhira). Chapter 7 first details different elements of the polder social-ecological systems and then moves on to explaining how those elements interacted to transform the coastal communities. This is followed by Chapter 8 where an integrated analysis of vulnerability scenarios in the case study locations has been presented. Finally in Chapter 9, the major findings and outcomes of the research, and the conclusion, the limitations of the study as well as some directives for future research in light of this study have been detailed.
The research steps followed in this study is presented in the following diagram (Figure 1.1) in schematic form.
6 Chapter 1: Introduction
Figure 1.1: Research Processes in Schematic Form
The next chapter constitutes the review of related literature and the subsequent identification of research gaps that this study is intended to address.
Chapter 1: Introduction 7
Chapter 2: Literature Review
This chapter provides a review of literature involving the key issues covered under this research and leads to the identification of the gaps in current research concerning physical infrastructure development initiatives and community vulnerability to disasters. Organised in five sequential parts, the first section discusses how over time the concept of development has evolved from a narrow economy-oriented focus to a more inclusive and human-wellbeing oriented concept of sustainable development. This is followed by section two where a review of literature on impacts of infrastructure development has been carried out. Section three discusses the interrelationships among hazard, risk and vulnerability. The fourth section is a review of different concepts of vulnerability developed from different perspectives. This section shows how vulnerability has evolved as a concept overarching disaster, environment and development followed by a summary and synthesis. Finally, section five identifies the research gaps that this study is intended to meet.
2.1 THE CONCEPT OF DEVELOPMENT
In the general sense, ‘development’ means a process attempting to improve people’s living conditions (Bartelmus, 1986:3). The term ‘development’ can be explained as a ‘goal’ which countries strive to achieve, as well as a process involving ‘causal relationships’ (Ingham, 1993). Development at country or national level refers to economic development in the first place. However, there has been a major shift in the concept of development since the time when development economics emerged as an academic discipline after World War II (ibid). The 19th century circumstances when ‘economic growth’ was considered synonymous to ‘development’ now differ radically (ibid). According to the UNDP (1990), the primary objective of development is to benefit people with a view to creating an enabling environment for them. When the expansion of output and wealth is considered only a means, the end of development must be human well-being; and development analysis and planning should focus to relate the means to the ultimate end (UNDP, 1990). According to Adams (2009), development can be taken to mean the production of social change that allows people to achieve their human potential.
Chapter 2: Literature Review 9
However, development remains an ambiguous and elusive concept which may lead into a semantic, political and indeed moral maze (ibid).
According to Watts (1995), the word development came into English language in the eighteenth century and shortly attained an association with organicism (theory that the total organization of an organism rather than the functioning of individual organs is the determinant of life processes) and ideas of unfolding change and growth (Watts, 1995 in Adams, 2009). By the beginning of the nineteenth century, development had become a linear theory of progress, bound up with capitalism and western cultural hegemony, something advanced through mercantilism and colonial imperialism (Cowen & Shenton, 2000).
Goulet (1992) argues about the ambiguity that development poses both as a term and as a practice. He posits,
…[D]evelopment refers either to the ends or to the means of social change. Development is simultaneously the vision of a better life -- a life materially richer, institutionally more “modern”, and technologically more efficient -- and an array of means to achieve that vision ( Goulet, 1992, p. 467). The descriptive use of the term ‘development’ endeavours to describe what happens in the world as societies, environments and economies change while the normative use aspires to set out what should happen ( Goulet, 1995).
The UNDP’s endeavour to transcend the narrowly economic vision of development (that had been in practice till the 1990) and to construct new development indicators to address ‘human development’ was observed as a testimony to the growing disaffection with prevailing conceptions and measures of that fugitive, complex reality known as development (Perez et al, 1990 in Goulet, 1992).
Development has been dubbed the central organizing concept of modern time (Cowen & Shenton, 2000). Development study has flourished monumentally since the 1950s with the earlier dominance of economic and political models becoming less apparent and the cultural accounts jostling for space alongside emphasizing equity, gender and environmental concerns (Corbridge, 2000).
Enhancing human well-being – the degree to which people aspire to live their lives and the chances they need to accomplish their potential – is the central issue of the concept of development (UNEP, 2007). The connection between environment
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and well-being is complex, non-linear and influenced by multiple factors which include, among others, social relations, governance and the different aspects of vulnerability (UNEP, 2007).
Natural disasters are closely linked to the human development processes (UNDP, 2004). While disasters are a threat to development achievements/gains, inappropriate development interventions can set the pathway for risk accumulation (ibid). In an approach to clarify the interaction between disaster and development, UNDP (2004) distinguishes human development into two interdependent and overlapping elements: economic development (concerns economic production and its supporting infrastructure, for example transport networks to enable market access and the integrity of natural resources for the sustainability of resource-dependent livelihoods) and social development (includes social assets such as inclusive governance, health and educational infrastructure that enables participation). Table 2.1 shows how these two elements and their constituent components (institutional and political) are impacted by disaster.
Table 2.1: Disaster-Development Interactions
Economic Development Social Development
Destruction of fixed assets. Loss of Destruction of health or education production capacity, market access or infrastructure and personnel. Disaster limits material inputs. Damage to transport, Death, disablement or migration of development communications or energy key social actors leading to an infrastructure. Erosion of livelihoods, erosion of social capital. savings and physical capital. Unsustainable development practices Development that create wealth for some at the Development paths generating causes disaster expense of unsafe working or living cultural norms that promote social risk conditions for others or degrade the isolation or political exclusion. environment. Building community cohesion, Access to adequate drinking water, recognising excluded individuals food, waste management and a or social groups (such as women), Development secure dwelling increases people’s and providing opportunities for reduces disaster resiliency. Trade and technology can greater involvement in decision- risk reduce poverty. Investing in financial making, enhanced educational and mechanisms and social security can health capacity increases cushion against vulnerability. resiliency.
Source: UNDP, 2004, p.20
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The pursuance of economic security and wealth have very often led to increased vulnerability of human societies and this negative relationship between development and vulnerability has a strong role in defining sustainable development (Anderson, 1995). The definition of sustainable development as put forth by the World Commission on Environment and Development which was created by Resolution 38/161 of the General Assemble of the United Nations in 1983 stands as: “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (WCED, 1987, p. 42).
In other words, sustainable development requires meeting the basic needs of all and extending to all the opportunity to satisfy their aspirations for a better life (ibid). The concept of sustainable development offers a framework for the integration of environmental policies and development strategies using the term ‘development’ in its broadest sense. While ‘development’ is used to refer to the processes of economic and social change in the Third World, the integration of environment and development is essential for all countries, rich and poor, in the pursuit of development to be sustainable (ibid).
The World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) is the prime mover towards the adoption of the concept of sustainable development and the pathway to achieve it. WCED stated development and environment as inseparably linked and so are the challenges associated with each of them (WCED, 1987). The historic document Our Common Future unambiguously spells out:
Development cannot subsist upon a deteriorating environmental resource base; the environment cannot be protected when growth leaves out of account the costs of environmental destruction. These problems cannot be treated separately by fragmented institutions and policies. They are linked in a complex system of cause and effect (WCED, 1987, p. 36).
In explaining the linkages, WCED underscores that economics and ecology must be completely integrated in decision-making and law-making processes not just to protect the environment, but also to protect and promote development (ibid). It further argues that the distribution of power and influence within society lies at the heart of most environment and development challenges. Failure to address these challenges may lead to more complex situations posing threats to achieving sustainability of development. The following section discusses some aspects of
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negative outcomes of infrastructure development arising as a result of lack of forethought in project formulation and execution.
2.2 UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES3 OF INFRASTRUCTURE DEVELOPMENT
Infrastructure development is deemed to be a prerequisite for economic development which every nation strives for. Generally, the viability of any development project is measured through cost-benefit analysis where mostly financial aspects are accounted for by the decision makers, regulatory authorities and developers. But all costs and benefits may not be measureable or quantifiable (Vanclay, 2003). For infrastructure projects that encompass a large number of elements with intricate relationships, the ex-ante prediction of adverse effects would be inconclusive. There is a growing concern about the unintended consequences of infrastructure development as the detrimental effects of past interventions unfold with the passing of time.
Infrastructure development projects are also called economic development projects while some categorize them as Mega-projects or Giga-projects based on the project costs (monetary) and complexity (Flyvbjerg, Bruzelius, & Rothengatter, 2003). Extending Schumpeter's (1947) use of the term, Gellert & Lynch (2003:15) argue that mega projects entail ‘creative destruction’ in a material sense: they transform landscapes rapidly and radically, displacing mountaintops, rivers, flora and fauna, as well as humans and their communities. Analytically, Mega-projects are divided into four types: infrastructure (ports, railroads, urban water and sewer systems); extraction (minerals, oil and gas); production (industrial tree plantations, export processing zones, and manufacturing parks) and consumption (tourist installations, malls, theme parks, and real estate developments) (Gellert & Lynch, 2003). When any of these project types is implemented, other types occur as forward or backward linkages (ibid). According to Othman & Ahmed (2013), large
3 The notion ‘unintended consequences’ here in this text refers to the situations or issues resulting from a structural intervention which were not considered nor were intended when the project was conceptualized. For our case, the unintended consequences of the coastal embankment project (CEP) are the drainage congestion inside the polders due to siltation in the rivers and the successive social and environmental phenomena. However, when ‘unintended consequences’ is placed face to face with ‘unanticipated consequences’, they are an issue of philosophical debate in social sciences (e.g. de Zwart, 2015).
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infrastructure projects are especially on the rise in the developing nations with half of infrastructure investments taking place in emerging economies.
There is a growing trend in the body of literature dealing with the impacts of infrastructure projects as the investment in megaprojects is booming globally (Merrow, 2011 and KPMG International, 2013). This literature critically looks into the social outcomes of infrastructure development projects along with their economic outcomes and reports of shortfalls of both (economic and social outcomes) (Flyvbjerg, Garbuio & Lovallo, 2009). However, in terms of impacts on communities, most of this literature speaks about communities’ physical displacements and the consecutive social and economic aspects (Redford & Agrawal, 2007; Gellert & Lynch, 2003; Sharma, 2003 and Downing, 2002). According to Sharma (2003), the intensity of adverse effects arising from involuntary displacement of people inflicted by infrastructure or industrial projects these days was never comprehended in the past.
Displacement and resettlement inflicted by hydropower and mining projects is a well-known global phenomenon (Phelan & Dawes, 2013). These are considered as key demographic processes related to the projects (Redford & Agrawal, 2007 and Cernea, 2005). As a consequence of projects, communities facing land acquisition may lose both physical and non-physical assets which include habitats, productive resources and lands, and social and cultural networks (Phelan & Dawes, 2013). Among the communities who are hit the hardest by mega-projects, as observed by sociologists and anthropologists, are the traditional and indigenous communities and the politically weak and powerless populations, especially in developing countries. On a global scale, tribal peoples, the elderly and women have been found to be most vulnerable to impoverishment as the result of development (Phelan & Dawes, 2013). Carenea (2000) identified eight common processes to construct a general risk pattern associated to displacement; they are: landlessness, joblessness, homelessness, marginalisation, food insecurity, increased morbidity and mortality, loss of access to common property and services, and social disarticulation. Despite various efforts including policies and programmes regarding resettlement, rehabilitation and compensation, the social costs of displacement are high (Cernea, 2005 and Maldonado, 2008). Studies show that worldwide an estimated fifteen million people are displaced every year by development projects (Phelan & Dawes, 2013).
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Finsterbusch (1980) identified the following 13 impact areas arising as effects of public projects:
Population Changes Employment Changes Displacement and Relocation Neighbourhood Disruption Noise Impacts Aesthetics Impacts Accessibility Changes Leisure/Recreation Impacts Health and safety Citizens’ Reactions Stressful Community Growth Community Decline Landuse Change
Among all these effects, landuse change stands out to be the most significant one as it leads to all other effects listed. Physical infrastructure development needs land to build on which is acquired through displacing the occupants or the people dependent on it economically. This physical or economic displacement relocates people disrupting neighbourhood dynamics or social networks and changing population and employment dynamics.
The Sardar Sarovar Project is said to be the world’s largest water project which include the construction of a high dam on the river Narmada (Berger, 1994) in India. Commencing in 1987, this project is said to submerge approximately 37,000 hectares of land for the reservoir and approximately 80,000 hectares for the extensive canal works (Flood, 1997). This is the second largest project in the Narmada Valley in terms of submergence of area and also the number of displaced people. With the view of harnessing the river Narmada’s strength for agricultural and industrial growth (Wood, 1993), the project proponents’ justification for this project was to bring enormous benefits to millions whilst displacing relatively few people (Morse & Berger, 1992). However, the number of people to be affected is calculated to be 100,000 residing in approximately 245 villages. Further to this, approximately 140,000 farmers are said to be affected by the canal and irrigation systems while an
Chapter 2: Literature Review 15
unknown number of people downstream would be affected because of disturbance of fisheries (Morse & Berger, 1992). Though the impact on the ‘few’ seemed minimal to many in favour of the project (Flood, 1997), the reality is that the physical displacement and the effects on lives and livelihoods of the project affected persons are not limited to the present (ibid). Rather, the dam and its accompanying projects set the stage for further displacement by increasing economic vulnerability of the people (ibid).
The Jamuna Multipurpose Bridge Project in Bangladesh was a US$ 800 million high-profile infrastructure project. Under this project (later renamed the Bangabandhu Bridge Project) a 4.8 km road-cum-rail bridge was built over the river Jamuna which established a strategic link between the eastern and western parts of the country and facilitated trade within and beyond the borders (Mohammad Zaman & Gonnetilleke, 2015). For this project nearly 3,000 ha of land was acquired for the construction of the bridge and other associated services as well as two large resettlement sites. Surveys found that a total of 11,948 households containing 80,000 persons were affected out of which the directly affected 51% lost immoveable properties (land and homestead structures). The remaining 49% were the less indirectly affected people which include mostly the tenant cultivators, farm workers and non-farm workers. However, during the implementation of the project, the number of affected households increased from 11,948 to 16,000 turning the total affected persons to 105,000. Of these 16,000 affected households, 3,600 required relocation and resettlement as they lost their homesteads and the rest lost agricultural land only without physical displacement (ibid).
Located about 180 km west of the capital, Kathmandu, the Kali Gandaki Hydropower Project was the largest in the country. With the primary objective of meeting increasing demand for electricity, the project cost at appraisal was estimated at US$ 453 million. Completed in December 2003 with a two-and-a-half year delay, this project suffered from lots of disputes and controversies related to social and environmental management issues. These involved resettlement, income losses and loss of livelihood sources by the affected persons and communities which continued even after the completion of the project (Zaman & Gonnetilleke, 2015).
Development projects often end up leaving people in a worse off condition compared to the pre-development state mostly because the possible adverse social
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impacts arising as consequences of the projects are not considered with due diligence (Mathur, 2015). Based on the types of development projects, the nature and degree of impacts vary; for example, impacts from a mining project may surface in stages over time while those from a dam construction project may affect vast areas all at once. Similarly, the impacts of development projects are not the same on all project area people; some people are hit harder than others (ibid).
2.3 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RISK, HAZARD AND VULNERABILITY
Disaster risk is defined as the likelihood over a specified time period of severe alterations in the normal functioning of a community or a society due to hazardous physical events interacting with vulnerable social conditions (IPCC, 2012). This leads to widespread adverse human, material, economic, or environmental effects that require immediate emergency response to satisfy critical human needs and that may require external support for recovery (ibid). Disaster risk is composed of hazard and vulnerability. UNISDR, (n.d.) defines hazard as a dangerous phenomenon, substance, human activity or condition that may cause loss of life, injury or other health impacts, property damage, loss of livelihoods and services, social and economic disruption, or environmental damage. Vulnerability is the characteristics and circumstances of a community, system or asset that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard (ibid). While hazard is a physical/tangible element, vulnerability encompasses physical, social, economic and environmental factors or processes, which increase the susceptibility of a community to the impact of hazards (UNISDR, 2004). According to UNDP (2004), human vulnerability is a condition or process resulting from physical, social, economic and environmental factors, which determine the likelihood and scale of damage from the impact of a given hazard. Human vulnerability includes within it the vulnerability of social and economic systems, health status, physical infrastructure and environmental assets.
Vulnerability has been the core of disaster research for quite some time (Adger, 2006). According to Lee (2014), a report by UNDRO (1980) was one of the first to offer theoretical perspectives on vulnerability and to underscore the need for vulnerability analysis. The key UN conferences [namely, the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR), the Millennium Declaration of 2000 and the accompanying Millennium Development Goals, and the World Conference on
Chapter 2: Literature Review 17
Disaster Reduction (WCDR)] later followed the spirit of the UNDRO report that set the discursive foundation of the practices that followed (Lee, 2014). This continued through the formulation of the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015 (United Nations, 2005) and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030) (United Nations, 2015) by the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR). Disaster research globally has been drawing increasing attention to the social conditions that influence how people are affected by such disruptions. Oliver-Smith (2004: 10) considers vulnerability as ‘…the conceptual nexus that links the relationship that people have with their environment to social forces and institutions and the cultural values that sustain or contest them’. He further states that the concept of vulnerability offers a theoretical framework that covers the multifariousness of disasters by combining elements of environment, society and culture in various proportions (ibid).
2.4 THE CONCEPT OF VULNERABILITY
There are many aspects of vulnerability arising from various physical, social, economic, and environmental factors. Examples may include poor design and construction of buildings, inadequate protection of assets, lack of public information and awareness, limited official recognition of risks and preparedness measures, and disregard for wise environmental management. Vulnerability varies significantly within a community and over time. This definition identifies vulnerability as a characteristic of the element of interest (community, system or asset) which is independent of its exposure (UNISDR, n.d.).
Schneiderbauer and Ehrlich (2006) identify vulnerability in six social levels: individual, household, administrative community, cultural community, national and regional (Figure 2.1). They note that the average vulnerability of an individual is made up of the vulnerabilities connected to each of these social levels. For the better quantification at a particular social level, vulnerability is also distinguished as hazard-independent and hazard-dependent types (ibid). Hazard-independent parameters of vulnerability describe general aspects of development, which includes income, health and education along with access to information, or the existence of disaster plans. Hazard-dependent parameters of vulnerability describe people’s vulnerability to a given hazard and they largely are of a physical nature such as the quality of construction. However, hazard dependent vulnerability also covers social
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and cultural aspects such as preparedness for drought or the rate of vaccination against diseases (ibid).
Figure 2.1: Social levels and relevant characteristics of vulnerability (Schneiderbauer & Ehrlich, 2006)
The concept of vulnerability is regarded as a powerful analytical tool to describe the negative attributes of physical and social systems and for reducing risk (Adger, 2006). Wisner, Blaikie, Cannon, & Davis (2004) state that vulnerability is rooted in social processes and underlying causes and Cutter (1996) duly recognizes social aspects as one of the elements that determine place vulnerability. Disasters are considered socially constructed (Adger, Brooks, Bentham, & Agnew, 2004; Adger et al., 2011; Cutter, 1996; Cutter, Carolina, Boruff, & Shirley, 2003; Khan, 2012; Tierney, 2007) and vulnerability varies across societies.
Warner (2007) identifies social vulnerability as the inability of people, societies, and organizations to withstand adverse impacts resulting from stressors to which they are exposed. She further argues that social vulnerability is due in part to characteristics inherent in social interactions, institutions, and systems of cultural
Chapter 2: Literature Review 19
values (ibid.). The multidisciplinary field of social vulnerability research emerges to address the issues arising as results of complex interaction among all these elements.
Physical vulnerability emphasizes the probability of exposure to risks associated with natural disasters (Adger et al., 2004; Cutter, 1996; Cutter et al., 2003), social vulnerability deals with the state that precedes disasters (Finch, Emrich, & Cutter, 2010 and Schmidtlein, Shafer, Berry, & Cutter, 2011) and includes social, economic, political and institutional elements (European Commission, 2011 in Lee, 2014). Social vulnerability is defined by the possession of social attributes that increase susceptibility to disasters (Zahran, Brody, Peacock, Vedlitz, & Grover, 2008). Social vulnerability scholars examine why types of persons locate in hazardous places, live in inadequate homes, fail to anticipate, resist, and/or recover from the aftermath of a disaster, and analyse the economic and social forces that mould and determine these dynamics (ibid.).
Social vulnerability is recognised as an integral element for the understanding of risk to natural hazards. Though the development of an all-encompassing model for measuring social vulnerability is a task yet to be accomplished, there are some accepted parameters for addressing it at different levels. At the individual level, vulnerability can be assessed using factors like age, health, personal savings, education etc., while at the household level, materials used for house construction, family level insurance etc. are considered as parameters ((Birkmann, 2006).
Social vulnerability goes beyond individual risks that vulnerable people face (Nakagawa & Shaw, 2004; Cannon, Twigg, & Rowell, 2003). The social vulnerability approach examines the overall relationships of and between individuals, organizations, society, and culture (Birkmann, 2006) in order to build profound and systemic resilience to shocks (Warner, 2007). Improved understanding of the factors that make certain social groups vulnerable to stressors is crucial in order to formulate the solutions which will shape policy responses to foster resilience, and methods to move from knowledge to action, to reduce the vulnerability of society to multiple stressors (ibid.). There is a growing consensus among experts that understanding vulnerability is vital to reducing the negative effects of crises, disasters, and other shocks on society (Birkmann, 2006).
Vulnerability is multifarious in nature (Bohle, 2002a, 2002b) and different disciplines have developed different definitions and pre-analytic visions of it
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(Birkmann, 2006). The following section discusses different concepts of vulnerability to give a comprehensive idea about how vulnerability associates environment and development.
2.4.1 The Double Structure of Vulnerability The Double Structure of Vulnerability model by Bohle is seen as the first step to the conceptual progress in the field of vulnerability analysis under conditions of global environmental change (Bohle, 2001). It provides some insights into the causal structures of vulnerability besides serving as a model for vulnerability analysis (ibid.).
In this conceptual model of vulnerability, Bohle distinguishes external and internal sides of vulnerability following Chambers (1989). Attributing the ‘external’ perspective mainly to the structural dimensions of vulnerability and risk, Bohle elaborates the ‘internal’ dimension of vulnerability through this model. To grasp the whole range of coping strategies, Bohle follows three main strands of conceptual and theoretical discussions: The Action Theory Approaches, The Models of Access to Assets and The Crisis and Conflict Theory (Figure 2.2). These three approaches are overlapping and closely connected to the structural/external context in which they belong.
Figure 2.2: Conceptual Model for Vulnerability Analysis (Bohle, 2001)
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The action oriented approaches focus on the interaction and dialectic relationship between the external and internal sides of vulnerability. The second strand, which is closely connected to action theory/the first strand, is the concept of access to assets i.e. coping resources. This concept differentiates between economic, socio-political, infrastructural, ecological and personal assets. The second strand is based on the observation that assets which people control contribute to mitigate their vulnerability and strengthen their resilience towards economic and ecological risks; the more assets they control, the less vulnerable they are and the greater are their capacities to successfully cope with risks, stress and shocks (Bohle, 2001). The crisis and conflict theory comes as the consequence of contesting for access to control over resources, assets and coping capacities. The capacities of successfully managing crisis situations and solving conflicts are key to successful coping with change and the accompanied risk (ibid).
According to Birkmann (2006), this model views exposure going beyond the physical regime as it covers features associated to the entitlement theory and human ecology perspectives. Besides, this model underscores that vulnerability cannot be properly characterised without simultaneously considering coping and response capacity as indicated here as the internal side of vulnerability(Joern Birkmann, 2005).
2.4.2 The Disaster Risk Community Framework The disaster risk community defines vulnerability as a component within the context of hazard and risk and considers vulnerability, coping capacity and exposure as individual features (Birkmann, 2006). Birkmann chose the following approaches, among others, to illustrate concepts of vulnerability within the disaster risk community.
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Figure 2.3: Conceptual Framework for Disaster Risk (Bollin, Cárdenas, Hahn, & Vatsa, 2003)
According to the framework in Figure 2.3 [which is adopted from Davidson & Shah (1997:31) in Figure 2.4], disaster risk is a combination of hazard, exposure, vulnerability and capacity measures. The message this framework gives is that for managing risk, it is necessary to address individually: the probability and severity posed by a hazard event; the extent of population and properties exposed to the hazard; ‘the specific susceptibility towards hazards through present vulnerabilities’ and the range of activities and capabilities required to protect against risk.
Figure 2.4: Conceptual Framework of Earthquake Disaster Risk (Davidson & Shah, 1997)
It is notable here that while Bohle (2001) considers exposure and coping as intricate parts in conceptualizing vulnerability, the disaster risk community regards them as separate elements of risk which is rather a straightforward approach. It is further worth noting here that both Davidson and Shah (1997), and Bollin et al. (2003) developed these frameworks as part of some project works in specific
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contexts. However, it does not undermine the role they played in the evolution and development of the vulnerability frameworks.
2.4.3 Turner et al’s Sustainability Science Framework The vulnerability analysis framework developed by Turner et al. (2003) aims to make vulnerability analysis consistent with the concerns of sustainability and global environmental change science. The vulnerability of coupled human–environment systems is underscored as one of the central elements of sustainability research and also a key element to bridge science and decision making (Turner et al. 2003). This framework is also regarded as a social-ecological system framework (Binder, Hinkel, Bots, & Pahl-Wostl, 2013) as it comprehensively addresses elements from human and environmental domains.
Figure 2.5: Vulnerability Framework by Turner et al., 2003
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Figure 2.6: Details of the Components of the Vulnerability Framework by Turner et al., 2003
This framework (Figure 2.5) breaks down vulnerability into three parts: Exposure, Sensitivity and Resilience (Figure: 2.6). It is said to have been guided by the need to provide a template suitable for reduced-form analysis yet inclusive of the larger systemic character of the problem (Turner et al., 2003: 8076). Though not self- explanatory, this framework provides the broad classes of components and linkages that comprise a coupled system’s vulnerability to hazards (ibid). It duly takes into account that vulnerability lies in a coupled system with linkages operating at different spatiotemporal scales and commonly involving stochastic and nonlinear processes (ibid).
2.4.4 The Pressure and Release (PAR) Model According to the Pressure and Release (PAR) model, disaster is the consequence of the interaction of hazards with unsafe conditions. Here the process that leads to unsafe conditions is regarded as the process responsible for progressing vulnerability. PAR model (Figure 2.7) follows the principle that risk is the product of hazard multiplied by vulnerability (Risk = Hazard × Vulnerability) and dissects vulnerability in a progressive manner in terms of root causes, dynamic pressure and finally the unsafe conditions. The PAR model draws attention to the issue of vulnerability as a complex one and infers that understanding vulnerability is much
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more than merely identifying it (Birkmann, 2006). The elements of the PAR model are dynamic because they are subject to constant change which makes it very difficult to identify and verify the causal links between root causes, dynamic pressures and unsafe conditions (ibid).
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Figure 2.7: The Progression of Vulnerability according to the PAR Model (Wisner et al., 2004)
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According to the PAR model, unsafe conditions are the manifestation of vulnerability which can be attributed to some ‘root causes’ that have been transformed into such conditions through some dynamic pressures. This way, dynamic pressures link vulnerability to the apparently distant (temporally and/or spatially) issues like limited access to power, structures and resources which are the product of political and economic systems in place/at work. The most important aspect of this model can be regarded as the underscoring of the fact that reducing vulnerability i.e. reducing risk effectively is associated with addressing the political and economic systems (Birkmann, 2006).
2.4.5 The Holistic Approach Model This approach considers three distinct factors to suggest a broader understanding of vulnerability; they are: exposure and physical susceptibility; social and economic fragilities; and lack of resilience or ability to cope and recover (Figure 2.8). This approach is intended to capture conditions for the direct physical impacts (exposure and susceptibility), as well as for indirect and at times intangible impacts (socio-economic fragility and lack of resilience), of potential hazard events. Therefore the approach defines exposure and susceptibility as necessary conditions for the existence of physical (hard) risk. On the other hand, the likelihood of experiencing negative impacts, as a result of socio-economic fragilities, and inability to cope adequately are also vulnerability conditions, which are understood as ‘soft risk’ (Birkmann, 2006).
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Figure 2.8: Theoretical Framework and Model for Holistic Approach to Disaster Risk Assessment and Management (Cardona & Barbat, 2000)
2.4.6 The UNISDR Framework The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction) framework for disaster risk reduction is developed in the context of sustainable development. Here vulnerability is considered as an element of risk and is subdivided into social, economic, physical and environmental components (Figure 2.8). Besides hazard analysis and monitoring, vulnerability/capability analysis contributes to risk identification and impact assessment.
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Figure 2.9: UNISDR Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR, 2004)
Though this framework is placed in the context of sustainable development, it has been criticised for oversimplification of the connections among social, economic and environmental goals. Birkmann (2006, p. 26) posits,
Vulnerability reduction and sustainable development are confronted with deeply rooted social, economic and environmental conflicts, which cannot be wished away through a simple balancing exercise.
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2.4.7 The BBC (Bogardi-Birkmann-Cardona) Framework The BBC conceptual framework is based on work done by Bogardi and Birkmann (2004) and Cardona (1999 and 2001). This framework (Figure 2.10) is comprised of elements of other frameworks and connects, in particular, vulnerability assessment to the concept of sustainable development (Birkmann, 2006). The BBC conceptual framework addresses vulnerability as going beyond the estimation of damage and the probability of loss (ibid). Additionally, it emphasises the fact that vulnerability should be viewed as a process (ibid) rather than a stand-alone issue. This framework argues that it is necessary to examine specific vulnerabilities and coping capacities in connection to the three dimensions of sustainable development, namely, social, economic and environmental (ibid).
Figure 2.10: The BBC Conceptual Framework (J. Birkmann, 2006)
2.4.8 Summary and Synthesis Bohle's (2001) double structure of vulnerability model views vulnerability as the exposure to shocks and stressors and the ability to cope with these shocks. It provides some insights into the causal structures of vulnerability and considers
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coping as the internal side of vulnerability clearly indicating community’s capacity to respond as an intrinsic element. The conceptualization of this model is a paradigm shift from physical regime to beyond in explaining vulnerability. However, although this model identifies the major elements of vulnerability (exposure and coping) and provides explanation from different perspectives, it does not indicate any direct linkages to the concept of development.
The disaster risk community’s framework separates vulnerability from coping capacities and exposure (Davidson & Shah, 1997 and Bollin et al., 2003). It separates vulnerability into different categories (physical, social, economic, environmental) and considers capacity and measures in line with vulnerability. While analysing risk as a function of hazard, exposure, vulnerability, and capacity and measures is a laudable approach, this framework does not address the interconnectedness of these elements leading to oversimplification of the concept of vulnerability. The framework developed by Turner et al. (2003) describes vulnerability from a coupled human-environment perspective and encompasses exposure, sensitivity, and resilience comprising coping, response and adaptation. It considers coupled human-environmental systems in multiple spatial, functional and temporal scales underscoring the complexities associated with the concept of vulnerability. The elements covered for vulnerability analysis are extensive with substantial emphasis on social and environmental components.
The Pressure and Release model developed by Wisner et al. (2004) emphasises the root causes and dynamic pressures that are responsible for unsafe conditions or vulnerability to disaster. The proponents of this holistic approach to disaster risk model consider exposure and physical susceptibility, social and economic fragilities and lack of resilience/coping ability as factors comprising vulnerability (Cardona & Barbat, 2000 in J. Birkmann, 2006). This model uses complex system dynamics to represent risk management organisation and action (ibid). PAR unequivocally states that vulnerability is the product of social processes that arises from the political and economic systems. It strongly advocates that for disaster risk, vulnerability and hazard are two distinct elements and that in the absence of one, theoretically no risk exists. In this model the progression of vulnerability is explained in episodes with
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due attributes to dynamic pressures. PAR offers a broad analytical framework to address political-economic processes as the root cause of disaster.
The Holistic Approach Model by Cardona & Barbat (2000) explains vulnerability in the context of a complex dynamic system with attention to physical as well as non-physical elements. This is a comprehensive approach to disaster risk management but does not connect development with it.
The UNISDR framework for disaster risk reduction views vulnerability as a key factor besides hazard for determining risk. Though placed in the sustainable development context, it does not explicitly address how vulnerability reduction and sustainable development are confronted with deeply rooted social, economic and environmental conflicts (Birkmann, 2006).
The BBC conceptual framework includes elements of different models and frameworks and links vulnerability assessment to the concept of sustainable development. The framework underscores the need to simultaneously focus on exposed and susceptible elements and on coping capacities specific to environmental, social and economic spheres that constitute the three dimensions of sustainable development (Birkmann, 2006). Although it addresses the three dimensions of sustainable development, it does so within the scope of disaster risk reduction. The broader context necessary to understand the process of vulnerability generation does not fall within the scope of this model. The discussion above portrays the evolution of the concept of vulnerability. As with any discourses, the different models and frameworks of vulnerability build on one another and each of them is suitable to explain specific contexts and complexities. However, as we look at these models and frameworks, we can observe the emergence of the profound connection of vulnerability to the social process and its inference to the concept of sustainable development.
2.5 RESEARCH GAP The notion ‘impacts of economic development projects’ or ‘physical infrastructure development projects’ leads to literature that mostly discusses population displacement as a consequence of land acquisition for development projects. But this research is somewhat different in its aim which is to address
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vulnerability that communities become subject to as a consequence of physical infrastructure development projects which do not necessarily displace people. The coastal embankment project (CEP), which is the subject matter of this study was implemented to protect land from tidal water intrusion and thus make it habitable to more people and enhance agricultural operations and food security. Besides, the embankments served as a means to reduce communities’ vulnerability to cyclones which in the long term generated a sense of safety among those living inside. The life and livelihoods within the polders flourished benefitting from the coastal embankment project. However, with the rising dependency on and expectations from this physical infrastructure, the negative consequences were growing. Within a decade of implementation, the detrimental effects of polderization started surfacing over the landscapes (Nowreen, Jalal, & Khan, 2014). Vast tracts of land became perennially water-logged as the drainage canals around the polders became inoperative owing to siltation (IWM, 2007). It is argued that the drainage situations were exacerbated because CEP did not keep the provision of routine maintenance of these drainage canals (Nowreen et al., 2014). With time, this led to accumulation of flood water upstream causing widespread flooding and deposition of silt and sediments in the riverbeds and channels (ibid). Successive to water logging, soil salinity increased reducing fertility; potable water scarcity and sanitation conditions worsened; access to livelihoods opportunities and basic services compromised causing affected people move out of their habitats (ibid).
With the apparent objectives of alleviating river drainage congestion and mitigating water logging, the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) initiated the Khulna-Jessore Drainage Rehabilitation Project (KJDRP) in 1994-95 with financial assistance from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) (Kibria, 2006). This project ignored the environmental concerns and embarked on structural solutions including construction of large regulators (Kibria, 2006 and Nowreen et al., 2014). As a consequence, this ‘failed project’ left a legacy of social and environmental disasters characterised by silted up rivers, permanent inundation of vast land area, loss of indigenous variety of fish and crop diversity (Kibria, 2006).
Meanwhile, increasing demand and high prices of shrimps in global markets drove the transformation of land use inside the coastal polders. Once constructed for protection against salinity to boost crop production, the embankments were breached
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purposively to let salt water in for shrimp culture (Nowreen et al., 2014). This breaching of the embankments weakened the stability of these structures in the long run. As a result, the embankments failed to resist cyclone Aila (2009) which inflicted storm surges inundating vast land areas. Now the people who considered themselves safe living within the embankments, had to move to makeshift homes to stay for more than two years as the repair of the damaged embankments could not be carried out because of high tides in the rivers (All-Kamal, 2012). This long-term inundation of homesteads and farmlands obstructed the regular means of livelihoods of people (ibid) which had developed over the years centring on the embankments.
After more than four decades of the project completion/implementation, when the inhabitants within the poldered areas have moved far beyond making the sense of a community, their homes and means of livelihoods are threatened. Once a catalyst for economic and social development, the coastal embankment project is now being questioned for its wide-spread negative impacts on the biophysical and social environments exposing communities to more vulnerable situations (loss of homesteads and livelihoods) and even extending vulnerabilities past the project intervention areas (upstream).
Now the questions that arise, were the present consequences foreseen during the implementation of the project? Are these consequences results of improper post- construction maintenance of the structures or they are inevitable with any physical infrastructure development project? These questions are important to answer because the CEP did not just end in itself; the legacy of the CEP is still ongoing through multiple complementary projects of varying costs. There is a need for an appropriate mechanism to identify and address the manifestation of vulnerabilities arising from infrastructure development interventions for their sustainability. The aim of this research builds on this need.
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Chapter 3: Research Design
This chapter elaborates upon the approach and processes that this research has followed in view to address the research gap. First, a conceptual framework has been developed in order to guide the nature of the inquiry and analysis. This framework will be described in terms of its basis in relevant theory and literature, and in terms of how it guides both the data gathering and analytical phases of the research. From that point, this chapter moves on to detail data collection methods which include the tools used for data gathering, the processes followed in identification of materials for document review, and the criteria for selecting in-depth interview participants. This is then followed by the description of the data analysis strategy which elaborates how the data were categorized and interpreted in light of the conceptual framework and guided to address the research problem.
3.1 CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK
The Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) was the largest development effort across all the sectors in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) at the time of its formulation (1959). Besides the size of investment (USD 370 million (Thomas, 1974), the extent of the work (more than 3,000 miles of embankments covering over 1.2 million hectares of land (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968)) was also significant in the social, political and economic contexts at that time. With the fulfilment of the primary objective of enhancing agricultural production, over time CEP became a powerful agent of change for the entire coastal zone of Bangladesh. But the changes that the embankments brought to the bio-physical system of the hydro-geo- morphologically sensitive Gangetic Plain (southwest coastal area) had extensive social-ecological implications. The system-wide changes which started with the embankments saw the communities in a vulnerable situation in the long-run following a series of negative consequences which are generally attributed to the embankments. This research argues that the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) has transformed the pre-embankment coastal social-ecological system into what is referred to in this study as Polder Social-Ecological System. The conceptual framework for this research has been formulated centring on this transformation.
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The coastal embankment project redefined the human-environment relationship in the coastal social-ecological system. The nature and extent of the impacts CEP has had on human-environment relations call for an investigation into the processes that led to the adoption of such development intervention. In doing so, Political Ecology offers an appropriate purview since it incorporates social changes with environment and development. Hence, the conceptual framework for this research has adopted Political Ecology as an overarching approach.
The elements of the conceptual framework for this study have been discussed in the following sections. First, the concepts of social-ecological systems and transformation have been discussed with specific reference to the case study locations. This is followed by the justification for adopting Turner et al’s (2003) Vulnerability Framework in the analysis of social-ecological system, and then the relevance of Political Ecology as an overarching approach in the analysis of the findings.
3.1.1 Social-Ecological System (SES) and its Transformation According to Berkes and Folke (1998), social-ecological systems are linked systems of people and nature, emphasising that humans must be seen as part of, not apart from, nature; SESs are nested, multilevel systems that provide essential services to society such as supply of food, fibre, energy and drinking water. Social- Ecological Systems are also referred to as ‘socio-ecological system’ or ‘human- environment system’ (Binder et al., 2013). Before construction of the embankments, the coastal areas used to be cultivated for crops, mostly paddy, and they had been a habitat for varieties of species of fish. Though agriculture was nature-dependent and destruction of crops was a common phenomenon, people could catch fish almost effortlessly. The social system that had developed in the coastal area in the pre- polder period was dominated by the ecological features. Development of human settlements and their activities were influenced by the tidal cycle in the rivers. Mobility and socialization were restricted. Access to social services and utilities (e.g. education, health) was limited. However, all these features together had formed a certain type of social-ecological order which was later altered by the initiation of the coastal embankment project, which transformed it into a new social-ecological system.
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Transformability has been defined as the capacity to create a fundamentally new system when ecological, economic or social (including political) conditions make the existing system untenable. Transformability means defining and creating new stability landscapes by introducing new components and ways of making a living, thereby changing the state variables, and often the scale, that define the system (Walker, Holling, Carpenter, & Kinzig, 2004). Transformations fundamentally change the structures and processes that alternate feedback loops in SESs (Olsson et al., 2006). The Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) changed the coastal landscapes in many ways that accumulated towards the transformation of the coastal social-ecological system. Polders were created by constructing earthen embankments which cut-off the tidal plains from the rivers. This allowed secure cropping and both the diversity and intensity of cropping increased. Besides, embankments provided improved communication options which eased people’s access to basic services (e.g. education, health). All these contributed to the improvement of overall socio-economic conditions of the coastal people.
With hindsight, the ecological changes were also creating greater challenges in the future. Sluices were put in to regulate silt-laden water flow into the polders and the silt that used to spread over the tidal plains started accumulating on the riverbeds. Over the years, consequently, the riverbeds rose, rendering the sluices inoperable. Meanwhile, saltwater shrimp production started getting popular among cultivators as it was more profitable. However, transformation of crop land into shrimp ponds eliminated kitchen gardens and other vegetation from inside the polders because of excess soil salinity. This further removed cattle and poultry as there was no fodder around. All these changes that started with polderization redefined the social- ecological order on the coast.
The effect of prioritization of shrimp over crop badly affected communities when the embankments breached during cyclones in 2007 and 2009. The earthen embankments (Figure 3.2) were already weakened by inadequate maintenance and they breached at the points where water inlets were created for the shrimp ponds to take in saline water. The breaching of embankments created an unprecedented situation in some polders where the inhabitants had to leave their homesteads and move to temporary housing arrangements for more than two years in some cases. Such unprecedented demonstrations of vulnerability seem to wipe off the
Chapter 3: Research Design 39
contribution of the embankments in the overall economic development of the coastal region. Thus, transformation arising as a consequence of the construction of coastal embankments happened in two stages: one immediate and the other in the long term.
Figure 3.1: Images of coastal embankments; Top: Coastal embankment during construction (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968); Rows 2, 3 and 4: Sections of embankments in polders 7/1, 32 and 33 respectively
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This chapter will now move on to discuss how Turner et al’s Vulnerability Framework suits the research context.
3.1.2 Turner et al’s Framework for Vulnerability Assessment of Coupled Human-Environment System Human-environment relationships are complex and multi-dimensional. These complexities and dimensions have been duly acknowledged by researchers from around the world (Berrouet, Machado, & Villegas-Palacio, 2018; Jianguo et al., 2007, 2007; Young et al., 2006), and it is now well understood that any disciplinary purview is insufficient to capture the dynamics of a social-ecological system. The intricate relationships between the ‘social’ and ‘ecological’ elements of a social- ecological system warrant an integrated and interdisciplinary approach for investigation into that system.
There is a range of frameworks developed to study social-ecological systems. These frameworks are different in terms of their goal, disciplinary background, applicability, scale of focus (temporal, social and spatial), their conceptualization of the constituents of the system and also their interaction (Binder et al., 2013).
Turner et al’s framework for vulnerability assessment of coupled human- environment system acknowledges that vulnerability rests in a multifaceted coupled system with connections operating at different spatiotemporal scales and commonly involving stochastic and non-linear processes. Although it is not explanatory, the framework provides the broad classes of components and linkages that comprise a coupled human-environment system’s vulnerability to hazards (Turner et al., 2003). The core of this framework is a template appropriate for “reduced-form” analysis of vulnerability (Figure 3.4); but the framework is inclusive of the broader systemic context of the problems that are indicated through the notions of “Human Influences outside the Place” and “Environmental Influences outside the Place” (Figure 3.3).
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Figure 3.2 Vulnerability Framework depicting components of vulnerability linked to factors beyond the system of study and operating at various scales (Turner et al., 2003)
Figure 3.3 Detailed vulnerability components of the vulnerability framework (Turner et al., 2003)
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This study adopts Turner et al’s vulnerability framework for assessment of coupled human-environment system for the following reasons:
Turner et al’s framework specifically addresses vulnerability dynamics in a coupled human-environment (social-ecological) system. The core objective of this research is also to address vulnerability of the polder social-ecological system that manifested following the legacy of coastal embankment project.
This framework addresses vulnerability from a holistic perspective that considers exposure, sensitivity and resilience as intrinsic vulnerability components residing in a social-ecological system. Vulnerability has been conceived and interpreted in various ways (Chapter 2), but Turner et al’s framework is unique for this research in the way that no other vulnerability framework addresses vulnerability from a comprehensive social-ecological system perspective.
The cross-scale dynamics of vulnerability as conceptualized in Turner et al’s framework gives it flexibility to fit in various contexts. As with this study, this flexibility allows accommodation of the political ecology perspective which is inherent to the nature of the problem being studied.
3.1.3 Political Ecology as an overarching approach Political ecology is an interdisciplinary academic field that seeks to understand human societies and their relationship to nature. Political ecology postulates that environmental problems are intrinsically political and need to be comprehended in a broader framework that takes local as well as global actors into consideration. To understand and participate in the forces that link social change, environment and development is an important overarching goal of political ecology (Simsik, 2007).
Political ecology extends theoretical inquiry beyond the insights of the conventional social and natural sciences. Often identified with political economy, political ecology frequently takes political economy’s interest in the expression and influence of state and corporate power on environmental politics. The term ‘political ecology’ has been widely used in the context of human geography and human ecology but with no real systematic definition (ibid) until Wolf’s (1972) work.
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However, the term can be traced back to have been used by Thone in 1935 (Thone, 1935).
Political ecology has advanced an interdisciplinary approach to complex human-environment interactions, especially those related to economic development of the third world. A primary objective of political ecology has been to understand the underlying causes of human and environmental crises and identify ways to ameliorate or eliminate them (Simsik, 2007). Scholars generally use a political ecology framework to understand how environmental and political forces interact to effect social and environmental changes through the action of various social actors operating at different levels (ibid). Political ecology is a radical approach that integrates political, economic and ecological issues as the basis for an effective response to contemporary environmental problems (Bryant & Bailey, 1997).
Bryant (1998) asserts that at the heart of political ecology research is the notion that politics should be put first in the attempt to understand how human-environment interaction may be linked to the spread of environmental degradation. Robbins (2004) identifies important differences in emphasis after carefully reviewing the term ‘political ecology’ since its known early use till now. Despite the differences, Robbins (2004) underscores a set of common elements in political ecology, one of which is that it works from a common set of assumptions and that it employs a reasonable consistent mode of explanation.
Political ecology research has demonstrated or attempted to demonstrate four general theses (Robbins, 2004). The degradation and marginalization thesis explains why and how environmental changes happen. This is particularly relevant for putting land degradation in a larger political and economic context which has long been blamed on marginal people. The second thesis, environmental conflict, is helpful for explaining issues related to environmental access as part of the larger gender, class and race perspectives. The conservation and control thesis explains how apparently benign environmental conservation exerts pernicious effects like political and economic exclusions. The fourth thesis, environmental identity and social movement, explains how political and social struggles are linked to basic issues of livelihood and environmental protection.
Political ecology seeks to expose flaws in dominant approaches to the environment
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t favoured by corporate, state and international authorities, working to demonstrate the undesirable impacts of policies and market conditions, especially from the point of view of local people, marginal groups, and vulnerable populations. It works to denaturalize certain social and environmental conditions, showing them to be the contingent outcomes of power, and not inevitable. As critical historiography, deconstruction, and myth-busting research, political ecology is a hatchet, cutting and pruning away the stories, methods, and policies that create pernicious social and environmental outcomes (Robbins, 2004).
Piers Blaikie and his collaborators contributed significantly in seeing environmental changes in terms of social and political concerns (Forsyth, 2008). In their book Land Degradation and Society, which is considered one of the key texts in the field (Bryant, 1998), Blaikie and Brookfield (1987) assert that political ecology combines the concerns of ecology and a broadly defined political economy; together this encompasses the constantly shifting dialectic between society and land-based resources, and also within classes and groups within society itself.
As a field of research, political ecology is relatively new in the analysis of human-environment interactions. According to Schubert (2005), the questions that political ecology deals with include: (i) how nature and societal structures determine each other and shape access to natural resources; (ii) how constructed concepts of society and nature determine human environment interactions; (iii) the connections between the access to, and control over, resources and environmental change; and (iv) the social outcomes of environmental change. Perreault, Bridge and McCarthy (2015) identified five fundamental questions that political ecologists ask regarding human relationship to nature; they are: How we come to know nature, and what differences do forms of environmental knowledge make? [Referring to Environmental Knowledge]
In what ways are nature and society transformed through economic activity, and how does this metabolic relationship affect various social groups in different ways? [Referring to Environmental Change]
Through what sorts of social arrangements and forms of rule do people ‘manage’ nature, and to what effect? [Referring to Environmental Governance]
Chapter 3: Research Design 45
How are social subjectivities shaped through, and reflected by, differential access to and control over nature? [Referring to Environmental Identities]
In what ways and for what reasons do people mobilize politically around nature? [Referring to Environmental Politics]
As an analytical lens, political ecology acknowledges power differences among actor groups and tries to explore the degree to which they exercise their agency in their day-to-day actions toward their environment as well as toward each other (Simsik, 2007). Being an interdisciplinary academic field, political ecology is a powerful tool that can link social changes with environment and development. Besides, the intrinsic elements of political ecology have the potential to integrate the components of vulnerability as identified in Figures 3.2 and 3.3. From all the models and frameworks of vulnerability discussed earlier (Chapter 2, Section 2.1), it is obvious that vulnerability has a significant social dimension along with environmental ones. The interconnectedness of these social and environmental dimensions can be better explained through a political ecology approach given its scope overarching political, social and ecological aspects. Table 3.1 is a summary of the major discourses that political ecology advocates. The aim of this research, which is to capture the role of the human- environment nexus in the transformation of the social-ecological systems in the southwest coast of Bangladesh, cuts across three of these discourses highlighted in the Table 3.1. Broadly, all these three discourses address environmental changes and their causes and consequences. The degradation and marginalisation thesis (A-2 in table 3.1) associates the land degradation issue in the polders as a consequence of salinity intrusion and waterlogging. This thesis acquits the marginal people of environmental degradation and this is useful in explaining the political and economic contexts behind commissioning of the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP). The first research question has been formulated in light of this thesis. The second research question has been developed following the lead from discourses B-5 and C-3 in Table 3.1 that concern the social outcomes of environmental change and their effects on various social groups in different ways. The transformation of social-ecological systems inflicted by physical infrastructure in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh and the consequent vulnerability of the community to disaster are an appropriate scenario for these discourses to be applied.
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Table 3.1: Summary of major discourses in Political Ecology
1 2 3 4 5 6 Conservation and control Environmental identity Degradation and Conservation failures and Environmental conflict and social movement marginalization political/economic Environmental access: Social upheaval: who, Environmental change: exclusion: why and how? who and why? where, and how? Four General why and how? Usually viewed as Environmental conflicts Political and social A Theses (Robbins, benign, efforts at Land degradation, long are shown to be part of struggles are shown to 2004) environmental blamed on marginal larger gendered, classed, be linked to basic issues conservation are shown to people, is put in its larger and raced struggles and of livelihood and have pernicious effects, political and economic vice versa. environmental and sometimes fail as a context. protection. result. How nature and societal How constructed The questions that The connections between structures determine concepts of society and political ecology the access to, and control The social outcomes of B each other and shape nature determine human deals with over, resources and environmental change access to natural environment (Schubert, 2005) environmental change; resources; interactions; In what ways are nature How we come to know and society transformed Through what sorts of How are social The five nature, and what through economic social arrangements and subjectivities shaped In what ways and for fundamental differences do forms of activity, and how does forms of rule do people through, and reflected what reasons do people questions that environmental this metabolic ‘manage’ nature, and to by, differential access to mobilize politically C political ecologists knowledge make? relationship affect what effect? and control over nature? around nature? ask (Perreault, various social groups in [Referring to [Referring to [Referring to [Referring to Bridge and different ways? Environmental Environmental Environmental Environmental Politics] McCarthy, 2015) Knowledge] [Referring to Governance] Identities] Environmental Change]
Chapter 3: Research Design 47
3.2 RESEARCH INQUIRY AND APPROACH
Given the nature of inquiry as elaborated above, this study has adopted a case study approach to answer the research questions. Researchers apply case study approaches to understand a real-life phenomenon in depth (Yin, 2009). Case study research involves the study of an issue explored through one or more cases within a bounded system (Creswell, 2007). In this approach the researcher explores a bounded system or multiple bounded systems over time, through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information (observations, interviews, audio-visual materials, and documents and reports) (ibid). A case study approach tries to illuminate a decision or a set of decisions: why they were taken, how they were implemented, and with what result (Yin, 2009). For this study, 3 polders from the southwest coastal area were chosen for case studies and, philosophically, a post- positivist inductive approach was followed.
3.3 CASE STUDY LOCATIONS
The 3 case study polders chosen for this research are polders 32 and 33 of Dacope Upazila (sub-district) in Khulna, and polder 7/1 of Shyamnagar Upazila in Satkhira (Figure 3.4). Among these three, polders 32 and 7/1 were two of the hardest hit areas by the recent cyclone in 2009 whereas polder 33 was relatively less affected. For the understanding of the role of embankments in a community’s vulnerability to disaster, polders 32 and 7/1 offer the right features in terms of the nature and extent of damage done by the cyclone whilst polder 33 testifies the positive role of embankments.
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Figure 3.4 Locations of the three case study polders
Chapter 3: Research Design 49
All three polders chosen as case studies for this research hold true representation of the social and ecological features of those in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh including population and their socio-economic conditions, economic activities in the polders and the physical conditions of the embankments and drainage system (details in Chapter 6).
Between the two hardest hit polders in cyclone Aila, polder 32 is under the ongoing Coastal Embankment Improvement Project (CEIP) while polder 7/1 currently lies outside the intervention. This has been done to draw a comparison between CEIP intervention areas and non-intervention areas.
3.4 DATA COLLECTION Two major data collection methods were adopted for this research in order to answer the research questions. Document review was carried out to answer the first research question which was subdivided into two specific objectives (Chapter 1, Section 1.4). Semi-structured in-depth interviews with the national level water resources management experts and community members from the case study locations were conducted to answer the second research question which was subdivided into another two specific objectives (Chapter 1, Section 1.4). Field level data collection took place in Bangladesh between 20th November 2017 and 25th January 2018. Details on these two methods of data collection are discussed in the following section.
3.4.1 Document Review Document review constitutes a significant part of this research. For understanding the contexts under which the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) was undertaken, review of the project related documents was deemed to be the most useful method. However, the project was originally planned, designed and implemented between 1960s and 1970s and, owing to the fact that no extensive research on these aspects of the project was done hitherto, the initial challenge of the data collection process was to locate and collect those grey literature.
A primary list of documents was prepared ahead of the commencement of the data collection process based on the references cited in research and recent project documents related to water resources development in Bangladesh. Following this list, thorough searches were conducted through the physical archives of the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and the Water Resources Planning Organization
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(WARPO). Most of the Coastal Embankment Project related documents were collected from these two sources which were supplemented by the ones collected from the library of the Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM) at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). Beside these physical archives in Bangladesh, some grey literature was availed through QUT library services. Some useful Coastal Embankment Project related documents were identified using WorldCat to have been archived by some universities in the US and also in Australia which were then collected through the Document Delivery service of the QUT library.
The second category of documents collected for review was the Development Plans pertaining to Bangladesh as the coastal embankment process started surfacing institutionally. This dates back to the First Five Year Plan (FYP) in 1950 when Bangladesh was part of Pakistan down to the current Seventh Five Year Plan, and also includes the interim variations to the FYPs. While the Development Plan documents of recent time are accessible remotely through the Internet, the old ones had to be collected from the archive of the Bangladesh Planning Commission in Dhaka.
Table 3.2 contains a list of major documents that have been reviewed for this research.
For the first specific objective under the first research question (To analyse how water resources development evolved throughout the development planning process of Bangladesh), the national planning documents were reviewed. The timeline for this purpose was set from the partition of the British India (1947) when Bangladesh was made a part of Pakistan - through to the present time. It is to be noted here that formal development planning addressing Bangladesh as a state can be traced back to the time after partition and that is also when water resources development started becoming institutionalised. In the development plan documents the sections pertaining to water resources were examined for tracing how it was incorporated in the overall national development, and the level of attention it drew from the economic policy makers. After an account of the objectives and expected outcome of water resources development as part of national development, a critical analysis of the country’s social and political contexts over the time (1947 to present) was carried out.
Chapter 3: Research Design 51
Table 3.2: List of Major Documents Reviewed
No. Document Title
1 Water and Power Development in East Pakistan: Report of a United Nations Technical Assistance Mission (Krug Mission Report, United Nations, 1957, New York)
2 Coastal Embankment Project in East Pakistan (East Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority, EPWAPDA, 1960)
3 The Khulna Project, East Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (EPWAPDA) [Report prepared by the International Engineering Company (IECO) 1960] East Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (EPWAPDA) Master Plan [Report prepared by 4 the International Engineering Company (IECO), 1964] Appraisal of some aspects of the Coastal Embankment Project of East Pakistan, Report of the Advisory 5 Group on Development of Deltaic Areas, United Nations Economic Commission for Aisa and the Far East (UNECAFE), 1966 Coastal Embankment Project, Operation and Maintenance Manual, East Pakistan Water and Power 6 Development Authority (EPWAPDA) [Prepared by Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1967] Coastal Embankment Project, Engineering and Economic Evaluation, East Pakistan Water and Power 7 Development Authority (EPWAPDA) [Prepared by Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968] 8 East Pakistan Cyclone Protection and Coastal Area Rehabilitation Project (World Bank, 1970)
9 Bangladesh Coastal Embankment Rehabilitation Project, Environmental Assessment (July 1992, WB- GoB) 10 Coastal Embankment Rehabilitation Project (CERP-II): Modified Resettlement Action Plan (BWDB, 1995) Coastal Embankment Rehabilitation & Reconstruction Project: Priority Works Programme (PWP) 11 (World Bank, 1996) 12 Coastal Embankment Rehabilitation Project (World Bank, 2003) 13 Coastal Embankment Improvement Project: Phase-I (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013) Environmental and Social Impact Assessment of Khulna-Jessore Drainage Rehabilitation Project, 14 Ministry of Water Resources, Government of Bangladesh ,1998 [Report prepared under the Environment and GIS Support Project for Water Sector Planning (EGIS II)] 15 The First Five Year Plan 1950-55 (Government of Pakistan 1957) 16 The Second Five Year Plan 1960-65 (Government of Pakistan 1960) 17 The Third Five Year Plan 1965-70 (Government of Pakistan 1965) 18 The Fourth Five Year Plan 1970-75 (Government of Pakistan 1970) 19 The First Five Year Plan 1973-78 (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh 1973) 20 The Two Year Plan 1983-80 (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh 1978) 21 The Second Five Year Plan 1980-85 (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh 1983) 22 The Third Five Year Plan 1985-90 (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh 1985) 23 The Fourth Five Year Plan 1990-95 (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh 1995) 24 The Fifth Five Year Plan 1997-2002 (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh 1997) Bangladesh National Strategy for Accelerated Poverty Reduction ( Government of the People’s 25 Republic of Bangladesh 2005) 26 Sixth Five Year Plan FY2011-FY2015 (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh 2011) 27 Perspective Plan of Bangladesh 2010-2021 (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh 2012) 28 7th Five Year Plan FY2016- FY2020 (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh 2015)
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For the second specific objective under the first research question (To examine the evolution of structural development projects in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh that began with the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP)), the background to the institutionalisation of water resources development in Bangladesh was thoroughly investigated. Review of the historical documents starting with the Krug Mission Report explains why water resources development was crucial for Bangladesh, and then, how the coastal embankment project (CEP) was conceived, formulated and later implemented as part of a Master Plan. This follows the detailed description of the major features of CEP and then the follow up projects. This review builds on the project documents of CEP and the appraisal and assessment documents of the project by various external bodies. Simultaneously, the water resources development projects that were taken up for implementation in the southwest coastal region to complement and supplement CEP were also reviewed to track the shifts in development focus and also the integration of social and environmental concerns.
3.4.2 In-depth Interview The other major method used for data collection was in-depth interviews. A total of 40 persons were interviewed in 20 individual and group interview sessions. They included water resources development and management professionals (both at policy-making and implementation levels); local level government representatives (members of the Union Councils); members of local civil society (school teachers and journalists); development worker (NGO professional); and general community members. In-depth interviews contributed to meeting the two research objectives (To investigate how coastal embankments impacted the coastal social-ecological system, and To address the role of embankments in coastal communities’ vulnerability to disaster) as part of answering the second research question.
Water resources development and management professionals at the policy making level included a former Director General of the Water Resources Planning Organization (WARPO) and the first Project Director of the now ongoing Coastal Embankment Improvement Project (CEIP). The team leader of the CEIP from the donor’s end (the World Bank) was also interviewed. The Project Director of Emergency Cyclone Recovery and Restoration Project (ECRRP) was interviewed as another resource person in the policy-making capacity. At the implementation level,
Chapter 3: Research Design 53
two Executive Engineers from Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) Khulna Division were interviewed.
At the community level, a total of 35 individuals were interviewed which included 23 community members in general, 6 school and college teachers, 4 local government representatives, 1 local journalist and 1 development professional. It is to be noted here that the number of key informants chosen for this research was not pre-determined. An open ended approach was followed for this number where the researcher chose to carry on with the in-depth interviews until the responses started getting similar. This way the number 40 was deemed to be the saturation point for this research inquiry.
A list capturing the summary of respondents for in-depth interview is given below. Duration of each of these interviews ranged from one hour to one and a half hours. All the interviews were audio recorded and later transcribed by the researcher and then coded for analysis.
In-depth interviews carried out for this research can be broadly categorized into two groups: water resources development professionals and community members. For both the groups of respondents a snowball sampling technique was applied to identify the right person for interviewing. Table 3.4 presents the criteria for selection of these respondents. For the water resources development professionals, the Water Resources Planning Organization (WARPO) and the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) were visited for identification of the potential respondents. In the following step, potential respondents were personally contacted to inform them of the intention and purpose of the researcher. Upon their verbal consent interview sessions were set at mutually convenient times and locations. At the meeting with the respondents they were handed over the project information document for their understanding of the purpose of the interviews and then they were given the consent forms to sign to indicate their acceptance.
54 Chapter 3: Research Design
Table 3.3: Summary of Respondents4
Age and Gender of Sl. Respondents’ Category Location of Interview Respondent 1 58 years, Male BWDB Office, Dhaka 2 Development Policymaker Level 60 years, Male WARPO Office, Dhaka 3 38 years, Female World Bank Office, Dhaka 4 45 years, Male Khulna BWDB Executive Engineer 5 46 years, Male Khulna 6 38 years, Male Polder 32, Dacope 7 65 years, Male Polder 32, Dacope Local Government Representative 8 42 years, Male Polder 32, Dacope 9 45 years, Male Noapara, Jessore 10 56 years, Male Polder 32, Dacope 11 37 years, Male Polder 32, Dacope 12 65 years, Male Avoynagar, Jessore Local School/College Teacher 13 58 years, Male Polder7/1, Padmapukur 14 55 years, Male Polder7/1, Padmapukur 15 58 years, Male Polder7/1, Padmapukur 16 Development Worker 45 Years, Male Khulna 17 Journalist 55 years, Male Satkhira 18 69 years, Male Polder 33, Dacope 19 42 years, Male Polder 33, Dacope 20 68 years, Male Polder 33, Dacope 21 78 years, Male Polder 33, Dacope 22 74 years, Male Polder 33, Dacope 23 35 years, Female Polder 33, Dacope 24 52 years, Male Polder 33, Dacope 25 54 years, Male Polder 33, Dacope 26 60 years, Male Polder 32, Dacope 27 48 years, Male Polder 32, Dacope 28 20 years, Male Polder 32, Dacope 29 General Community Member 30 years, Female Polder 32, Dacope 30 45 years, Male Polder 32, Dacope 31 75 years, Male Polder 32, Dacope 32 75 years, Male Polder 32, Dacope 33 77 years, Male Polder 32, Dacope 34 74 years, Male Polder 31, Dacope 35 72 years, Male Polder 31, Dacope 36 40 years, Male Polder7/1, Padmapukur 37 45 years, Male Polder7/1, Padmapukur 38 42 Years, Male Polder7/1, Padmapukur 39 45 years, Male Polder7/1, Padmapukur 40 58 years, Male Polder7/1, Padmapukur
4 An explanation of the criteria for selection of respondents has been provided on pages 59 and 60.
Chapter 3: Research Design 55
Table 3.4: Criteria for selection of respondents for in-depth interviews
Professional Level Community Level Involvement in water development related policy formulation Representation of adults from all age Experience of working in coastal polder groups related projects Special attention for elderly adults Involvement in operation and maintenance Affected in recent cyclone of coastal polders
At the local level, respondents were selected primarily from the members of community who were affected by the cyclones. The locations of the embankments where they breached were visited and the people nearby were asked to help identify the affected families. Besides, the local market spots, which are normally the gathering places for villagers, were visited to identify potential respondents. Once a potential respondent from the community was identified, they were told of the purpose and intention of the researcher in order to seek their verbal consent. Upon their verbal consent they were provided with the project information document which had been translated into Bangla particularly for the community level key informants. Once they confirmed that they had understood their role in the research they were asked to sign the consent form which was also translated into Bangla for the proper understanding of the community level respondents.
The respondents for in-depth interviews at the local level were chosen carefully to ensure representation of adults from all age groups. In moving around the polders for selection of respondents, special attention was given to identify elderly people who have experiences from the pre-embankment time. This was done to help understand the variations of living experiences in pre- and post-embankment periods. Consequently, the age distribution of the key informants is described in Table 3.5:
Table 3.5: Age distribution of local level key informants
Age 20-30 yrs 31-40 yrs 41-50 yrs 51-60 yrs 61-70 yrs 70+ yrs Number 2 4 9 9 4 7 Percentage 5.7 11.4 25.7 25.7 11.4 20
Also, attention was paid to keep a gender balance among the respondents with a view to capture all possible insights; however, this could not be achieved because of social and cultural reasons. Women in rural part of Bangladesh are not accessible for interviews by outsiders, particularly by males. The researcher was able to talk to two female members of the community. Nevertheless, the findings from the female
56 Chapter 3: Research Design
interviewees in response to the issues addressed in the key informant interviews were similar to those from their male counterparts. Alongside this, the research does not have any gender-specific inquiry that would be undermined by under-representation of women respondents.
Following are the lists of issues that were addressed in the in-depth interviews with the water resources development management professionals at policy and execution levels.
The technical processes involved in selecting appropriate types of physical intervention for coastal areas. The criteria for selection of specific physical interventions and the role of institutions (local government and central government). The process of awarding contracts for construction and maintenance works and the political influence associated to this. The challenges associated with physical infrastructure development projects in coastal areas. The benefits and shortcomings of the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP). How the potential environmental and social impacts of infrastructure development projects are considered in the project formulation phase. The extent to which the negative impacts are attributable to lack of discretion of implementing agencies. The physical, social, economic and environmental impacts arising as a consequence of the CEP. Measures taken to mitigate the problems associated with waterlogging. How the lessons from CEP are integrated in formulation of new interventions. Types of support rendered to communities for their rehabilitation after cyclones. Difference in nature of support provided to communities living inside polders and outside.
Chapter 3: Research Design 57
The issues discussed at the community level key informant interviews included the following:
The experiences of living inside polders as the negative impacts of embankments surfaced gradually. The physical, social, economic and environmental changes arising as a consequence of the CEP. The changes in communities’ livelihood patterns: from crop cultivation to fish cultivation. The changes in communities’ access to basic services and utilities (water, sanitation, health, education) as waterlogging became permanent within the polders. Measures taken by agencies to mitigate the problems associated with waterlogging. Causes of delay in repair and reconstruction of embankments. The impacts of waterlogging on communities’ household level income and expenditure patterns. The extent of damage done to communities by recent cyclone events. This includes damage to homesteads, livelihoods and household assets. Types of support received for communities’ rehabilitation after cyclones. Communities’ individual and collective measures/efforts/initiatives to adjust to the changing conditions.
3.5 ANALYTICAL STRATEGIES
The socio-ecological phenomena in the southwest coastal zone have been divided into three stages based on the time of commissioning of the embankments; they are: pre-development stage referring to the time prior to embankment construction; development stage referring to the period between embankment construction till the time they worked properly; finally, the post-development stage indicating the time following the emergence of negative effects of polderization.
The original Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) had 108 polders which were constructed between early 1960s and late 1970s. Subsequently, BWDB added 31 more polders, construction of which took until early 1990s (Bangladesh Water
58 Chapter 3: Research Design
Development Board, 2013d). For this research the timeline has been considered with regards to the case study polders (polders 32, 33 and 7/1).
3.5.1 Cross-temporal Analysis Cross-temporal analysis (Figure 3.5) refers to the analysis of the phenomena that took place in the case study locations over the development stages (pre- development, development and post-development) resulting in evolution of the polder social-ecological system. For this, first the transformation of the pre- development coastal social-ecological system has been captured (Chapter 7). Then, following Turner et al’s Vulnerability Framework for Assessment of Coupled Human-Environment System, vulnerability analysis for each of the three development stages has been carried out (Chapter 8). Each component of vulnerability (exposure, sensitivity and resilience) has been analysed development phase-wise for the case study polders. Then the findings have been synthesized for identification of vulnerability trajectories in order to underscore the roles of embankments in the vulnerability of the polder SES.
For the first part of cross-temporal analysis, social and ecological elements of the coastal social-ecological system in the southwest of Bangladesh were identified, mostly by historical document review which was complemented by direct field observation by the researcher (Chapter 7). Then the outcomes of the interaction of those social and ecological elements were categorized under broad headings of benefits and shortcomings. The transcribed data from interviews were then sifted into specific items of benefits and shortcomings to trace the transformation of the system.
Chapter 3: Research Design 59
Phenomena Pre-development Stage Development Stage Post-development Stage
(Up until 1966) (1966-2009) (After May 2009)
Embankments constructed for economic development Cyclone caused severe damage to the Secured cropping with high yield embankments breaching them at many locations Largely unprotected coastal land subjected Crop diversification Breaching of embankments exposed the coastal to tidal flooding Diversified economic activities communities to diurnal tidal flooding Indigenous means of land protection Large scale shrimp cultivation increasing soil Tidal flooding caused increased soil salinity allowing one/partial crop annually salinity to unsuitable level for cropping making land uncultivable Limited means of livelihood Marginalization of crop to shrimp People had to live in makeshift arrangements for Poor maintenance and unauthorised interventions years made the embankments weak
spatial Analysis >>> Analysis spatial Perennial waterlogging inside polders – Transformation of Social-Ecological System
<<< Cross Cross <<< <<< Cross-temporal Analysis >>>
EvolutionDevelopmentof Policies Dependence on foreign aid for development Political and economic discrimination of Post-independent political and economic crises Seasonal migration of adults colonial and post-colonial rulers Redefining human-environment relationship Weakening social network Power structure favouring the rich Contested use of land for crops and shrimp Rise of absentee landlordship
Underlying Issues
Figure 3.5: Analytical Strategy of the Research
60 Chapter 3: Research Design
For the second part of cross-temporal analysis, the transcribed interviews were categorized according to the elements of vulnerability (exposure, sensitivity and resilience) following Turner et al’s vulnerability framework which was further subdivided according to development stages (pre-development, development and post-development). Then they were synthesized to draw a scenario depicting changes of vulnerability over time (Chapter 8).
3.5.2 Cross-spatial Analysis Cross-spatial analysis refers to analysis of issues underlying the phenomena ascribed to specific development phases (Figure 3.5). Underlying issues are basically the outcome of some macro scale policy and governance matters and may not be specific to the locations of our concern, but they have implications for the micro phenomena in those locations.
The cross-scale analysis for this research has been carried out from a political ecology perspective since the ‘underlying issues’ and their corresponding micro-level implications constitute elements of the same (Table 3.1). In so doing, first a comprehensive analysis of national development plans of Bangladesh with specific focus on water resources development has been carried out (Chapter 4). For this, all the development plans (mostly in the form of Five Year Plans) of Bangladesh since partition (1947) were reviewed for the water resources related narratives/discussions to trace the evolution of institutionalized water resources development in the country. Following this trajectory, the analysis then moved to the origin and legacy of the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) (Chapter 5). This was carried out mostly based on project documents to track the project priorities and concerns regarding ecological aspects.
3.6 RESEARCH DESIGN SUMMARY
After elaborate discussion of the steps followed in this study, a summary of the research methodology has been provided in the table below.
Chapter 3: Research Design 61
Table 3.6: Summary of the research methodology followed in the study
Data Collection Research Question Research Objective Analytical Strategy Method
To analyse how water resources development evolved throughout Document review How do social, the development planning process environmental and of Bangladesh. Cross-spatial analysis political factors for explaining the To examine the evolution of issues underlying interact in the adoption Document review structural development projects in vulnerability of the of infrastructure complemented by the southwest coastal area of coastal community development projects? interviews with Bangladesh that began with the water resources Coastal Embankment Project management expert. (CEP). Cross-temporal To investigate how coastal analysis for capturing embankments impacted the Interviews with transformation of (coastal) social-ecological system. experts and social-ecological How did the physical community systems following infrastructure members. Turner et al’s transform coastal To address the role of Vulnerability communities? Document review. embankments in coastal Framework for communities’ vulnerability to Direct observation Assessment of Coupled disaster. Human-Environment System
The following four chapters have been organized to present the outcomes of the research in order of the research objectives corresponding to the research questions.
62 Chapter 3: Research Design
Chapter 4: Water Resources Development in Bangladesh: A Discourse through Development Planning (1947 to Present)
This chapter will elaborate upon how water resources development drew the attention of the country’s economic policy makers over the period starting from the partition of British India in 1947 until 2018. Development planning in Pakistan, of which Bangladesh was a Province between the period 1947 and 1971, took place in the form of Five Year Plans. This practice continued after the independence of Bangladesh with a few exceptions. All the official development plans formulated between 1947 and 2018 have been reviewed with the aim to understand how water resources development in Bangladesh has evolved. For this, first a comprehensive discussion of the water resources development related issues corresponding to individual development plans have been made. This was followed by a comparative analysis of trends in the water resources development planning to underscore how the approach to water resources development changed as the overall development outlook of the nation changed over time. Finally, the significant issues have been summarised at the end of the chapter.
4.1 POST-PARTITION AND PRE-INDEPENDENCE (1947-71)
Following the Partition in 1947, Bangladesh was a province of Pakistan and officially was called East Pakistan. In 1948 the Government of Pakistan set up a Development Board, a Planning Advisory Board and an Economic Committee of the Cabinet for coordinating the nation-building schemes and for determining priorities (Government of Pakistan, 1957a). This was followed by the establishment of the Ministry of Economic Affairs in 1949 for the coordination of planning and economic activities of other ministries. The first planning document prepared for Pakistan was a six year development plan scheduled to go into effect from the middle of 1951. The earlier planning bodies were replaced by an autonomous administrative body which consisted of an Economic Council, a Planning Commission, and a number of sub- commissions (Government of Pakistan, 1957a). Owing to the fact that the six year
Chapter 4: Water Resources Development in Bangladesh: A Discourse through Development Planning (1947 to Present) 63
development plan was prepared in absence of essential information and basic statistics (Government of Pakistan, 1957b), it was flexible in many ways and was modified and expanded over the years. However, the review of this six year development plan in the First Five Year Plan does not mention any sector specific plans or policies regarding water resources (Government of Pakistan, 1957b).
4.1.1 The First Five Year Plan (1955-60) The First Five Year Plan (1955-69) of Pakistan was formulated as a foundation for rapid economic and balanced progress in the future. This Plan laid out the development targets and priorities over the planning period and identified Water and Power Development as a distinct sector with the highest sector-specific allocation (269.7 million Rupees) in the development budget (7,500 million Rupees) (Government of Pakistan, 1957a). While Agriculture was a separate sector, Water Development was seen as more of an aid to enhance agricultural production through increasing the provision of irrigation and also by reclaiming land by improved drainage and flood regulation.
The First Five Year Plan (1955-60) of Pakistan set forth the following as the major purposes for Water and Power Development in East Pakistan (Government of Pakistan, 1957a):
(a) To provide irrigation water to large areas for double cropping and increasing the production of single crops;
(b) To increase agricultural production in many areas through local drainage and flood regulation schemes;
(c) To prepare plans for and start on a comprehensive programme of new methods and major works for increasing agricultural productivity and reducing flood damage;
(d) To protect large areas from saline waters of the tides;
(e) To improve waterways for inland water transport; and
(f) To triple the power supply available at the beginning of the Plan period.
Noticeably, the purposes above mostly evolved around enhancing agricultural production. This is understandable for a newly independent country where despite much effort, the total production of food grains actually decreased by about 4% in 8
64Chapter 4: Water Resources Development in Bangladesh: A Discourse through Development Planning (1947 to Present)
years between 1947 and 1955 (Government of Pakistan, 1957a). However, over the same period, the yields of cash crops like cotton and jute increased considerably (Government of Pakistan, 1957a). The failure of increasing food production became a major concern for the policy makers as the country was experiencing a rapid growth of population, about 9% over the period between 1947 and 1955 (Government of Pakistan, 1957a).
The First Five Year Plan underscores that the beginning of planned water development schemes in East Pakistan had already started with the two major multi- purpose projects namely the Ganges-Kobadak and the Karnafuli. The First Five Year Plan carries forward these two projects while promising two more major projects, the Teesta Barrage Project and the Comprehensive Drainage Scheme Faridpur Project, to begin at the end of the Plan period (i.e. 1960) (Government of Pakistan, 1957a).
The First Five Year Plan recognized the need for flood mitigation measures in addition to the projects mentioned above to enable the prevention of loss of life and reduction of damage to property. Referring to the ongoing investigations aimed at dealing with flood hazards and the likelihood of additional flood regulation schemes, the Plan proposed a large economic reserve for East Pakistan Development schemes which were not planned in detail at the time the Plan was formulated (Government of Pakistan, 1957a). However, the estimated expenditure for water and power resources over the Plan period (1955-60) shows that East Pakistan had an allocation of 1,220.8 million rupees including a reserve of 300.0 million rupees for unspecified schemes whereas West Pakistan had a total of 4,453.5 million rupees (National Planning Board, 1957, p. 332). This stark contrast in terms of allocation of budgets for development works can be traced back to the period preceding the First Five Year Plan. Between the years 1947 and 1955, the total estimated cost for water and power resources development in the Humid Region (the term used to identify East Pakistan hydrologically) was 713.9 million rupees; over the same time period, the Indus Basin, and the Coastal Tributaries and Desert Streams Region (the terms used to identify West Pakistan hydrologically) was over 2,301 million rupees (National Planning Board, 1957, p 329). While the discrimination in terms of budget allocation is obvious, the rate of implementation was even more contrasting. At the time of preparation of the First FYP (1955), the estimated expenditure in water and power resources development in East Pakistan (85.4 million rupees) was less than 10
Chapter 4: Water Resources Development in Bangladesh: A Discourse through Development Planning (1947 to Present) 65
percent of the same in West Pakistan (904.2 million rupees) over the period of 1947- 55 (National Planning Board, 1957, p 329). The First FYP recognized that the river system in East Pakistan is different from that of West Pakistan and also that the development plans should be formulated and coordinated in a comprehensive way catering for the need of the province. However, this recognition is not reflected in the allocation of development budgets and the rate of implementation as can be seen in the beginning of the journey of the newly independent Pakistan.
4.1.2 The Second Five Year Plan (1960-65) Emphasis on development of water and power resources prevailed in the Second Five Year Plan of Pakistan as a way to increase national income and attain self-sufficiency in food through increased agricultural production. Capital-intensive sectors of water, power, transport and communications accounted for more than half of the public sector programmes underscoring their importance for growth of agriculture and industry. Keeping in line with the principle as set forth to conserve capital and substitute labour in the execution of development projects, the second FYP committed to emphasize water, power and transport programmes with long- range benefits. Of the Rs. 3,140 million put aside for water and power development programmes in Pakistan for the period 1960-65, 35% was allocated exclusively for water development with the two provinces receiving almost an equal share (Government of Pakistan, 1960).
The Second FYP was the first to note the prospect of the coastal area of East Pakistan to support intensified and diversified cropping once protected by embankments from saline water intrusion. The long-range development programme of East Pakistan as outlined in the Second FYP, included the protection of the long belt of tidal lands against intrusion of sea water, and its development through improved irrigation and drainage (Government of Pakistan, 1960). East Pakistan was allocated Rs. 245.5 million for flood regulation under the Second FYP and the ‘raising, strengthening and construction of tidal embankments’ was considered as a new scheme to be undertaken beside the ongoing major projects (Government of Pakistan, 1960).
66Chapter 4: Water Resources Development in Bangladesh: A Discourse through Development Planning (1947 to Present)
4.1.3 The Third Five Year Plan (1965-70) The Third Five Year Plan underscored the need for research, investigation and survey for success in water resources development projects. It also asserted the need for increased attention to assessing the regional effects of the projects proposed in the Provincial Master Plan for East Pakistan. Meanwhile during the Second FYP period, separate Water and Power Development Authorities, one in East Pakistan (EPWAPDA) and one in West Pakistan (WPWAPDA), were created following the recommendation of the Krug Mission5. The creation of these agencies was basically meant for enhancement of the performance of project works under the development plans. These statutory semiautonomous bodies for water and power development enjoyed the flexibility and initiative of private enterprise while they were under the general control of the provincial Governments (Government of Pakistan, 1960).
The Third FYP noted the general progress of water programme as outlined in the Second Plan to be ‘substantial’ and hoped that an improved information base would increase effectiveness of water development agencies during the Third Plan period. The Plan identified agriculture as a key factor for the overall development of the Provincial per capita income for which water development was considered as a major precondition (Government of Pakistan, 1965).
The Third FYP allocation for water development in East Pakistan was mainly for the continuation of the ongoing projects that originated in the first two Plan periods. Few new projects were outlined. But the overall objective of the Third FYP was the same as the first two: to bring more areas under irrigation, and drainage and flood control schemes. The Plan envisaged that an additional 0.7 million hectares of land would come under irrigation facilities while the drainage and flood control schemes by EPWAPDA would provide improved yields on another 1.1 million hectares. The Third FYP saw an allocation of Rs. 2,395 million for water development in East Pakistan out of which Rs. 864 million was meant for new projects and the remaining Rs 1549 million for the ongoing ones (Government of Pakistan, 1965).
5 After the successive ravaging floods in 1954, 1955 and 1956, a team of experts under the auspices of the United Nations Technical Assistance Program visited Bangladesh (the then East Pakistan) to advise on ways to manage and develop water resources in the country (Thomas, 1974). The team was led by General J A Krug, a former head of the US Army Corps of Engineers and hence the delegation was called the Krug Mission.
Chapter 4: Water Resources Development in Bangladesh: A Discourse through Development Planning (1947 to Present) 67
The strategy for water sector development in East Pakistan was dictated by the necessity for accelerating Provincial growth rates in agriculture which was considered imperative for future development. The Third FYP underscored the dilemma between the large flood control projects and the ones that can produce economic growth in the short run. This was because of the long-gestational period of large projects which was attributed to the limited knowledge about the hydrology of East Pakistan and also the extremely difficult nature of the flood control projects themselves. The Third FYP strategically refers to short-gestation period projects (such as low-lift pump and tubewell schemes for irrigation) as a way to achieve growth outlined in the Plan. At the same time, the Plan stresses ‘to proceed as rapidly as possible with the engineering necessary for the regional and project planning of large flood control programmes’ (Planning Commission, 1965, p. 301).
4.1.4 The Fourth Five Year Plan (1970-75)6 The Fourth FYP echoed the emphasis that the preceding two Plans had put on water resources development as a pre-requisite for the development of agriculture and industry alike. The Fourth FYP further underscored that the nation’s target of self-sufficiency in agricultural produces cannot be achieved unless, among others, the flood control problem in East Pakistan is suitably and expeditiously tackled (Government of Pakistan, 1970).
Among the objectives set forth in the Fourth FYP, a significant one specific to East Pakistan was to make renewed and large scale efforts for controlling and regulating recurrent floods and provide irrigation facilities for increased agricultural production. Besides, making provision for research facilities in the field of irrigation, flood protection and drainage was pronounced following the recommendation of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) (Government of Pakistan, 1970).
The Fourth FYP recognizes the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP, which was started in 1961) as one of the most important ventures in East Pakistan in the field of water resources development stating that it would save nearly 0.8 million hectares of land from tidal inundations.
6 Bangladesh’s war of independence began on 26th March 1971 and on 16th December of the same year, the country was liberated from Pakistan. Thus the Fourth Five Year Plan of Pakistan did not have much implication for Bangladesh.
68Chapter 4: Water Resources Development in Bangladesh: A Discourse through Development Planning (1947 to Present)
The strategies and policies set forth for realizing the Fourth Plan highlighted the need for improving efficiency of the East Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (EPWAPDA). Acknowledging the overlapping in responsibilities, the Plan asked for proper coordination between EPWAPDA and EPADC (East Pakistan Agricultural Development Corporation) with regards to groundwater resources of the Province. A notable move at the policy level of development as observed in the Fourth FYP was the directive to recover at least a part of the investment cost from the beneficiaries of water development projects. The newly created Irrigation Directorate was vested with the responsibility of recovering water charges from the users in East Pakistan. The Plan also advised that the provincial planning and development department carried out test evaluation studies of the completed and ongoing capital-intensive projects for comparison of accrued benefits against the envisaged (Government of Pakistan, 1970).
4.2 POST-INDEPENDENCE (1971 TO PRESENT)
4.2.1 The First Five Year Plan (1973-78) The First Five Year Plan of the independent Bangladesh was built on the ravages and disruptions of the war which caused serious damage to physical infrastructure, dislocations in managerial and organizational apparatus and disruption in established external trading (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1973). The First FYP was meant to be a Plan for reconstruction and development of the economy after the war of independence. Carried out only over a period of a year and a half, and in the absence of comprehensive and reliable data, the Government of Bangladesh put forth the First FYP ‘to provide a sense of direction and determine the order of priorities within the framework of which coherent and consistent policies and programmes could be formulated’ (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in the Foreword of the First FYP).
The First FYP set poverty reduction as the first and foremost objective of the Plan. With the view of generating an income growth rate and pattern that would meet the minimum consumption standard as well as expand employment opportunities, the Plan was designed to ensure a socially desirable pattern of income distribution. To achieve this, the general strategy laid down in the Plan was to concentrate on
Chapter 4: Water Resources Development in Bangladesh: A Discourse through Development Planning (1947 to Present) 69
increasing output in labour-intensive sectors and production methods (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1973).
Water resources development in the First FYP of Bangladesh was considered as a precondition for development of agriculture. The Plan realised that supply of irrigation water, provision of proper drainage, and protection of land from flood are as vital for self-sufficiency in food as are the improved agricultural inputs (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1973). The objectives of the Water Resources Development sector were set out in line with the overall target of the First FYP. With the view to attaining self-sufficiency in food grain, the water sector development programme was designed with considerable emphasis on fast pay-off and short-term water development projects. However, the Plan concurrently stressed the necessity of undertaking studies and initiating actions on large-scale water development projects (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1973).
The analysis of relative merits of ‘major’ and ‘minor’ projects has been an issue of pertinent discussion in the area of water resources development in Bangladesh. Given the long-term gestation and construction period for large-scale projects along with the need for growing more food grain for the increasing population led the policy makers to emphasize more on the short-term small-scale irrigation projects. As far as irrigation was concerned, small-scale irrigation projects covered more than five times the area than the large-scale projects did at a very high cost (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1973). Thus the overall strategy of water development during the First FYP was to immediately realize the small and intermediate scale irrigation and drainage development projects, low-lift pumps and tubewell development. Besides, selected large-scale on-going projects which were labour-intensive and would provide substantial flood control, drainage and irrigation benefits, would be taken up at the end of the plan period (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1973).
The First FYP recognized the role of the Coastal Embankment Project and underscored the need for protecting coastal areas from saline water inundation as one of the specific objectives of water resources development. During the formulation of the Plan, 2,077 miles of coastal embankments were already constructed and an attempt to introduce water management within the polders was underscored in order
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to derive agricultural benefits from the project area in the shortest possible time (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1973).
As part of the development strategy, the first post-independence FYP followed the legacy set out by the Fourth FYP of Pakistan (1970-75) in terms of imposing water usage charge on the users to recover a part of the project cost. This was apparently meant to ensure the efficient utilization of irrigation water. The Plan also asked the Planning Commission to engage a project evaluation team for the continuous assessment of project progress against targets (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1973).
4.2.2 The Two Year Plan (1978-80) Owing to crop failure due to floods in 1974 the late arrival of imported food grains created a famine-like situation in the country during the First Five Year Plan period (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1978). Along with these, global inflation and depression in the leading world economies led to curtailed external aid making the Plan implementation very difficult. In the given circumstances the First FYP was recast after the first two years and a Hard-core Programme for the remaining three years was adopted. While the Hard-core Programme did not bring any change to the overall economic and social objectives of the First FYP, the sector-specific emphasis was somewhat readjusted with a view to maximise the use of available resources (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1978).
The experience gained in implementing the First Five Year Plan made the government review the idea of long-term and mid-term plans for the country. Consequently, the decision was made to launch a short-term plan (Two Year Plan) for the years 1978-80 to allow more time to formulate a realistic Second Five Year Plan. The objectives of the Two Year Plan evolved around poverty reduction, food- grain self-sufficiency and a desire of achieving higher economic growth. The immediate needs of the nation were reflected in the objectives formulated for the Plan which were realistic for a two year plan (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1978).
The Two Year Plan allocated Taka 1,890 million for a total number of 94 water development schemes out of which 50 schemes were targeted to be completed within
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the Plan period. The Plan appreciated the progress with the ongoing Coastal Embankment Project Phase-I and expected that the scheme would be completed by 1979-80. As of the time of formulation of the Two Year Plan, the CEP Phase-I had completed 2,267 miles out of 2,346 miles of embankment, and 787 drainage sluices out of 871 in 86 polders (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1978).
4.2.3 The Second Five Year Plan (1980-85) After a reprieve from the traditional Five Year Plan approach, Bangladesh moved back to it with no significant change to the socio-economic conditions of the people in the meantime. Hence, the objectives as set forth by the Second Five Year Plan (1980-85) were not much different from those of the First FYP although a decade after independence had passed (the Second FYP was finalized in 1983 despite the fact that the plan period began in 1980). The main focus of the Second FYP was on the reduction of poverty through growth of income and employment (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1983) when self-sufficiency in food grain production was still a long way off.
Like its predecessors, the Second FYP considered water resources development, particularly irrigation, drainage and flood control, as an instrument for agricultural development. Of the Taka 38,020 million allocated for agriculture and related activities, Taka 18,500 million was meant for water resources (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1983). As a specific objective of the water sector development plan, the Second FYP pronounced the need for protection of coastal areas from saline water inundation and to control and regulate floods in affected areas. However, the Plan did not have any allocated funds for this specific objective. The overall strategy for realizing the water sector development plan made it clear that short-gestation period and quick-yielding and more cost-effective projects would get priority so that food production can be increased in the shortest possible time. However, the Plan admitted that the ultimate solution of water resources development problems lay mainly in long-term basin-wise development of surface and ground water and vowed to continue the efforts toward a balanced programme for long-term development over the subsequent plans. An important aspect of the Second FYP was the initiation of the National Water Policy to be completed during the Plan period. The Plan also highlighted the need for gradually
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lifting subsidies from water usage (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1983).
4.2.4 The Third Five Year Plan (1985-90) The Third Five Year Plan set poverty alleviation as the ultimate goal of development. Noting unemployment, rapid population growth, malnutrition and illiteracy as the interactive elements of the sheer magnitude of poverty, the Plan addressed the need for setting relative priority for all these issues taking the country’s socio-economic conditions into account. The Third Plan took an integrated view of development in a long-term perspective and formulated the specific objectives keeping in line with reaching the goal of poverty alleviation (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1985).
The Third FYP paid special attention to coastal area development with a view to minimize the effect of cyclones and tidal bores. Referring to the recent events of catastrophic cyclones (1970 and 1985), the plan underscored the need for formulating special development programme within the framework of the national development plan. This was the first time ever the coastal area received institutional attention for reasons other than agriculture. The Plan registered that a cyclone rehabilitation programme was underway which incorporated cyclone preparedness of the community and government agencies for evacuation of people from vulnerable sites, development of an efficient cyclone warning system, provision of safer shelters in time of cyclones, development of protective measures (forests and polders) and also development of coastal resources to help people better endure the effects of cyclones (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1985).
The Third FYP unambiguously stated that the primary objective of water resources development was to accelerate the process of technological transformation of agriculture in order to reach a higher level of agricultural production, particularly food grain. The specific objectives set out to meet the target were:
To provide timely and dependable supply of irrigation water; To regulate and control floods and drainage, salinity, tidal water inundation and river erosion to avert crop and other material damage and human suffering; To generate productive employment opportunities for rural people;
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To promote efficient use of water resources. The Third FYP also set its target to bring additional area under irrigation for which salinity intrusion and the contesting use of water for fisheries, navigation and drinking and industrial purposes were considered as constraints (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1985). As the strategy to realize the target, the Third FYP put the highest priority on the maximum utilization of the existing facilities and improvement of productivity in the area covered by irrigation facilities. Besides, emphasis was given to speedy completion of the incomplete projects. For new water resources development projects, the Plan asked to focus on short- gestation, cost-effective and labour-intensive ones unless large projects were necessary for water conservation to feed small projects in the dry season (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1985). Referring to the irreversible consequences of excessive groundwater withdrawal for irrigation purposes, such as the changing water table and salinity intrusion, the Third FYP underscored the need for introducing proper Water legislation and Administration to enable sufficient control over surface and ground water utilization in Bangladesh.
4.2.5 The Fourth Five Year Plan (1990-95) The Fourth FYP highlighted human resources development as the key to poverty alleviation and employment generation in order to accelerate economic growth. The Plan embraced a novel development approach namely the New Development Perspective (NDP) to usher the nation into the 21st Century. Unlike its predecessors that invariably emphasised agriculture development, the Fourth FYP set export-led growth and promotion of private investments as the focus of the development perspective whereby the government would ‘scale down its operations to a supportive role in accelerating the process of development’ (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1995). Nevertheless, Agriculture, Water Resources and Rural Development as a single sector received the highest (25%) funding allocation in the Plan.
The Fourth FYP stands out from the previous Plans in the way that it took a global outlook. The global concern regarding environment that started in the early 1970s was taken into due consideration in the formulation of the Fourth FYP in Bangladesh. Issues like environmental degradation, global warming, biodiversity and sustainable development were elaborately addressed and their policy implications
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were reflected in the relevant sectoral plans. Subsequently, a National Environment Policy was finalized as a guide to long-term environment-friendly development of the nation and Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was included in the public sector development projects. In addition to this, the Minister for Environment and Forests was included as a permanent member of the Executive Committee of the National Economic Council (ECNEC) – the apex body for endorsement of public sector development projects (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1995).
The sectoral target for Flood Control and Water Resources over the Fourth Five Year Plan period was set to bring more land under irrigation through various means. Regulation and control of floods and drainage, salinity, tidal water inundation, river erosion and other physical damages and human suffering were also among the specific objectives of the Fourth FYP. For Water Control and Drainage, the Plan intended to introduce a comprehensive analysis of Flood Control and Drainage (FCD)/Flood Control, Drainage and Irrigation (FCDI) projects which would take into account the social costs and a full accounting of externalities and linkages. The Plan also initiated the creation of an appropriate institutional framework for operation and maintenance of water development schemes on a self- sustaining basis and incorporating the local government institutions (Union/Thana) into this process particularly for the small schemes (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1995).
For achieving the targets set forth, the Fourth FYP followed two sets of strategies: Short-term and Long-term. The Short-term Strategies emphasised maximizing the utilization of existing facilities for improvement of productivity for which efficient water management, among others, was stressed. The Short-term Strategies also included focussing on short-gestation, cost-effective and labour- intensive water development projects keeping the provision for large projects where they are felt necessary in order to conserve water to feed small projects during dry seasons. Starting from planning through implementation and management, participation of the beneficiaries was emphasised for which local government was asked to take up a more significant role. The Plan vowed for augmentation of small river flows from big rivers as part of the Long-term Strategies for development and
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reiterated that the ultimate solution lies in the basin-wise development approach (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1995).
Prior to the formulation of the Fourth FYP, Bangladesh experienced two consecutive devastating floods in 1987 and 1988. Of these, the flood of 1988 affected nearly half of the country’s population. The social and economic consequences of these flood events were significant and the country drew considerable international attention. In fact, the country’s water resources development plans and programmes went through a major shift whereby 26 major studies were taken up under the Flood Action Plan (FAP). Thus, the water resource development in Bangladesh entered into a new regime.
The Fourth FYP specifically underscored the environmental impact of water development projects – both small and big. While the Plan was concerned about the ecological balance arising as a consequence of ground water extraction for irrigation purpose, it also highlighted the lack in consideration for agriculture, fishery, landuse and other environmental and socio-economic issues associated with the planning and construction of embankments. The Plan asked for due attention to all these issues in the formulation of future plans and gave directive towards a more integrated planning approach involving all concerned agencies of the Government and the local people as well (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1995).
4.2.6 The Fifth Five Year Plan (1997-2002) The Fifth Five Year Plan started with the analysis of the causes behind ‘frustrated planned development’ since the independence of Bangladesh and underscored three factors: political instability, flow and modality of foreign aid, and frequent occurrences of natural disasters. Referring to the new international order driven by political and technological changes and also the fast-moving globalised markets, the Plan emphasized the need for redefining the role of government and overhaul of the administrative system (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1997).
The Fifth FYP made a radical departure from the traditional model which the preceding Development Plans followed. To keep pace with the changing structure of the global economy, the Fifth Plan was prepared within a flexible framework to make a shift from rigid targets for realisation within the Plan period and kept the
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market at the centre. The Plan also made a significant move away from the concept of central planning to focus on local level participatory planning and to integrate the local level development programmes with those at the national level. The Fourth FYP had a hint of recognising the role of Non-Government Organizations (NGOs) as development partners and the Fifth FYP made it conspicuous by envisioning an active coalition of the government and the NGOs on the development front (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1997).
Unlike the Fourth FYP which had set its development strategies around three major objectives, the Fifth FYP put forth a comprehensive list of fifteen points. Of these, some addressed novel aspects like environment, gender, new generation technologies, and also the special need geographical areas namely the north-west region, Chittagong Hill Tracts and the coastal areas. The Plan noted agricultural development as synonymous with economic development for Bangladesh and highlighted acceleration of agricultural production as a means to reducing poverty. Modernization of agriculture and institutional changes to cope with market forces alongside the increased irrigation coverage were underscored for attaining the projected increase in agricultural production.
In order to ensure balanced regional development across the country, the Plan had special directives for the Coastal Area of Bangladesh. Besides recognizing the contribution to agricultural production, the Plan noted that the coastal area was home to a significant portion of the country’s population. The Plan referred to the conflicts and concern associated with shrimp cultivation in the coastal area and called for careful planning for development to prevent any irreparable damage to the local eco- system (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1997).
For addressing water resources, five major adverse effects associated with the Physical Environment of Bangladesh were taken into consideration; they were: (a) Flood and drought, (b) Siltation, (c) River bank erosion, (d) Cyclonic storm surges and (e) Salinity intrusion. Based on these effects, the water resources potential for increasing agricultural production was examined. The Plan recognized the role of water resources planning for development of drainage infrastructure beside irrigation and commented that managing the supply of water had been addressed in a piecemeal fashion in the past. It also addressed the need for designing an environment-friendly flood management mechanism for protecting the interest of
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navigation and fisheries (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 1997).
The sector specific plan for water resources set its major objectives as alleviation of poverty and generation of employment opportunities; ensuring ecological balance; promotion of water conservation for irrigation and other use; control of floods to protect crops, lives and properties; and prevention of saline water intrusion. To achieve these objectives, the Plan stressed maximum utilisation of existing facilities as part of the short-term strategies. Delineation of coastal areas for shrimp culture and zoning of areas for separation of paddy and shrimp was also outlined in the short-term strategies. The long-term strategies included the development and utilisation of the major rivers and comprehensive flood control/management measures. The Plan also took note of the Ganges Barrage project stating the main purpose was to supply irrigation water to the south-west region of the country.
4.2.7 Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) (2003-2011) Development plan in Bangladesh had a departure from the traditional Five Year Plan approach when the World Bank Group and the IMF determined that nationally-owned participatory poverty reduction strategies should provide the basis for all their concessional lending and eligibility for debt relief for the member countries under their set framework (Ahamed & Ehsan, 2005). Following the end of the Fifth FYP, an interim PRSP (I-PRSP) was prepared for guiding development activities until the full PRSP was produced in 2005. Meant to be updated every three years with annual progress reports, the first PRSP described the country's macroeconomic, structural, and social policies in support of growth and poverty reduction, as well as associated external financing needs and major sources of financing (Government of People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 2005). Complying with the guidelines of the World Bank and the IMF, the PRSP of Bangladesh outlined the poverty reduction strategies in a number of strategic blocks of which water resources development and management were identified as one of the critical sectors for pro- poor economic growth. These approaches and drivers to development planning were carried over to the second PRSP for the years 2009-2011.
The PRSPs attempted to focus on water resources management strategies which would contribute to pro-poor agricultural growth and sustainable livelihood.
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The overriding objectives contained in the strategies were to ensure access of the poor, including poor women, and marginal farmers to water for crop production and sustenance of their livelihood and to reduce vulnerability of the poor to water-related hazards. An important strategy in the water sector was to manage water resources judiciously, which was proposed to be achieved in the dry season by river augmentation, protection of wetlands and by irrigation. During the wet season, the same was proposed to be achieved by rationalisation of Flood Control and Drainage (FCD) projects and erosion protection to FCD projects. The report also shed light on the impact of floods on poverty, coastal flood management and challenges in water resources management. It also emphasised proper institutional development in the water resources sector and suggested that an efficient water-sector institution should have three key components: a legal and regulatory framework, administrative rules for implementation and organisations for carrying out the work-plan to be drawn up in the area.
For the years between 2003 and 2010, the development planning in Bangladesh was driven by the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSP) until the government moved back to the traditional Five Year Plan format in 2011.
4.2.8 The Sixth Five Year Plan (2011-2015) The Government of Bangladesh set the Vision 2021 underscoring the 50th anniversary of independence. In recognition of the long-term development challenges, the Vision 2021 adopted a long-term Perspective Plan for the period 2010-21. The Sixth Five Year Plan (FY2011-FY2015) and the Seventh Five Year Plan (FY2016-FY2020) were formulated in line with this Perspective Plan. The development priorities as set out in the Perspective Plan in order to materialize the Vision 2021 included, among others, ensuring broad-based growth and food security, addressing globalization and regional cooperation, building sound infrastructure and mitigating climate change impacts (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 2012).
The Perspective Plan recognized the multifarious uses of water besides agriculture and adopted an approach guided by the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). The long-term water resources management strategies outlined in the Perspective Plan and for adoption in the Sixth and Seventh Five Year Plans asked to follow the IWRM framework for best allocation of water
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across various uses. The set of strategies also included: encouraging research and development in designing appropriate adaptive activities to manage climate change impacts on and through the water sector; encouraging research on water-efficient and salinity resistant crop varieties; examination of large scale operations and management (O&M) activities in embankments and polders to prevent salinity intrusion along the coast; and, rehabilitation of coastal embankments to help adapt to climate change (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 2012).
In review of the past performance of water resources sector, the Sixth FYP noted the direct and indirect benefits of the 721 projects that BWDB had implemented. The direct impacts of BWDB projects include:
Creation of a secured environment for crop production that ensured security of the country; Rural employment generation; Protection of agricultural land and other human properties from river erosion; and Reclamation of land. The indirect benefits of the BWDB projects as noted in the review include: Better means of communication; Security from water-borne hazards (flood, cyclone, storm-surge, salinity intrusion, water logging, drought); Primary defence against possible sea-level rise; and Enhancement of agro-based economic activities. The specific objectives and the strategies to achieve them for the Water Resources sector during the Sixth FYP period were commensurate with the targets set out in the Perspective Plan. The Sixth FYP stressed the need of updating the National Water management Plan (NWMP) through continuous monitoring of its implementation and the state of water resources in the country from the perspective of climate change and the social setting.
4.2.9 The Seventh Five Year Plan (FY2016-FY2020) Water Resources Management in the Seventh FYP was considered under the Agriculture sectoral plan. Although this has been the general convention for most of the preceding FYPs, the Seventh FYP followed a recently adopted sectoral classification which was done with a view to bringing harmony among planning,
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resource allocation, implementation and monitoring tasks. Earlier, the Planning Commission used to formulate the development plans over 17 sectors while the Ministry of Finance had a 13-sector format for the purpose of resource allocation. The recent change set the number of sectors to 14 which the Seventh FYP followed.
As mentioned earlier, the Seventh FYP was part of the longer term Perspective Plan for the period of 2010-2021 which was formulated to realize the government’s Vision 2021. Keeping in line with the targets of the Perspective Plan and taking on where the Sixth FYP ended, the strategies for the Seventh FYP were devised. Strategies for water resources management concern supporting agricultural growth emphasizing the sustained and balanced use of water resources for various purposes as well as reducing vulnerabilities from flooding, water-logging, salinity and river siltation. The Seventh FYP describes a long-term comprehensive water resources management plan is in the making under the umbrella of the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 (Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 2015). Subsequently, the specific targets related to water resources as laid out in the Seventh FYP were commensurate with those of the Delta Plan. Referring to the challenges for water sector as identified by the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, the Seventh FYP takes note of the importance of maintaining the coastal polders for ensuring community level climate sustainability.
4.3 TRENDS IN EVOLUTION OF WATER RESOURCES DEVELOPMENT
The preceding sections constitute a comprehensive discussion on how water resources development has evolved as part of the development planning process in Bangladesh. Although the whole discussion has been subdivided into pre- independence and post-independence heads to differentiate by political contexts, the post-independence era was also full of politically significant events which had implications for the formulation of the country’s development planning and subsequently, development as a whole. In the following sections of this chapter, a comparative analysis among all the development plans discussed above has been carried out. For this, the highlights of water resources development plans in each of the planning period have been organized against the overall goal/objective of the corresponding development plans. This has been done to mark how the emphasis on
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or approach to water resources development changed as the development outlook of the nation changed over time.
4.3.1 Pre-independence Era (1947-71) Although the independence of Pakistan from British rule came in 1947, it was not until 1955 that the country was able to come up with a plan for development. This was because of the initial difficulties with setting up proper administration for the new country of Pakistan.
The Pakistan era development plans are characterised by the aspirations of securing the basic needs through generation of employments for the people. Water resources development was duly recognized as a distinct sector in the preparation of the first Five Year Plan (1955-60) for Bangladesh as part of Pakistan. The economy of Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) was solely agro-based and water resources development was given emphasis to aid agricultural production. This was operationalized through a number of multi-purpose projects (covering power generation, irrigation, and drainage and flood control) including the Ganges-Kobadak and the Karnaphuli projects which had already started before the formulation of the First Five Year Plan.
The emphasis on development of water (along with power) resources prevailed in the Second Five Year Plan of Pakistan (1960-65) as a way to increase national income and attain self-sufficiency in food through increased agricultural production. The Second FYP was the first to note the prospect of the coastal area of Bangladesh to support intensified and diversified cropping once protected by embankments from saline water intrusion. Subsequently, raising, strengthening and construction of tidal embankments was considered as a new scheme to be undertaken beside the major projects. Meanwhile in 1959, two semiautonomous agencies were commissioned following recommendations from international experts to look after water and power related development activities in two provinces of Pakistan. The eastern province side (Bangladesh) was called the East Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (EPWAPDA). The creation of this agency was meant for enhancement of the performance of project works under the development plans. This was a milestone for the overall water resources development in Bangladesh.
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A major feature of the Third Five Year Plan (1965-70) was its emphasis on the need for research and investigation and surveys for success in water resources development projects. The Third FYP underscored the dilemma between the large flood control projects and the ones that can produce economic growth in the short run. This was because of the long-gestational period of large projects which was attributed to the limited knowledge about the hydrology of Bangladesh and also the extremely difficult nature of the flood control projects themselves. Thus, strategically the Third FYP preferred short-gestation period projects, such as low-lift pump and tube-well schemes for irrigation, as a way to achieve growth. Besides, the necessity for gaining engineering expertise for project planning of large flood control programmes was stressed.
The fourth Five Year Plan (1970-75) underscored the need for expeditiously tackling flood control problems in Bangladesh in a view to achieving self-sufficiency in agricultural produces. It also recognized the ongoing Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) as the most important venture in Bangladesh in the field of water resources development. The Plan also acknowledged the overlapping responsibilities between EPWAPDA and EPADC (East Pakistan Agricultural Development Corporation) regarding groundwater resources and asked for better coordination between the two agencies.
4.3.2 Post-independence Era (1971 to Present) Post-independence development plans can be broadly categorized into four groups based on their approach to development; they are: first generation development plan (the first two FYPs and the interim Two Year Plan), second generation development plans (the Third, the Fourth FYP and the Fifth FYPs), the third generation development plans (The Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers) and fourth generation development plans (the Sixth and Seventh FYPs).
First Generation Development Plans The approach and structure of Development Plans of this phase mostly followed those of the pre-independence era. Although they varied in terms of the spirit and aspiration infused into the planning processes, the basic goals and objectives of the plans remained more or less the same. The Plans belonging to this
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group are: The First FYP (1973-78), the Two Year Plan (1978-80) and the Second FYP (1980-85).
The First Five Year Plan of Bangladesh reflected the aspiration of a war-torn nation to stand on its own feet. Formulated within two years of independence, the overall target of the Plan was to provide a sense of direction and determine the order of priorities within the framework of which coherent and consistent policies and programmes could be formulated. Water resources development was set in line with this overall target realising that it was vital for self-sufficiency in food along with improved agricultural inputs. By the time the post-independence First FYP was formulated, the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) has had significant progress and the Plan underscored the need for introducing water management within the polders in order to derive optimum agricultural benefits from the project intervention area.
The First Five Year Plan period of independent Bangladesh (1973-78) witnessed a range of political unrest including the killing of the father of the nation Sheikh Mujibur Rahman along with most of his family members, and more bloodshed that followed in the pursuit of power by rival military groups. These political conditions had an impact on the overall socio-economic system of the war- torn country. Thus the progress with the realization of the First FYP was unremarkable which made the government take a reprieve from the idea of mid-term and long-term planning. Rather, a Two Year Plan was formulated for the period between 1978 and 1980 to address the immediate needs of the nation while it also allowed some time for preparing the next five year plan. The Two Year Plan took note of the Coastal Embankment Project Phase-I which was nearing completion at the time the Plan was being prepared.
With no significant improvement of the overall socio-economic conditions of the people in the meantime, the Second Five Year Plan (1980-85) followed the preceding plans in terms of approach and structure. However, when self-sufficiency in food grain production was still a top priority, the Second FYP’s main focus was more comprehensive: reduction of poverty through growth of income and employment. The Plan emphasized short-gestation, quick-yielding and more cost- effective projects for enhancement of food production as well as admitting that the ultimate solution to water resources development related problems lies in long-term basin-wise development of surface and ground water. The Second FYP also initiated
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formulation of the National Water Plan as a guiding document for comprehensive water resources development in Bangladesh.
Second Generation Development Plans The second generation development plans comprise the Third, Fourth and Fifth Five Year Plans. The major difference of the second generation plans with those of the first generation is characterised by their holistic approach to development. The three five year plans of the second generation gradually moved to longer and wider perspectives of development. The Third Five Year Plan (1985-90) took an integrated view of development in a long-term perspective and formulated specific objectives keeping in line with reaching goal of poverty alleviation. The Fourth Five Year Plan (1990-95) adopted a new development perspective and, unlike its predecessors that invariably emphasised agriculture, it set export-led growth and promotion of private sector investments as the focus of development. The Fifth Five Year Plan (1997- 2002) made a radical departure from the traditional development plan structure. In a view to keep pace with the changing structure of the global economy, it was prepared with a flexible framework to make a shift from rigid targets for realisation within the plan period, and kept the market at the centre.
For the first time from an institutional perspective, the Third FYP underscored the necessity of developing coastal resources to help people better endure the effects of cyclones. It also stated that the primary objective of water resources development was to accelerate the process of technological transformation of agriculture in order to reach higher level of food grain production. The Third FYP highlighted that salinity intrusion and contesting use of water for fisheries, navigation, drinking and industrial purposes were constraints in the way to bring additional land area under irrigation, and stressed the need for introducing water legislation and administration to ensure proper utilization of surface and ground water alike.
The Fourth FYP was the first to take a global outlook and elaborately address issues like environmental degradation, global warming, biodiversity and sustainable development. The policy implications of these issues were also reflected in the relevant sectoral plans and subsequently, a National Environment Policy was drawn as a guide to long-term environment-friendly development. Besides, Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was included in the public sector development projects. The Fourth FYP specifically underscored the environmental impact of water
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development projects – both small and big. While the Plan was concerned about the ecological balance arising as a consequence of ground water extraction for irrigation purpose, it also highlighted the lack in consideration for agriculture, fishery, landuse and other environmental and socio-economic issues associated with the planning and construction of embankments.
The Fifth Five Year Plan recognised the role of non-government organizations (NGO) as development partners. In order to ensure balanced regional development across the country, the Plan had special directives for the Coastal Area of Bangladesh. Besides recognizing the contribution to agricultural production, the Plan noted that the coastal area was home to a significant portion of the country’s population. The Plan referred to the conflicts and concern associated with shrimp cultivation in the coastal area and called for careful planning for development to prevent any irreparable damage to the local eco-system. The Plan recognized the role of water resources planning for development of drainage infrastructure beside irrigation and commented that managing the supply of water had been addressed in piecemeal fashion in the past. Delineation of coastal areas for shrimp culture and zoning of areas for separation of paddy and shrimp was also outlined in the short- term strategies. The long-term strategies included the development and utilisation of the major rivers and comprehensive flood control/management measures.
Third Generation Development Plans: The PRSPs This phase of development planning in Bangladesh is constituted by the World Bank-IMF advocated Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers approach which was in effect for the years between 2003 and 2010. The PRSPs formulated development strategies keeping poverty reduction at the centre. Like their focus, the structure of the PRSPs was totally different from the former or the later development approaches.
The water resources management strategies as outlined in the PRSPs were focused on pro-poor agricultural growth and sustainable development with the overarching objectives to ensure access of the poor to water for crop production and sustenance of their livelihood and to reduce vulnerability of the poor to water-related hazards. It also emphasised proper institutional development in the water resources sector.
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Unlike the previous development plans, the PRSPs mapped the strategic sector- wise development status against the set strategic goals, and worked out the future priorities in an orderly manner with a view to clearly and precisely guiding towards the expected outcomes.
Fourth Generation Development Plans This phase of development planning consists of the Sixth and the Seventh Five Year Plans for the timeframes 2011-15 and 2016-2020 respectively. The reason behind considering these two plans distinctively is that they have been formulated from a longer term development perspective which is further backed up by a development vision. Looking at the overall goals and objectives of these two plans as directed in the longer term Perspective Plan (2010-21), it is evident that the country has moved far from where it was two decades ago. When the previous plans had goals and objectives mostly dealing with eradication of poverty and securing of basic needs, these two plans are characterised by the nation’s aspirations for further growth. These aspirations are also articulated in the sector specific strategies.
The Sixth Five Year Plan (2011-15) recognized the multifarious uses of water besides agriculture and adopted an approach guided by the concept of Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). This shift to an integrated approach in reflected in the other strategies and activities outlined in the Plan. The Plan encouraged research and development in designing appropriate adaptive activities to manage climate change impacts on and through the water sector. It also highlighted the necessity of rehabilitation of the coastal embankments in the face of the changing climate and associated sea-level rise for the protection of the coastal population and their resources. The Plan stressed the need of updating the National Water Management Plan (NWMP) in line with the looming threats associated with climate change.
Adoption of a newly defined sectoral classification for the Seventh FYP (2016- 2020) is an indication that the inter-ministerial coordination has improved. In line with the goals and objectives set out in the Perspective Plan (2010-2020), the Seventh FYP followed on where the Sixth FYP ended. The major feature of the Seventh FYP is the integration of water resources development in Bangladesh under a new master plan – Delta Plan 2100. As noted in the Delta Plan, the Seventh FYP
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reinstates the importance of proper maintenance of the coastal polders for community wellbeing and sustainability of coastal development.
4.4 SUMMARY
In light of the thorough discussion above, a summary table comprising significant water resources development related issues have been presented below (Table 4.1).
Table 4.1: Summary of major water resources related features in the Development Plans of Bangladesh (1947-2018)
Major Highlights of Water Resources Development in the Plan Milestones
Water resources development was recognized as a distinct
60 sector - Water resources development was given emphasis to aid
1955 agricultural production by increasing irrigation coverage and First FYP improved drainage. The emphasis on development of water resources prevailed for
increased agricultural production.
Noted the prospect of the coastal area to support intensified and
65 Establishment
diversified cropping -
New scheme for raising, strengthening and construction of tidal of
71) -
1960 embankments EPWAPDA
Second FYP Establishment of East Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (EPWAPDA) Research, investigation and survey for success in water resources development projects emphasised Preference for Dilemma between large flood control projects and the ones that
70 can produce economic growth in the short run. short- - Preference for short-gestation period projects (such as low-lift gestation
0965 pump and tube-well schemes for irrigation) period
INDEPENDENCE (1947 Third FYP Third - Necessity for gaining engineering expertise for project planning projects.
of large flood control programmes was stressed. PRE Underscored the need for expeditiously tackling flood control
problems in Bangladesh in a view to achieving self-sufficiency
in agricultural produces.
75 Ongoing Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) recognized as the - most important venture in Bangladesh in the field of water
1970 resources development
FourthFYP Asked for better coordination between EPWAPDA and EPADC (East Pakistan Agricultural Development Corporation)
Water resources development was realized as vital for self-
sufficiency in food along with improved agricultural inputs.
78 - Underscored the need for introducing water management within
the polders in order to derive optimum agricultural benefits
1973 -
First FYP from the project intervention area
eneration
POST
80 Took note of the Coastal Embankment Project Phase-I which
- First G
INDEPENDENCE was nearing completion
TYP 1978
88Chapter 4: Water Resources Development in Bangladesh: A Discourse through Development Planning (1947 to Present)
Major
Highlights of Water Resources Development in the Plan Milestones
Emphasis on short-gestation, quick-yielding and more cost- 85 - effective projects Formulation
Initiated formulation of the National Water Policy of NWP
1980 Second FYP
Underscored the necessity of developing coastal resources to
help people better endure the effects of cyclones 90
- Highlighted salinity intrusion and contesting use of water for
fisheries, navigation and drinking and industrial purposes
1985 Stressed on the need for introducing water legislation and Third FYP Third administration
Global outlook; elaborately addressed issues like environmental degradation, global warming, biodiversity and sustainable National development; policy implications reflected in the sectoral plans. Environment National Environment Policy drawn
Policy drawn
Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) included in the
95 public sector development projects - EIA for Underscored the environmental impact of water development public sector
1990 projects development
FourthFYP Concern about the ecological balance arising as a consequence project of ground water extraction for irrigation purpose including Highlighted the lacking in consideration for agriculture, fishery, water sector landuse and other environmental and socio-economic issues
Second Generation associated to the planning and construction of embankments.
Special directives for the Coastal Area of Bangladesh. Noted that the coastal area was home to a significant portion of the country’s population.
Care for local
Referred to the conflicts and concern associated with shrimp ecosystem cultivation in the coastal area
2002 - Called for careful planning for development to prevent any Delineation of
irreparable damage to the local eco-system. FifthFYP 1997 shrimp zone Delineation of coastal areas for shrimp culture and zoning of from paddy areas for separation of paddy and shrimp Development and utilisation of the major rivers and
comprehensive flood control/management measures.
Pro-poor agricultural growth and sustainable livelihood focused
on water resources management strategies. 2010 -
Manage water resources judiciously. Emphasised proper
Third Third PRSPs
2003 institutional development in the water resources sector. Generation
Chapter 4: Water Resources Development in Bangladesh: A Discourse through Development Planning (1947 to Present) 89
Major Highlights of Water Resources Development in the Plan Milestones
Adopted an approach guided by the concept of Integrated Water Adoption of Resources Management (IWRM) IWRM Stressed managing climate change impacts on and through the
water sector Rehabilitation
Large scale operations and management (O&M) activities in of coastal
embankments and polders to prevent salinity intrusion along the embankments 2015 - coast considering
Rehabilitation of coastal embankments to help adapt to climate climate 2011 SixthFYP change change Noted the direct and indirect benefits of the 721 projects that impacts BWDB had implemented Updating Stressed the need of updating the National Water Management NWMP Plan (NWMP)
FourthGeneration Emphasized sustained and balanced use of water resources for
various purposes as well as reducing vulnerabilities from flooding, water-logging, salinity and river siltation.
2020 A long-term comprehensive water resources management plan Delta Plan - in the making under the umbrella of the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100
2016 2100 SeventhFYP Takes note of the importance of maintaining the coastal polders for ensuring community level climate sustainability.
Having started as an aid to increasing agricultural production, water resources development in Bangladesh has come a long way. The discourse through development planning processes clearly demonstrates that water resources development gradually attained more and more importance from the development planners. Institutionalisation of water resources management and formulation of relevant policies and plans indicate how water resources became an important issue in the overall development of the country. The following chapter will elaborate historically significant Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) and other development initiatives in the southwest coast with a view to understand how water resources development related projects are formulated and operationalized in Bangladesh.
90Chapter 4: Water Resources Development in Bangladesh: A Discourse through Development Planning (1947 to Present)
Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy
After discussing the evolution of country-scale development outlook and that of water resources development to understand how the sector evolved as part of the overall development mechanism in Bangladesh in the preceding chapter, this chapter will now move to water resources development projects specific to the southwest coastal area where the case study polders are located.
This chapter first describes the overall governance system for water resources in Bangladesh which is then followed by the context in which the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) was deemed necessary. Then it moves on to briefly discuss how the project was realized -- from planning to design and implementation. After that, this chapter moves on to describing some negative consequences of the CEP, the new projects that were taken up to offset those unintended consequences, their outcomes and finally, details of the current project under implementation. The purpose of this chapter is to capture the evolution of structural development projects in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh which started with the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) in 1960s.
5.1 GOVERNANCE SYSTEM REGARDING WATER RESOURCES
Development and management of water resources in Bangladesh involve more than 40 agencies and organizations across four ministries and a number of national and international non-governmental organizations. The Ministry of Water Resources (MoWR) is the apex body for development and management of water resources in Bangladesh which collaborates with the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives, and Ministry of Shipping.
The Water Resources Planning Organization (WARPO) under the Ministry of Water Resources is responsible for formulation of national policies and strategies for utilization and conservation of water resources while Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) is mandated for the planning, implementation, operation and maintenance of flood control, drainage and irrigation related projects.
Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy 91
BWDB jurisdiction is divided into 9 zones, 22 circles, 78 divisions and 201 sub- divisions across the country (Government of Bangladesh, 2016).
The local government administration in Bangladesh is hierarchically (from top to bottom) organized into District Council (64), Upazila (Sub-district) Council (491) and Union Council (4554) (Government of Bangladesh, n.d.). Besides, all the city corporations and municipalities (secondary urban areas), water supply and sewerage authorities in metropolitan areas, and a number of special service agencies are part of the Local Government Department under the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives. Operation and maintenance of water resources related projects which have a command area below 5,000 hectares individually are the responsibility of respective local governments, and BWDB provides management guidelines and necessary assistance to them. Besides, local government institutions are mandated to implement small scale (up to 1,000 hectares) flood control, drainage and irrigation subprojects. However, assessment of damage and emergency repairs, as well as the preventive work to minimize impact of natural disasters on water infrastructure is the responsibility of Bangladesh Water Development Board (Government of Bangladesh, 2016). It can be noted here that Bangladesh has a separate ministry (Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief) to look into issues related to disaster and disaster management has been made a cross-cutting issue across all sectors. There is an organized structure of disaster management committees at the national level and also along the local government structure, but their roles and responsibilities are centred on responding to emergency situations. Functionally, there is a Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation Officer (DRRO) at the district level and a Project Implementation Officer (PIO) at the Upazila (Sub-district) level. For emergency repairs and rehabilitation of water infrastructure, first the corresponding BWDB circle office assesses the damage and sends report to the headquarters in Dhaka where the design of the repair work is done and then, the work is carried out following standard government procedure.
92 Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy
5.2 WHY COASTAL EMBANKMENTS WERE NECESSARY?
More than 1.2 million hectares of land area in the coastal part of Bangladesh is low elevation ranging from 1 to 1.5 mPWD7 which was subject to inundation by tides coming up from the Bay of Bengal twice a day through numerous tidal rivers and their branches. This vast tract of land (Figure 5.1) used to be protected from saline water by means of low earthen embankments so that farmers could cultivate one crop a year. However, the embankments were not properly constructed nor maintained and often used to breach as well as being overtopped, with the saline water destroying the standing crops. Besides, the saline water used to leave a layer of salt on the land which rendered it unfit for cultivation for the following few years. The low earthen embankments used to be constructed and maintained under the aegis of the Zamindars or landlords who were vested with the responsibility of collecting revenue from the cultivators until the end of the British rule in 1947. However, with the departure of the British from the Subcontinent, the Zamindari system was abolished and consequently the conventional system of organized embankment management came to an end. With the view to increasing rice production in the country, the Government of the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) initiated an embankment reconstruction programme in the year 1958. Although the initiative saw some success in the south-west of Khulna, it was deemed small compared to the need for an extensive program to protect all the area affected by tidal flooding (Leedshill- De Leuw Engineers, 1968).
7 BWDB and other government departments refer water levels to the Public Works Datum (PWD). PWD is a horizontal datum believed originally to have zero at a determined Mean Sea Level (MSL) at Calcutta. PWD is located approx. 1.5 ft below the MSL established in India under the British Rule and brought to Bangladesh during the Great Trigonometric Survey.
Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy 93
Figure 5.1: Coastal Embankment Project Location (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968)
94 Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy
5.3 INCEPTION OF THE COASTAL EMBANKMENT PROJECT (CEP) (1961)
The Coastal Embankment Project was originally conceived by the former Irrigation Department of the Government of the then East Pakistan. The Flood Control Branch of the Department started repairs on old embankments in 1958-59 and also prepared a report and estimate of the cost of construction of new embankments and repairing and remodelling existing ones in the coastal areas (Rashid & Rahman, 2010). The Ordinance No. 1 of 1959 which created the East Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (EPWAPDA) also granted it broad powers including taking over the works in progress under the agencies that were absorbed by the Authority (Thomas, 1974 and Rashid and Rahman, 2010). This is how the Coastal Embankment Project came under EPWAPDA.
EPWAPDA submitted the report produced by the formerly Irrigation Department to the Government of Pakistan and the proposed project was approved for construction in the middle of 1960 (Rashid & Rahman, 2010). Under EPWAPDA’s supervision the work started during 1960-61 but the progress was relatively slow owing to the absence of a comprehensive and coordinated plan and also of adequate supervision and effective control (Rashid & Rahman, 2010). Consequently, EPWAPDA requested the International Engineering Co. (IECO), their general consultant, to review the layout and project design and submit a report thereon. IECO submitted their report in June 1961 where they recommended conducting additional detailed engineering investigations and designs (Rashid & Rahman, 2010).
Following IECO’s recommendations the embankment programme was accepted for execution (Rashid & Rahman, 2010). The IECO plan proposed construction, repair and strengthening of 2,800 miles of earth dikes to be built along the bank of rivers, drainage channels and tidal estuaries; internal drainage from these enclosed units to be managed by installing over 5,200 metal or concrete pipe sluices at more than 3,300 sites to provide drainage of the land inside the dikes. Salt water intrusion would be prevented by utilisation of automatic flap gates installed on the salt water end of the sluice pipes, but no consideration was given to the control of the fresh water level within the polders other than during periods of excessive rainfall. The proposed plan was said to provide protection against salt water intrusion and
Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy 95
flooding to 1.4 million hectares of land of which nearly 1 million hectares were under cultivation (Rashid & Rahman, 2010). In April 1962, EPWAPDA signed an agreement with M/s. Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers as engineering consultant for the Coastal Embankment Project (Rashid & Rahman, 2010). Consequently, for technical support and guidance to local engineers on planning, design and construction of the project, Leedshill consultants were integrated into the field and office organization of the EPWAPDA Chief Engineer for the Southern Zone (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968).
Active construction of the project commenced in 1961 using funds from the Government of East Pakistan and based on the IECO report, the project was sanctioned by the Provincial and Central Governments in 1963. The Project was financed by a combination of funds from the Government of East Pakistan and grants and loans from the United States Government through their Agency for International Development (USAID).
The scope of the project comprised constructing embankment and drainage sluices for protecting land from saline water intrusion; there was no provision of water management for providing irrigation facilities inside the polders. Nevertheless, in some parts of the project area irrigation water intake structures were provided to offset the interference that the embankments caused with overbank incursion of fresh water meant for irrigation (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968).
At the initiation stage, the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) was conceived as a combination of 73 polders varying in size ranging from about 486 to over 80,971 hectares (International Engineering Company, 1964). However, later in 1967 when the project was divided into two phases, the first phase consisted of 92 and the second phase consisted of 16 polders (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968). Phase I comprised of 2,500 miles of embankments and 780 sluices covering more than 1 million hectares of land of which almost 0.81 million hectares were cultivable. Expediting the schedule for completion by June 1971, Phase I of CEP was aligned with the government’s ‘Grow more food’ campaign. Phase II of the project was planned to protect 0.28 million hectares of land through 500 miles of embankment and included 150 drainage sluices (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968). The polders under the second phase were planned keeping the provision of internal water
96 Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy
management based on the experiences gained through implementation of the first phase of the project.
The total number of coastal polders in Bangladesh is now 139 of which 108 were under the original Coastal Embankment Project and the rest were subsequent additions until the early 1990s (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013d).
5.4 THE POST-CEP INTERVENTIONS IN THE SOUTHWEST COASTAL AREA
Following the devastating cyclone in 1970 and independence in 1971, the development plans and programs in the coastal area regarding water resources as a whole in Bangladesh were restructured. Small scale and quick-yielding projects (Early Implementation Project, EIP) were given emphasis alongside the capital intensive flood control and drainage (FCD) and flood control, drainage and irrigation (FCDI) schemes as per recommendations of the donors (Chadwick & Datta, n.d.). Institutionalisation of water resources development and management took place over the 1980s and 1990s through formulation of legal frameworks (e.g. National Water Plan, Water Code, Water Act, National Water and Flood Management Strategy) and establishment of operational bodies (e.g. Ministry of Irrigation, Water Development and Flood Control/Ministry of Water Resources, Master Plan Organization, and Water Resources Planning Organizations).
After 1970, coastal embankments again became a development concern when another devastating cyclone hit the coast in May 1985 killing almost 10,000 people. The World Bank initiated the Cyclone Protection Project in response to the Government’s request in June 1985 (The World Bank, 2005a). However, the revision of the scope and extent of the Cyclone Protection Project to make it more ‘integrated’ with the ongoing development programs eventually turned it into the Coastal Embankment Rehabilitation Project (CERP) which after a series of disputes between the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and the donors was approved in November 1995. Meanwhile the coast was visited by a couple of cyclones in 1988 and 1991 of which the latter was noted as one of worst in history causing deaths of approximately 140,000 people and demonstrating the high level of vulnerability of the coastal population. It is important to note here that the primary objective of the coastal embankment project was to safeguard land against saline tidal flooding and enhance agricultural production, and the earthen embankments
Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy 97
were not meant to safeguard against cyclone induced surges. However, the promotion of agriculture coupled with the sense of permanence and security that the polders offered (Dewan et al., 2015) encouraged wide scale settlement in the coastal belt, which by early 1990s took the population to about 35 million (The World Bank, 2005a).
Meanwhile, starting from the early 1980s, the adverse effects of polders started to become evident in the physical environment. The river morphology and waterways in the southwest and southcentral coastal regions of Bangladesh started deteriorating. Normally, the enormous volume of tidal water would have been stored in the floodplain during rising tide allowing the sediment in suspension to be deposited over the floodplain if there was no embankment. Subsequently, this stored water would provide a flushing action by draining through the tidal rivers during ebb tide. But as a consequence of making polders the tidal volume decreased causing a reduction in water level and the tide velocity during ebb tide, which led to the siltation in the river resulting in the rise of the river beds (Halcrow SW Partners Ltd, 1993 in Rahman & Salehin, 2013). This continuing process of siltation in the rivers and the channels caused drainage congestion over a vast tract of land expanding further upstream. There was no provision for regular maintenance dredging; only intermittent manual excavations were attempted in the main tidal channels which proved inadequate and have often been counterproductive aggravating drainage in other areas when channels are blocked for excavation. Drainage congestion, as a result, progressively worsened. Rain water accumulating in the polder areas during the wet season dissipated slowly or not at all causing prolonged inundation of farmlands, household lots and the internal communication networks. Lost agricultural production, decreased employment opportunities and deteriorating sanitary conditions combined to lower the living standards dramatically. Competition for the diminishing resource base has resulted in severe land and water use conflicts and created a volatile social situation (Asian Development Bank, 1993).
Against this backdrop, in the year 1984 the government of Bangladesh requested Asian Development Bank (ADB) assistance to investigate investment possibilities for rehabilitating 400,000 ha of land originally protected by coastal embankments in the southwestern part of Bangladesh (Asian Development Bank, 1993). In response, the Bank appraised and approved the Khulna Coastal
98 Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy
Embankment Rehabilitation Project (KCERP) in December 1986. However, before the major physical works for KCERP were initiated, public protests and civil actions forced the Government to suspend the planned implementation of KCERP in 1990. The local population was particularly frustrated by the prolonged flooding and the continued deterioration in the quality of the stagnant water trapped within the polder and they considered cutting the embankments to allow tidal circulation as a way to improve water quality (Asian Development Bank, 1993).
Meanwhile in 1989, the Second Coastal Embankment Rehabilitation Project (CERP II) kicked off in the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) coverage area with financing from ADB. Following the circumstances that stopped the implementation of KCERP, the terms of reference (TOR) for CERP II were modified in April 1990 and the revised TOR combined the KCERP and CERP II project areas (Asian Development Bank, 1993). Under CERP II, the Bank financed the Khulna-Jessore Drainage Rehabilitation Project (KJDRP) in 1994. KJDRP covered a total area of 100,000 ha in the Khulna and Jessore districts of Khulna division. With the principal objective of ‘poverty reduction’, the KJDRP activities included, among others, rehabilitating the existing drainage infrastructure to reduce congestion and protect the project area from tidal and seasonal flooding (Asian Development Bank, 1993). However, KJDRP encountered heavy resistance/critique from the local populace who were sceptical of any benefit from such projects because of their bitter experiences with the already implemented scores of “system-rehabilitation projects”. Although ADB in its Project Completion Report (PCR) rated KJDRP as satisfactory (Asian Development Bank, 2004), the Performance Evaluation Report identified it as ‘less than satisfactory’ (Asian Development Bank, 2007). The PCR also noted that the scope of the project was limited as it comprised only one fourth of the CEP coverage area when the interconnectivity of river systems in southwestern Bangladesh and the tidal flow mechanism required a holistic approach. Consequently, despite the huge investment for alleviating drainage congestion and flooding, the problems still remained within and outside the project area (Asian Development Bank, 2007).
Amidst the dispute about the role of embankments and other engineering structures, two consecutive cyclones visited the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh in November 2007 and May 2009. The cyclones, named Sidr and Aila respectively, caused severe impact over the entire southwest coast. While cyclone
Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy 99
Aila caused fewer fatalities, it opened up an unforeseen/unprecedented aspect of disaster impact in the affected areas. The age-old earthen embankments that created the polders under the Coastal Embankment Project gave in at many locations rendering vast tracts of land subject to tidal flooding twice daily. For the elderly people, this was a reminiscence of the pre-polder era at a time when human settlements and business activities had developed substantially within the polders.
5.5 THE CURRENT STRUCTURAL DEVELOPMENT REGIME: COASTAL EMBANKMENT IMPROVEMENT PROJECT (CEIP)
5.5.1 Background and project objectives After cyclone Sidr struck the south-west coast on 15th November 2007, the government of Bangladesh obtained an IDA/credit for Emergency Cyclone Recovery and Restoration Project (ECRRP). Alongside the recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation programmes, ECRRP also addressed the need for long-term disaster risk management as part of which the preparatory level studies for the Coastal Embankment Improvement Programme (CEIP) was conceived (The World Bank, 2008). CEIP was considered as a systematic approach to upgrading of coastal embankments which had been an effective buffer against cyclonic surges. CEIP incorporates a long-term perspective through a series of programmes spread over 15- 20 years where the deficiency in performance of one will be addressed in the next by enrichment of knowledge and understanding the lacunae in design (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013d).
The first phase of this long-term programme, CEIP-1, started in September 2013 with the expected completion to take place by the end of the year 2020. As part of an integrated approach to improve the polder system in the coastal area, the project development objectives were set forth to:
Increase the area protected in selected polders from tidal flooding and frequent storm surges which would worsen due to climate change; Improve agricultural production by reducing saline water intrusion in selected polders; and Improve the government’s capacity to respond promptly and effectively to an eligible crisis or emergency (The World Bank, 2013).
100 Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy
CEIP-1 is expected to provide direct protection to 0.76 million people living in the six intervention districts namely Bagerhat, Khulna, Satkhira, Barguna, Patuakhali and Pirojpur while 8.5 million people from these districts would benefit through agricultural development, employment and food security (The World Bank, 2013).
5.5.2 Coverage of the Coastal Embankment Improvement Project-Phase 1 The Coastal Embankment Improvement Programme has been conceived as a multi-phased approach with the long-term objective of increasing resilience of the entire coastal population to tidal flooding and natural disaster through upgradation of the whole embankment system stretching over 6,000 km around 139 polders. The programme envisaged a series of projects that would impart the learning from CEIP- 1 and bring innovation in design and implementation to the followings with a view to achieve the development objectives of the project in a complex and changing environment (The World Bank, 2013).
The Coastal Embankment Improvement Project- Phase 1 considers 17 polders (Figure 5.3) spread over the aforementioned six coastal districts (Bagerhat, Khulna, Satkhira, Barguna, Patuakhali and Pirojpur) for rehabilitation and improvement. Selection of these polders (Table 5.1) was based on a multi-criteria analysis process which was developed as part of the strategic polder assessment task. The key criteria for the analysis included the following:
Physical condition of the embankment and the drainage system; Economic activities in the polders (agriculture, fishery or forestry); Population and socio-economic conditions; Environmental conditions; and Economic efficiency considerations in terms of project execution (The World Bank, 2013)
The 17 polders that have been selected based on the analysis of these issues were further categorized into packages of 3 to 6 for the civil works to be carried out. Following the feasibility study for all 17 polders, detailed design for the first package of 4 polders was completed and the civil work has begun in those polders in 2014. However, flexibility in polder selection has been kept to accommodate any unprecedented changes that may occur during project implementation given the dynamic and complex nature of the coastal zone (The World Bank, 2013).
Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy 101
CEIP-1 consists of the following five major components:
Rehabilitation and improvement of polders Implementation of social and environmental management framework and plans Construction supervision, project monitoring and evaluation, and coastal zone monitoring Project management, technical assistance, training and strategic studies Contingent emergency response.
102 Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy
Figure 5.2: Locations of polders along the coastal area of Bangladesh (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013d)
Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy 103
Table 5.1: Polders identified for intervention under CEIP-1 (Source: BWDB, 2013b)
Polder Gross Protected Sl. No. Polder No. Location Population Area (ha) (in 2011) 1 32 Dacope 8,097 38,397 2 33 Dacope 8,600 62,305 3 35/1 Sharankhola 13,058 99,182 4 35/3 Bagerhat 6,790 31,075 5 39/2C Bhandaria 10,748 84,853 6 14/1 Koyra 2,933 20,578 7 15 Shymnagar 3,441 31,788 8 16 Paikgacha-Tala 10,445 118,616 9 17/1 Dumuria 5,020 23,919 10 17/2 Dumuria 3,400 34,070 11 23 Paikgacha 5,910 23,888 12 34/3 Bagerhat 3,656 65,399 13 40/2 Patharghata 4,453 41,317 14 41/1 Barguna sadar 4,048 41,051 15 43/2C Galachipa 2,753 14,851 16 47/2 Kalapara 2,065 5,411 17 48 Kalapara 5,400 26,260
The tasks identified under Component A: Rehabilitation and Improvement of Polders are: upgradation of embankments; embankment slope and riverbank protection; and, construction and repair of hydraulic structures and re-excavation of drainage channels. Upgradation of embankments include raising the crest level of almost all embankments and reviewing the breaching point considering the present and future scenarios of tidal/storm surge levels. It also includes the provision of re- aligning existing embankments with a view to providing additional setback for avoiding bank erosion (The World Bank, 2013). Embankment slope and riverbank protection work is meant to stabilize the slope against erosion and scour. Re- excavating the drainage channels which have been silted up in most of the polders is considered as a major activity under the project. These drainage channels (canals or as locally known, khals) are meant to drain off excess water accumulated inside the polders from precipitation which is a precondition for proper cultivation. Under the task of construction and repair of drainage structures, CEIP-1 would also construct/repair drainage sluices and flushing inlets to facilitate year round cultivation inside the polders (The World Bank, 2013).
104 Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy
The design of embankments for rehabilitation of polders under CEIP-1 considered protection from storm surges up to 25 years return period. For an additional buffer for climate change impacts, the design took account of the likelihood of adverse trends in cyclone intensities, precipitation amounts and the sea level rise. The total project cost for CEIP-1 is USD 400 million and the project implementation time line has been set between September 2013 and December 2020 (The World Bank, 2013).
5.6 SUMMARY OF KEY EVENTS
The Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) significantly changed the bio-physical environment of the project intervention area. With the primary objective of enhancing agricultural production, this massive project was initiated to provide protection to more than 1.2 million hectares of land against flooding and saltwater intrusion. However, with the progress of this long-term project (from 1961 to early 1980s), some issues arose which had not been considered in the planning and design of the project. For example, in the original plan, there was no provision for water management for irrigation inside the polders. But when this was affecting agriculture and the community demanded solutions, some provisions were made. This even led to division of the project into two phases, which was not in the original plan, so that the progressive experiences from the project could be reflected in the construction of polders in the later phase. However, despite this care, comprehensive water management for all the polders could not have been undertaken because of the substantial amount of extra cost that the project would require (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968).
Waterlogging inside the completed polders were also evident as the CEP moved forward (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968) and by the time the project was complete, this problem accumulated. This can be seen in the nature of the post- CEP interventions in the southwest coastal area (section 5.3). The Khulna Coastal Embankment Rehabilitation Project (KCERP), Coastal Embankment Rehabilitation Project (CERP), Khulna-Jessore Drainage Rehabilitation Project (KJDRP) – all these projects make it conspicuous that they were meant to deal with the water logging and drainage issues that understandably evolved from the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP). However, the drainage congestion and consequent waterlogging has now become widespread (please see Chapter 2) for which the diversion of river water from upstream is significantly responsible. This started with the commissioning of
Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy 105
the Farakkah Barrage in 1975 across the upstream of the Ganges River in the Indian state of West Bengal near the border with Bangladesh. Sediments that used to get carried to the sea are now accumulating on the river bed because of lack of water flow in the river and addressing the coastal embankments alone will not restore the drainage conditions.
Although it was not considered in the planning and design, shortage of irrigation water and waterlogging inside some polders were identified and addressed to some extent by revising the design of polders in the second phase of CEP. But the major reason behind the large extent of waterlogging, which is the sedimentation of the rivers, was not a concern during the formulation of the CEP. The interim engineering evaluation of the project also did not consider sedimentation as a concern (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968). Even a group of experts under the aegis of the United Nations Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (UNECAFE) opined that the effect of the embankments on sedimentation in the rivers and along the coastal areas would be small (UNECAFE, 1966).
While the embankments are held responsible for the perennial waterlogging and associated problems in some parts of the project areas, it has many positive contributions to development (please see Chapters 7 and 8). Besides the flaws in planning and design of the project, the negative consequences may also be associated with the negligence in operation and maintenance. The engineering and economic evaluation of the Coastal Embankment Project underscored the need for post- construction operation and maintenance of the engineering structures (embankments and sluices) for the success of the project. For this, an operation and maintenance manual was prepared for the project in 1967 which set forth the organization, operating criteria and maintenance procedures for completed polders (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1967). Operation and maintenance of engineering structures is an expensive task and from the physical conditions of the embankments and sluices as was observed in the field, it is evident that this task was not properly carried out in the absence of sufficient funding in the post-independent Bangladesh. In absence of proper maintenance, over the years the embankments became weak in many locations and breaching of embankments in monsoon season is common across the southwest. The poor condition of the embankments was realized when they gave in to the cyclonic surges in 2007 and 2009 of which the effect of the latter was
106 Chapter 5: Coastal Embankment Project (CEP): History and Legacy
substantial. The current structural development regime in the coastal area of Bangladesh is the Coastal Embankment Improvement Project (CEIP) which has been formulated in response to the impacts of those two cyclones in the southwest. Under this project, the coastal embankments that were constructed under the CEP are being rehabilitated in a way so that they can protect the community from tidal flooding as well as storm surges even under a certain level of the climate change effects.
This research investigates the connections between coastal embankments and community’s vulnerability to disaster. Within the scope of this research, three case study polders (7/1, 32 and 33) have been selected and the details of the research findings have been presented in the following chapters.
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Chapter 6: Profile of the Case Study Areas
This chapter constitutes major features of the three case study polders. First a brief description of the southwest coastal area is presented in section 6.1. This is followed by descriptions of the three case study locations (Polders 32, 33 and 7/1) covering the physical features of the polders and the demographic features of their inhabitants. Among the three, polders 32 and 7/1 were two of the hardest hit areas by the recent cyclone in 2009 whereas polder 33 was relatively less affected. For the understanding of the role of embankments in community vulnerability to disaster, polders 32 and 7/1 offer the right features in terms of the nature and extent of damage done by the cyclone whilst polder 33 testifies to the positive role of embankments.
6.1 THE SOUTHWEST COASTAL ZONE OF BANGLADESH
The Ganges, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna (GBM) are the rivers of trans- Himalayan origin that mark the physiography, as well as the culture and livelihoods of the people of Bangladesh. More than 90% of the GBM catchment lies outside of the boundaries of Bangladesh. The country is crisscrossed by more than 200 major rivers of which 54 are transboundary. The extensive floodplains at the confluence of the three great river systems make Bangladesh a true hydraulic civilization (Yu et al., 2010).
The coastal zone in the southern part of Bangladesh has a delicate morphology of an evolving delta. This flat landscape is subject to very high tides that influence the river processes a long way upstream in the southern estuaries. This coastal zone was subject to inundation by high tides, salinity intrusion, cyclonic storms and associated tidal surges. In the early 1960s, the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) was constructed to turn this area into permanent agricultural lands though polderization. Polders are areas enclosed on all sides by dykes or embankments, separating the land from the main river system and offering protection against tidal floods, salinity intrusion and sedimentation. Without embankments the coastal communities would be exposed to diurnal tidal fluctuations. These polders are equipped with inlet and outlet sluice gates to control the water inside the embanked
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area. This system worked well for many years and 1.2 million hectares are now under the protection of the coastal embankment system bringing immense benefits. However, there have been unintended consequences of this project. The very act of preventing the high tides from spreading over the land and confining them within the river channels initially increased the tidal range by about 30 per cent which might have had an immediate beneficial impact on drainage. However, the reduction of upstream and overbank storage also decreased the tidal cubature (ie, the volume of water displaced during a tidal cycle). The reduction in cubature induced sedimentation or more correctly a reduction in cross sectional areas of the rivers of all types – the large rivers such as the Pussur which have sandy bottoms and clay/silt banks and the smaller rivers which have an excess of silt and clay. The consequent choking of smaller rivers resulted in drainage congestion within some internal polders, and navigation problems in some (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013a). 6.2 POLDER 32 Polder 32 is situated in Dacope upazila of Khulna District (Figure 6.1). The management of the water control structures in the Polder lies with Khulna Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Division of BWDB. The Polder covers two Union Councils (the lowest administrative unit) namely Sutarkhali, and Kamarkhola of Dacope Upazila (Upazila is the upper level of Union). The polder is surrounded by the Sibsha and the Dhaki rivers to the west and north, the Chunkuri, the Bhadra and the Sutarkhali Rivers to the east and south. The main objective of construction of this Polder was only to protect the agricultural lands from salinity intrusion caused due to tidal inundation from the sea through rivers. Protection against storm surges was not considered at that time. At present, the embankment of the Polder is under tremendous threat of cyclone surge, wave attack, river erosion and other risks brought about by climate change. Polder 32 is surrounded by embankment (Figure 6.2) including various water controlling structures for draining and flushing the Polder area. The summary of the existing infrastructure is given below (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013a). Embankment: 49.50 km. Regulators (drainage / flushing): 16 Flushing inlets: 32 Internal khals (water channels): 45.00 km.
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Figure 6.1: Location of Polder 32 (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013a)
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Figure 6.2: Polder 32 with basic topographic features
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6.2.1 Socio-economic profile of polder 328 According to BBS (2016), Kamarkhola and Sutarkhali, the two Union Councils that constitute Polder 32, have a population of 13,897 and 30,060 respectively. Table 6.1 illustrates the basic demographic features of the polder.
Table 6.1 Basic demographic features of Polder 32 (BBS, 2016)
Name of Union Area (Ha) No. of Households Population Sutarkhali 4,896 7,463 30,060 Kamarkhola 2,921 3,559 13,897
The average density of population in Polder 32 is just over 562 per square kilometre and the average household size is nearly 4.
The male-female ration in Polder 32 is 1:1 and the largest cohort of the people belong to the age group 30-49 years (27%) (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013a). The following table (Table 6.2) presents an age-group distribution of population for Polder 32.
Table 6.2 Age-wise population distribution in Polder 32 (BWDB, 2013a)
Age Range 0-9 10-14 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-49 50-59 60-64 65+ (Years) Percentage of 19 12 8 9 9 27 7 3 6 Population
Agriculture is the most prevalent occupation among the working population in Polder 32 (76%) followed by service (23%) and industry (1%) (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013a). However, the proportion of females in income generating is far less than the male counterpart (Figure 6.3). The reason for this is multifaceted; first, women are responsible for almost all the household activities which does not allow them enough time to pursue work for income outside their houses; second, although women have some contribution in agricultural production, it is usually not considered as a contributing factor; and third, there are few job
8 Although the Union Council is the lowest administrative unit, more detailed data is available only at the Upazila Council level which is one step upper to the former. For Polder 32, further detailed demographic information has been derived and adjusted from that of Dacope, the corresponding Upazila for Polder 32.
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options available for women in and around the polder that would help them earn wages.
80 70 60 50 40 Male (%) 30 Female (%) 20 10 0 Agriculture Service Industry
Figure 6.3: Major occupations and their gender-wise distribution in Polder 32 (Adopted from Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013a)
In Polder 32, tidal flood, salinity intrusion and cyclones are considered as the major hazards. Figure 6.4 illustrates the extent of damage these hazards have caused to people in Polder 32 over the period of 2007-2011.
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90
80
70
60 Tidal Flood 50 Salinity 40 Cyclone 30
20
10
0 Affected Area (%) Affected Households (%) Crop Damaged (%)
Figure 6.4: Effects of recent (2007-2011) disaster events on Polder 32 (Adopted from Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013a)
6.3 POLDER 33
Polder 33 is also part of Dacope Upazila Council of Khulna District (Figure 6.5) and the administrative and management of the water control structures in the Polder lies with Khulna Operation and Maintenance (O&M) Division of BWDB. Polder 33 has five Union Councils for local government administration purposes; they are:
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Banishanta, Laudubi, Kailasganj, Dacope and Bajua. Polder 33 is surrounded by Bhadra and Chunkuri River to the West, Chunkuri and Pussur River to the North, Pussur River to the East and Dhangmari River to the South (Figure 6.6).
Constructed between 1959 and 1965, Polder 33 is one of the oldest polders constructed under CEP. the vital information about Polder 33 (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013b) is described below: 1. Embankment : 52.50 km
2. Regulators (drainage / flushing) : 13
3. Flushing inlets : 19
4. Internal khals (water channels) : 100 km
6.3.1 Socio-economic profile of polder 33 The total population in Polder 33 is 61,144 (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2016). Table 6.3 shows the Union Council distribution of population for Polder 33 along with the number of households and the total area.
Table 6.3 Basic demographic features of Polder 33 (BBS, 2016)
Name of Union Area (Ha) No. of Households Population Bajua 2059 3577 15753 Banishanta 2889 3398 14606 Laudubi 1341 2042 9222 Dacope 1662 1825 7047 Kailasganj 2921 3443 14516
Polder 33 has an average density of 515 people per square kilometre and an average household size of 4.28.
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Figure 6.5: Location of Polder 33 (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013b)
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Figure 6.6: Polder 33 with basic topographic features
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The percentages of male and female population in Polder 33 is 49.8 and 50.2 respectively (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013b). Age-wise distribution of population in Polder 33 (Table 6.4) shows that 28% of the people are under 15 years of age while 26% belong to the age group ranging between 15 and 29 years, and another 28% of people are between 30-49 years.
Table 6.4 Age-wise population distribution in Polder 32 (BWDB, 2013b)
Age Range 0-9 10-14 15-19 20-24 25-29 30-49 50-59 60-64 65+ (Years) Percentage of 16 12 8 9 9 28 8 3 7 Population
Occupation-wise distribution of population in Polder 33 is pretty much similar to that of Polder 32. However, agriculture has a little less prevalence in Polder 33 (67%) and industry has a little more (6.57) compared to those in Polder 32 (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013b). But the representation of women in livelihood activities in Polder 33 (Figure 6.7) is similar to Polder 32.
70 65 60 55 50 45 40 35 Male (%) 30 Female (%) 25 20 15 10 5 0 Agriculture Service Industry
Figure 6.7 Major occupations and their gender-wise distribution (Adopted from Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013b)
Over the period between 2007 and 2011, Polder 33 extensively suffered from tidal flooding, salinity intrusion and cyclones. While most of the polders in the southwest experienced loss and damage from these events, the extent of these in Polder 33 was significant. Figure 6.8 illustrates the extent of damages done by those
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hazards in terms of percentages of area, affected households and major crop damage in Polder 33.
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90
80
70
60 Tidal Flood 50 Salinity 40 Cyclone
30
20
10
0 Affected Area (%) Affected Households (%) Crop Damaged (%)
Figure 6.8: Effects of recent (2007-2011) disaster events on Polder 33 (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013b)
6.4 POLDER 7/1
Polder 7/1 is split over two Upazila Councils of Satkhira District, namely Shyamnagar and Assasuni (Figures 6.9 and 6.10). The total area of Polder 7/1 is 5,251 hectares of which 4,095 hectares constitute Padmapukur Union Council of Shyamnagar, and 1,155 hectares are part of Pratapnagar Union Council of Assasuni (Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, 2016).
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Figure 6.9: Location of Polder 7/1 (in yellow) in Satkhira District
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Figure 6.10 Polder 7/1 with basic topographic features
6.4.1 6.4.1 Socio-economic profile of polder 7/1 According to BBS (2016), polder 7/1 is home to 30,21661 people. Union Council- wise distribution of population for Polder 7/1 along with the number of households and the total area has been presented in Table 6.5.
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Table 6.5: Basic demographic features of Polder 7/1 (BBS, 2016)
Name of Union Area (Ha) No. of Population Households Padmapukur (Shyamnagar 4,095 5,495 24,653 Upazila) Pratapnagar [partial] 1,155 1,154 5,563 (Assasuni Upazila)
Polder 7/1 has an average density of nearly 576 people per square kilometre and the average household size is 4.5.
The following chapter will portray how the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) in the southwest coastal area transformed the biophysical features into a new social-ecological system.
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Chapter 7: Evolution of the Polder Social- Ecological Systems
The Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) through polderization of the coastal land significantly changed its biophysical features. While these changes are evident all over the coast, the southwest part – owing to its unique hydro-geomorphology - has experienced alterations in ways that do not match those of the other parts of the coast (e.g. southcentral coast or southeast coast). These changes in the biophysical domain consequently contributed towards transforming the community’s economic and social arrangements in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh. We argue that the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) was not just an isolated engineering project; it fundamentally changed the way of life of the people living there and triggered a new social-ecological system. We call this: Polder Social-Ecological System or Polder SES.
This chapter first describes the elements of the Polder SES in light of the SES framework by Berkes and Folke (1998). Then the interaction between the elements is elaborated in terms of the changes they brought about in the polder system. Finally, a summary of the changes has been made to underscore the evolution of the Polder SES.
7.1 ELEMENTS OF POLDER SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM
Social-Ecological Systems (SES) arose as an interdisciplinary field of study to redress the shortcomings of specific disciplinary outlooks. The complex human- nature relationships (please see Section 3.1.1 in Chapter 3) cannot be perceived from either of the ‘social’ or ‘ecological’ perspectives alone. Schoon & Leeuw (2015, p. 167) argue:
Nature no longer simply sets the context in which social interactions take place. Likewise, the human enterprise is not external disturbance acting upon an ecosystem.
The interconnectedness of social and ecological phenomena warrants an interdisciplinary viewpoint for a better understanding of the processes and their outcomes.
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External Political and Economic Elements
Polder
Social Ecological Elements Interaction Elements
Transformation Tr
Polder Social-Ecological System
Figure 7.1: Schematic concept of polder social-ecological system
Social-ecological systems constitute social and ecological elements that are directly influenced by external political and economic elements. Researchers used varied approaches in elaborating these elements and explaining the particular social- ecological systems (Ayres, 1978; Boumans et al., 2002; Burns & Katz, 1997; Eurostat, 1999; Groot, Wilson, & Boumans, 2002; Limburg, Neill, Costanza, & Farber, 2002; H J Schellnhuber, 1999; Hans Joachim Schellnhuber et al., 2010; Scholz, Binder, & Lang, 2011; Scoones, 1998, Turner et al., 2003). The schematic concept developed for explaining Polder Social-Ecological Systems (Figure 7.1) sheds light on all these three elements and then explains how the interaction between the social and ecological elements transformed the southwest coast into a unique social-ecological system after the coastal embankments were constructed.
7.1.1 External Political and Economic Elements External political and economic elements are the underlying issues that configured the overall national development approach of Bangladesh as a nation state. The creation of polders on the Bangladesh coast came as part of the holistic water resources development programs that was understandably driven by desires for economic gains, and the underlying issues here are those meant for the overall economic development of the nation. These underlying issues began with the legacy of political and economic discriminations starting from the colonial period through the Pakistan era, and then within the nation after independence as the power-structure
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continued favouring the rich. The political and economic crises that followed the independence of Bangladesh kept the country’s development reliant on foreign aid. The development prescriptions from donors were mostly devoid of consideration for local ecology (Thomas, 1974) and this redefined the human-environment relationships in the coastal part of the country. The social and ecological manifestation of the external political and economic elements became evident through succession to the current fragile state of the polders.
The evolution of water resources development in Bangladesh shows how economic reasons dominated the formulation of plans and the adoption of structural interventions for development. This was justified in the context of the growing need for food for a growing population (please see Chapters 4 and 5). Also, structural development at that time was a desired means for economic development of any nation, and the concern about ‘environment’ was yet to become an issue. The Master Plan for water resources development in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) was formulated by the leading firms/organizations from Europe and America. In those days in early 1960s, there was no provision for assessment of project impacts from environmental or social perspectives as can be found now (International Engineering Company, 1964; Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1967, 1968).
Development plans of a nation are formulated for enhancement of economic gains and the processes and mechanisms associated in the formulation of development plans are intrinsically political. For any part of a country, development plans are formulated in alignment with the greater national plan; and for many developing nations like Bangladesh, the implementation of development plans depends on external assistance from international development agencies. Thus, a local level physical infrastructure development has national and international level political and economic dimensions (Ahamed & Ehsan, 2005; Centre for Policy Dialogue, n.d.; Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, 2009).
7.1.2 Social Elements Social elements in the polder social-ecological systems are those pertaining to human actions and their behaviour. The underlying political and economic decisions, as discussed above, shaped the social elements over the period of time beginning in the pre-development stage (before the coastal embankment project) through the post- development.
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Agriculture has been the predominant occupation of the households in the southwest coastal region as it has been in the rest of the country. However, unlike the rest of the country, types of crops in the coastal areas were limited to paddy and some winter crops. The evolution of polder-ecological systems has seen the replacement of traditional land protection measures. This allowed single or partial cropping annually. Before construction of the embankments when the land was subject to diurnal tidal flooding, most of the people were engaged in subsistence agriculture (they could grow food only for themselves), and there was no other means of livelihoods. Access to basic education was difficult for most as there was no school nearby. Even for the basic groceries (cooking oil, spices, salt etc.), people had to travel far, and those who did not have a boat had to swim to get there and back.
Construction of the embankments (or, creation of the polders), in the first place, protected agricultural land from tidal flooding. This allowed more diversity of crops. Embankments also served as roads to connect people to neighbouring areas and beyond which enabled them to engage in diversified income generating activities.
With the changes in the external political and economic contexts, the local social and economic patterns and processes in the polders also changed. Better communication and improved technology contributed to enhancement of the local economy while the changes in the country’s political landscape transformed the local level governance system. The age-old traditional village administration system shifted to formal elected local government arrangements giving rise to different types of social institutions (Upazila Council and Union Council). Various community- based social groups emerged as donor-driven development projects were commissioned and implemented.
One way the influence of external economic elements was manifested was by the introduction of brackish water shrimp cultivation in the polders in the early 1980s. The people in the southwest coastal area used to cultivate shrimp on a limited scale (in the paddy field after harvesting and also in small ponds) even before the initiation of the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968). Because of the increasing global demand and a favourable physical
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environment provided by the embankments, shrimp cultivation became popular in the southwest coastal polders. Shrimp cultivation proved to be economically profitable and more and more people tended to switch to shrimp cultivation instead of crops. This gave rise to a new element in the social institutions of the polders. The politically powerful groups started capturing small land holdings for expanding their shrimp cultivation and the marginal farmers were squeezed. Farmers were forced to lease off their lands to the large-scale shrimp cultivators who are the politically connected business people or politicians cum business people. The forced leasing of land is mainly administered through obstructing surface irrigation to the lands. In most of the cases these large-scale shrimp cultivators are absentee landlords who live in cities and have workers to supervise the shrimp ponds.
Large scale shrimp cultivation has other social implications. As shrimp cultivation is far less labour-intensive compared to crop cultivation, many agricultural labourers in the polders became unemployed. These labourers were mostly the subsistence farmers who grew crops for their own consumption. Now losing their lands to the largescale shrimp cultivators and finding no work to do in the polders, they moved to places, among others, the far north east of the country where there is a shortage of agricultural labourers during the harvesting time. This seasonal migration of labour has both positive and negative sides. On the positive side, these people are earning a good amount of money working away from home to keep their families going. On the negative side, they have to compromise their family life as they are away from their families for a significant amount of time of the year (3-4 months).
7.1.3 Ecological Elements The southwest of Bangladesh is located in the Gangetic Delta. It is intersected by a large number of rivers and estuaries which are again connected by innumerable interlacing cross-channels. Like the other deltaic lands, the southwest is flat and the surface was slightly raised above flood level before the polders were created. The riverbanks were higher than the adjacent land so that the land sloping away from them on either side formed a series of depressions between their courses, and there were numerous marshes (O’Malley, 1908).
Even within the rest of the Gangetic Delta, and the coastal area of Bangladesh, the southwest has unique ecological features because of the presence of the
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Sundarbans, the largest natural mangrove forest in the world, to the south of the zone. All three case study polders are located adjoining the Sundarbans, and the embankments forming the polders provide demarcation between nature and humans. The rivers and estuaries running from north to south are connected with each other by an intricate network of branches which are further dissected into innumerable smaller channels. This whole tract was a maze of waterways and after construction of the embankments, the enclosed parcels of land look like a collection of islands of different sizes and shapes (Figure 7.2).
Agriculture has been the way of life for the people in the southwest since recorded history (O’Malley, 1908). However, livelihoods of the people in the polders adjoining the Sundarbans are significantly connected to it. The Sundarbans is a source of timber, firewood, and building materials. Many people are engaged in collecting honey from the Sundarbans.
The river water in the southwest is brackish over the months of December through June. With the onset of the rainy season, the salinity in the river water subsides and the upstream river flow further pushes the saline water downstream. Prior to polderization crop cultivation was possible on the flat land only between the months of June and December. This used to happen with the aid of temporary earthen embankments locally known as Ostomashi Bandh. However, the yield would sometimes get destroyed by floods in the Bengali month of Bhadro (mid-August). The higher land along the riverbanks had some vegetation but the vast tract of flat land had none except paddy during the cultivation season (O’Malley, 1908).
Historical documentation suggests that the Sundarbans was spread further inland until the settlers cleared the forest for cultivation. In 1785 the British administrators leased off parcels of land to local Zamindars (O’Malley, 1908). The forest land was considered ‘utterly unproductive’ and the vast tract of it was converted into ‘immense rice fields’ for earning revenue. Polders 7/1, 32 and 33 were part of the Sundarbans until the intervention of the British administrators. The abundance of water for irrigation was considered an added advantage for increasing the reserve of rice against seasons of famine (ibid) that led to the conversion of the forest land into rice fields.
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Figure 7.2: CEP polders in Khulna circle (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968)
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Settlements in the southwest started growing slowly as the formal colonisation began and were clustered along the river banks as they were naturally higher than the surroundings. Besides permanent settlements of the cultivators on the clearances of the Sundarbans, many people from the surrounding locations came only during the ploughing and harvesting seasons. These temporary migrants lived in their temporary huts and left after growing and reaping their paddy. The highly fertile land reclaimed from the Sundarbans rendered it easy for cultivation without requiring too many workmen (O’Malley, 1908).
After clearing part of the Sundarbans, two things were essential for successful cultivation; embankments to prevent salt water from entering the fields, and sufficient rainfall to sweeten the river water so that it could be used for irrigation (O’Malley, 1908). Construction of the low-height earthen embankments was the responsibility of the Zamindars so that the small landholders could cultivate. It can be inferred that the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) is in many respects a scaled- up concept of the indigenous practice that had been going on for more than 150 years. Even the provisions of the water inlets and outlets were replicated from what the locals had been practising. However, the scale and extent of the CEP was colossal compared to the non-engineered traditional practices which were meant for a single cultivating season whereas the CEP sought a permanent arrangement for secured cultivation.
The present day polders in the southwest adjoining the Sundarbans are part of the land reclaimed by clearing the mangrove forest. This coastal landscape has been subject to natural disasters ever since written history. Floods and cyclones are common phenomena owing to the geo-physical settings. The flood of 1890, which emerged because of the bursting of the Bhagirathi embankment upstream, was said to have been aggravated in the southwest coastal region by siltation of the river channels (O’Malley, 1908).
The infamous Bengal Famine of 1897 is purportedly attributed to the lack of rainfall which created a drought like situation preventing the desalination of irrigation water. The cyclone of October 1895 swept a storm-wave over the land leaving a deposit of salt which the shortfall of rain in the following season was
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unable to wash out. These two factors contributed to crop failure in 1896 leading to famine in the following year (O’Malley, 1908).
7.2 INTERACTION OF SOCIAL AND ECOLOGICAL ELEMENTS
Empolderment significantly impacted the prevailing social and ecological settings in the southwest coast of Bangladesh. With the completion of the embankment construction, the inhabitants inside the polders readily benefitted as their socio-economic conditions improved from secured cultivation. The benefits kept expanding being triggered by the improved built environment. However, the shortcomings of intervening into the natural environment also started surfacing --in some places as early as within a decade (Thomas, 1974) and they kept recurring over the whole social-ecological system. The following sections address the benefits and shortcomings of empolderment under ‘positive’ and ‘negative’ connotations respectively as identified in the case study polders.
7.2.1 Positive Aspects of Empolderment A. Secure cropping The foremost objective of the coastal embankment project was to protect the cultivable land from tidal flooding so that crop cultivation could be carried out securely. This objective was met to the level of expectation as found in the interviews with the communities. The traditional agricultural practice consisted of embanking individual parcels of land by temporary low-height earthen embankments. These embankments would keep the land safe for eight months and hence they were called Ostomashi Bandh (embankment for eight months). Normally, after eight months these embankments would submerge in high tide but by then the crop would have been yielded. However, the Ostomashi Bandh was not always successful; sometimes the flood in the Bengali month of Bhadra (Mid-August to mid-September) would overtop the makeshift embankments and wash away the standing crops.
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Figure 7.3: Harvesting paddy in Polder 33
Besides securing the principal crop, the coastal embankments helped prevention of saline water intrusion which allowed a second crop where irrigation water was available. It was noted during an interview in Polder 33 that some people earn a lot more from dry season crops (Robi crops) than the traditional wet season paddy. This prospect of crop diversification has even inspired many farmers to move away from shrimp cultivation which has detrimental effects on land.
B. Improved communication The second most important benefit derived from the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP), according to the polder dwellers, is improved communication within and outside the polders. The raised earthen embankments served as the designated means of road communication and this further safeguarded the internal roads in polders which otherwise would get inundated in tidal flooding.
Figure 7.4: An internal road section in Polder 32
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Prior to CEP there was no such provision and the mode of communication was restricted to boats only. Those who did not have a boat would have to travel on foot and cross the channels swimming. Even for mere groceries, people had to travel to Chalna, the closest local growth centre located roughly between 18 to 20 kilometres from the farthest point of polders 33 and 32 respectively. But now they can travel easily to Khulna, the district and divisional headquarters and also the largest city in the southwest of the country, which is roughly 70 kilometres from the farthest points in polders 32 and 33. In the statement of an interviewee from the community in polder 32:
Before WAPDA9 was constructed, if anybody had a piece of work in Chalna, they would have to go there one day ahead of the schedule in order to be on time. But now people are going to Khulna and coming back on the same day so conveniently which was unimaginable back in those days when we did not have the embankments.
C. Access to formal education One major benefit that came with improved communication was access to formal education. There were not many primary schools in the poldered southwest coastal area and the number of high schools was even fewer. As a result, most of the elderly people who were born before the implementation of the CEP had no formal education; some of them attended informal traditional schools (Pathshala) while most of them remained illiterate. The physical connectedness offered by the embankments enabled children to attend schools away from their homes and some of them went on to pursue higher education. This has a positive bearing on the overall quality of life of the people living in polders.
9 WAPDA is the short form of EPWAPDA which stands for East Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority, the predecessor of Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB). Since the Coastal Embankment Project was implemented by EPWAPDA, local people in their conversation refer the embankments as ‘WAPDA’ as a short form for ‘WAPDA Embankments’.
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Figure 7.5: A young boy on his way to school in polder 33 (left) and a primary school in polder 32 (right)
D. Fruit and vegetable production All three polders of the case study (polders 7/1, 32 and 33) were once part of the Sundarbans mangrove forest which were cleared off for cultivation starting as early as in 1785 (O’Malley, 1908). The reclaimed landmass, being part of the coastal ecology, was suitable for certain types of salinity tolerant plants but unfavourable for market gardening. Some vegetables were grown on the high land near the riverbanks but most of the land was barren except for the cropping season. The coastal embankments offered the opportunity to grow fruit and vegetables by restricting soil salinity inside the polders. However, this benefit was reversed when the recent cyclones breached the embankments at a number of locations and tidal flooding persisted for some places for more than two years. This reversal can be compared to the pre-embankment situations when vegetation was scarce.
E. Improved poultry and cattle conditions The formerly greater district of Khulna (which also included Satkhira) was considered not suited for the rearing of cattle as the water of many rivers became saline during the dry season. Salt in soil would also not permit any fodder for the cattle. Only such cattle are kept as are indispensably necessary for agriculture and when these cattle died off, they had to be replaced from other districts (O’Malley, 1908). This has been found to be true in the statement of the community members in all three case study polders. The situations changed with the putting up of the embankments. Families started raising poultry and cattle which primarily supplied eggs, meat and milk to the families, and then contribute to families’ income. As it was noted in an interview with a community member in polder 7/1:
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Poultry and cattle are very good sources of income for families. They grow in size and number every year and families can make good money.
F. Preservation of freshwater Access to potable fresh water has been a challenge for the inhabitants in the southwest coast since the inception of human settlements there. Prior to construction of the polders, people had to use river water for drinking, cooking and other household purposes. Consequently in the dry season, when salinity in river water would increase, diarrhoea and dysentery prevailed.
Coastal embankments by preventing intrusion of saline water offered the opportunity of preserving fresh water in tanks and ponds. This resolved one of the greatest problems of the area (International Engineering Company, 1965) and to date, this is the most viable option for access to safe water in the southwest coastal polders. Although most parts of Bangladesh have access to safe potable water through tubewells, the coastal zone is unable to avail this option because of the salinity in the ground water. Even at a considerable depth which can be regarded economic for sinking tubewells, the salinity is over the acceptable limit. Back in 1967-68, investigations were made near Mongla in Khulna in an effort to locate a suitable drinking water supply for the Mongla Port Development. Water from several test wells drilled to depths of 1500 feet was found to be too saline for domestic purposes (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968). This leaves rainwater harvesting as the sole option for securing access to fresh water. For years, communities have done this by preserving a pond or tank exclusively for drinking and cooking purposes. Over time, pond-sand filtration and other means have emerged to make the water safer and recently individual household-based options for capturing rainwater harvesting has been introduced. The embankments also provide considerable safety against cyclonic surges to contaminate the freshwater reservoirs.
Coastal Embankment Project has played a significant role in making the supply of freshwater more stable, not only for the case study polders but for the coastal zone as a whole. This unequivocally has contributed to the improvement of health and living conditions of polder residents.
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G. Protection against floods and cyclones The coastal embankments were not designed to provide protection against cyclones but against tidal flooding. Although the primary objective was the protection of crops from salinity and enhancement of crop production, these embankments played a significant role in saving household assets including the homesteads from tidal flooding. Traditionally the houses in the southwest coastal areas are mud-built- with mud-floor and mud-walls, and the goal-patta10 roof. Prior to the construction of the embankments, a sudden rise in tidal level or a cyclone induced surge would severely damage the houses which could lead to collapse of the structures. Coastal Embankment Project extended protection to the mud houses in the case study polders and hence played an important role in improving the quality of life of people. The effort and money for maintenance of the mud houses were also reduced.
Despite the fact that the design heights of the embankments did not consider cyclonic surges, they provided a high degree of safety against many severe cyclone events. The embankments were actually the first line of defence against storm surges and people admit that they did not feel much of the ravaging effects of cyclones because they were living inside the polders. This became evident when the CEP was still underway as the damage in the unprotected areas was notably greater compared to the damage in the completed and even partially completed polders (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968). Even in the devastating cyclone of 2009 when the embankments in all three case study polders (7/1, 32 and 33) breached at many locations and submerged the settlements, most of the people found refuge on the top of the parts of embankments that were unaffected. In the statement from a resident of polder 32:
Now we realize how embankments had protected us from the fury of nature after cyclone Aila struck breaching the embankments at various points and submerging our homesteads. We had to live on the top of embankment as that was the only raised ground free from tidal flooding. This continued for two years until the breaches were repaired to keep tides away and we were able to rebuild our homesteads.
10 The long leaf of the Nipa fruticans which grows extensively in the Sundarbans. It is a popular thatching material in the areas adjoining the mangrove forest.
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H. Other secondary benefits Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) paved the way for diversification of income-generating activities. First of all, the project itself was a means of income for the local labour force since almost the entire embankment construction task was carried out by employing manual labour. The construction of 5,000 miles of earthen embankment using hand tools to circumvent more than 1.2 million hectares of land by forming 108 polders required a huge workforce. The construction work took place during the dry season when the locals had no work as the cropping season had already ended. So the construction of the coastal embankment offered a significant means of income for the locals.
Improved physical communication, which came as an associated benefit of the project, itself opened access to a considerable number of income sources. The people who were earlier engaged in subsistence agriculture could then move within and beyond the region in search of work. Secure cropping and improved communication encouraged small to medium scale crop processing and marketing facilities, such as rice processing mills. With the improvement of purchasing power of the people demand for household goods and services also increased giving rise to local businesses (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968). With the progress of the construction of embankments for all the 108 polders under CEP, the local and regional economic features started to change. Many industries evolved catering for the Mongla sea port, which is the second most important in the country and is located just across the Passur River from polders 32 and 33. Secured physical environment, improved communication network and influence of the sea port rapidly changed the economic activities in the southwest coastal area which was once a vast flood plain with innumerable swamps and marshes. Meanwhile in the early 1980s, shrimp cultivation for export came as a boost to the local economy until its detrimental social and ecological aspects were revealed (discussed in the next section). The overall contribution of coastal embankments can be noted in the following statements of two inhabitants from polder 32 and 7/1:
Back in old days, there was hardship. But now, there is no short of money or work…When we don’t have work here we go almost everywhere in the country to work. We are not any short of food now. For all the year round, we have enough stock. We don’t have to worry about feeding our guests. [Polder 32]
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The poor people are now better off. After the cultivation season is over, they go to the sea for fishing. When they come back from the sea, they go to other parts of the country for work. So they are much better off now. [Polder 7/1]
7.2.2 Negative Aspects of Empolderment
A. Loss of fish The obvious change that all the elderly polder dwellers can recall as a negative consequence of embanking the coastal land is the loss of varieties of fish they used to catch. This can be attributed to the alteration of the fish habitat by cutting off the polder from the river system. The swamps and natural depressions (locally known as Beel) had an abundance of estuarine species of fish that disappeared after the embankments were put in place. In the polders near the coast including the case study ones (7/1, 32 and 33), there was the practice of raising shrimps in paddy fields which was curtailed where embankments eliminated the entry of saline water to the lands inside the polders (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968). Although the account of loss of fish, both in amount and in species, is not accurately substantiated, the project appraisal documents (IECO, 1965 and Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968) support this phenomenon. The abundance of fish before implementation of the Coastal Embankment Project and their subsequent disappearance is noted in the following statements of two polder-dwellers from polders 7/1 and 33 respectively:
We could not consume all the fish we caught. But they have disappeared after the construction of the embankments. [Polder 7/1] Fish was sold so cheap, but there were not many people to buy them because it was easy to catch. There was no ice either to preserve the fish to transport them to other places. [Polder 33]
B. Loss of waterways Closing of small rivers and streams by embankments and sluices adversely affected local waterway transportation in the southwest coastal area. Prior to the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) people and cargo could freely move inside and within the current polders using boats. Since the embankment has been completed, people and cargo have to be transferred from one boat to another to move in or out of the polders. This involves extra time and cost as boats have to take longer routes, particularly when transportation of bulk products is concerned (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968).
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C. Subsidence of land/Loss of elevation Land subsidence is a natural phenomenon in deltaic plains that constitute sediments comprising silt and clay. The Gangetic delta is also subject to land subsidence because of compaction of the old layers due to high sediment load on top. Apart from the natural process, land subsidence in the southwest coast is also attributed to the coastal embankments. The soil under the embankments is loaded and for this, local subsidence may be appreciable (UNECAFE, 1966). In addition to this, because of the embankments, the land inside the polders is deprived of the sediment that used to get spread over it to offset the natural subsidence arising from compaction processes. Moreover, this sediment rests on the riverbed raising its height every year and thus increases the net elevation loss of land inside the polders. In a study on the Ganges-Brahmaputra tidal delta plain, Auerbach et al. (2015) report that the lands inside the polders in southwest coast of Bangladesh have lost 1.0-1.5 metres of elevation since the embankments cut-off their connection with the tidal processes.
D. Shortage of irrigation water In some parts of the case study polders, among others, limited cultivation was possible during the dry season. Farmers used to preserve sweet water, accumulated from rain and internal runoff, in the khals (canals) by putting up small embankments across them so that the high saline water from the river could not contaminate the sweet water. Those khals would again be opened up during the rainy season to permit fresh water to flood the paddy field. The coastal embankments built under CEP obstructed this inflow of fresh water during the rainy season from the rivers onto the polder lands and as a result the provision of dry season agriculture in those polders was hampered. This led to the cultivators making unauthorised cuts in the embankments to obtain irrigation water. This was due to the fact that CEP initially did not consider water management inside the polders as a project component. However, recognising the impediment of freshwater inflow into polders, the latter part of the project addressed this issue (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968).
E. Waterlogging Because of the absence of an effective water management plan as part of the project, the polders constructed in the first phase suffered from these two contrasting phenomena, waterlogging and shortage of irrigation water. As the natural drainways
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were blocked by the embankments, some areas used to get deeply flooded after heavy rains damaging standing crops. Efforts were made in some instances by digging ditches to connect blocked drainways to khals (canals) linked to the drainage sluices (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968). However, these piecemeal approaches were not sufficient and required a comprehensive solution which became evident in the following years as drainage congestion kept on rising. Although this is a more serious phenomenon for the polders in the up-stream, the case study locations are also not free from this problem. The lands inside the polders have varying elevations and the highland is always free from flood; but the low lying land suffers from waterlogging as the drainage channels are incapable of draining off excess rainwater that accumulates inside the polders. This situation has been aggravated over the years because of deposition of silt in the river channels outside the embankments which restricted the operations of the sluice gates and led to limited provision for gravity drainage from the polders.
F. Shrimp over crop
Shrimp has been part of traditional crop cultivation in the coa stal area of Bangladesh. Even before the coastal embankment project, people used to cultivate shrimp in paddy fields (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968). However, following an increase in global demand and the fact being that tropical coasts are ideal for shrimp cultivation, the crop farmers in the coastal area of Bangladesh were inclined to move to saltwater shrimp cultivation from the beginning of 1980s. This led to large scale conversion of crop land into shrimp ponds all over the coast including the case study polders. Small land owners were initially tempted for the hard cash they received leasing out land for shrimp cultivation but they later realized that it did more harm to them than good as they could not grow food for their subsistence. Saline water brought inside the polders for Baghda (saltwater shrimp) cultivation made the soil saline rendering it unsuitable for any kind of cropping. Over the years of shrimp cultivation, vegetable gardens and fruit plants, which were part and parcel of every household since the embankments were constructed, became extinct. There was no green inside the polders, no fodder and consequently no cattle or poultry. Further to this, since the embankments were not designed and constructed to consider shrimp cultivation, the shrimp cultivators made unauthorized cuts in the embankments for
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saline water intake which is necessary for the shrimp ponds. These small cuts were numerous and owing to erosion they became large openings in the embankments over the years. Even the large landholders for shrimp cultivation made permanent inlet structures in the embankments to allow sufficient saline water intake for their ponds. These inlets made the embankments weak over the years and were the point of access for the surges that were accompanied by cyclones in 2007 and 2009 leading to a widespread devastation of the socio-economic and environmental conditions in the polder system.
Figure 7.6: Shrimp ponds (left) and saltwater inlet (right) in polder 7/1
Shrimp cultivators are politically connected and hence powerful people. They started off by leasing in government land (Khas land) and then coerced people to lease-off their land by various means despite their unwillingness. One common practice is to block irrigation into adjacent small lands of others so that they cannot cultivate and are forced to lease off the land to them. This is possible only for the economically powerful and politically connected people. The frustration of the common people with shrimp farming can be traced in the voice of a marginal farmer from polder 7/1:
Shrimp cultivation is beneficial only to the owners who have big shrimp ponds and who are powerful. Subsistence level farmers, which most of us are, do not get much benefit from shrimp cultivation.
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7.3 EVOLUTION OF POLDER SOCIAL-ECOLOGICAL SYSTEM
The interaction of the social and ecological elements as discussed in the preceding sections illustrate that the case study polders in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh underwent significant social and ecological changes ever since the coastal embankments were constructed. The embankments were constructed with the primary objective of securing agricultural production but the associated benefits were also substantial. Improved communication provision that came along the embankments as a secondary benefit led the community to a variety of social benefits including better access to education and health services. Embankments also allowed provision for fruit plants, kitchen gardens and fodder for cattle which significantly contributed to the economic gains of the community. Beside these, the improved physical environment facilitated preservation of potable water which was a valuable addition to the community’s life. Nevertheless, the embankments also acted as the first line of defence against cyclonic surges for safeguarding life and assets of the people living inside the polders. All these benefits complemented by other regional and national level development initiatives contributed towards diversification of livelihoods of the polder community which in the long run lifted the socio-economic features of the polder community. In a community where agriculture was the only way of life and most of the people were subsistence farmers, people are now engaged in a range of occupations besides farming.
However, ever since the coastal embankments were constructed, the community has also observed some detrimental effects including loss of some native fish species and loss of the convenience of water navigation. Besides, the interference into the hydro-geomorphology of the active Gangetic Delta brought about by the embankments significantly altered some ecological features. Subsidence of the land inside the polders is a direct impact of the embankments as they were starved of silts which would offset the natural sinking process. Furthermore, silt was accumulating on the surrounding river beds resulting in drainage congestion inside the polders. The damaging effects of polders also included the shortage of fresh water for irrigation as the natural drainage system inside the polders was interrupted by the embankment construction.
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The phenomenon that has the most significant effect on polder ecology is saltwater shrimp farming. For its economic prospects, saltwater shrimp cultivation rapidly expanded throughout the southwest in the presence of favourable farming conditions provided by the coastal embankments. The global rise in demand for the tropical region’s saltwater shrimp and the national level incentive made shrimp an important foreign exchange earning commodity. The southwest coastal area soon became a major source of saltwater shrimp. However, the rising trend in shrimp cultivation had a trade-off with the local ecology. High concentrations of salt in soil and water inside the polders resulting from shrimp farming diminished the vegetation and consequently poultry and cattle from households. Contested use of land for shrimp and crops had the subsistent farmers marginalized to the powerful elite who favour shrimp farming. The deteriorating effect of shrimp production on local ecology manifested many social consequences (see Chapter 8). The physical modifications carried out on the embankments for facilitation of shrimp farming weakened their structural integrity which contributed to the widespread and longstanding damage to the social-ecological system that has evolved over the years since the construction of the embankments.
The following chapter will elaborate on these changes over time and assess the role of embankments behind these.
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Chapter 8: Vulnerability: Is Structural Development to Blame?
This chapter presents an integrated analysis of vulnerability in the case study polders over three consecutive phases in relation to the commissioning of the embankments in the southwest coast of Bangladesh. These phases are: pre- development stage (before implementing the Coastal Embankment Project), development stage (since implementation of the CEP until the strike of cyclone Aila in 2009), and post-development stage (after cyclone Aila). The phase-wise analysis will differentiate the nature and extent of vulnerabilities over the specific periods and thus the role of embankments associated with them.
8.1 VULNERABILITIES OVER TIME
The construction of the vulnerability scenarios follows the vulnerability framework developed by Turner et al. (Figure 8.1) since it deals with vulnerability from coupled human-environment system perspectives. Turner et al addresses vulnerability from a holistic point of view where sensitivity and resilience together with exposure to perturbations and stresses (i.e. hazards) determine the vulnerability of a system. This framework considers vulnerability from a multifaceted coupled system with connections operating across spatial and temporal scales, and provides broad classifications of the vulnerability components. For this study, the coupled human-environment system of concern, as addressed by Turner et al, is the polder social-ecological system which we have defined in Chapter 7.
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Figure 8.1 Vulnerability Framework depicting components of vulnerability (Turner et al., 2003)
Turner et al’s framework has been developed based on the principle that, vulnerability is not determined only by a system’s exposure to hazards but also the sensitivity and resilience of the system in question (Turner et al., 2003). Thus, this framework addresses vulnerability in terms of three interrelated components: exposure, sensitivity and resilience. Exposure indicates the elements of human value that are located within a bounded system or place and are subjected to the influence of hazards/perturbations. Sensitivity is determined by the predisposition of social and biophysical features of the coupled human-environment system. Finally, resilience refers to the response mechanisms in place which include immediate coping strategies as well as longer term adjustment and adaptation programs in the event of a disaster. These three components have intricate relationships and cannot be addressed in an isolated manner in that, impact of a hazard/perturbation is determined by the summation of the system’s sensitivity and coping when sensitivity is also variable given the extent of exposure of the components.
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8.1.1 Pre-Development Stage Before the initiation of the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) in the early 1960s, the vast Gangetic plain in the southwest of Bangladesh was natural terrain with sparse human settlements. The three case study polders (7/1, 32 and 33) were all parts of the Sundarbans mangrove forest which were cleared during the British Rule in Bengal in 1780s to bring land under cultivation (O’Malley, 1908). The cultivators of these lands were people living upstream in the northern districts who used to move to the coast during the cultivation season and live in makeshift arrangements. Over the years those areas became inhabitable and people from the surrounding districts started moving in with farming entitlements obtained from the Zamindars (Landlords). The vulnerability of the case study locations during the pre- development stage has been considered in this context until the implementation of the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) in 1961.
Exposure
Considering the time since human habitation started to develop until the structural intervention took place in the case study locations, arable land and human settlements can be regarded as the elements that were subjected to exposure to perturbations and stresses (i.e. hazards). Tidal flooding was a natural phenomenon which was not considered as a hazard, but untimely a higher level of flooding that damaged standing crops was the major perturbation that negatively affected the life of the coastal people. Cyclones brought damaging impacts to the coast in terms of human casualties and destruction of assets which increased with the rise of concentration of human settlements. Historically, the cyclones of May 1869 and October 1895 were reported to have damaging effects on the southwest coastal area (O’Malley, 1908) while in more recent times, between 1901 and 1957, 11 more cyclones impacted that part of the coast (Bangladesh Water Development Board, 2013a).
Sensitivity
In the pre-CEP time in the southwest coast of Bangladesh there was no industry of economic importance apart from some fishing and timber trade. Salinity in the soil and water restricted cultivation of crops only to a part of the year (July to December) with the aid of temporary low-height embankments which were highly
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susceptible to breaching and overtopping even in normal tides. The low level of protection that those embankments could provide is demonstrated in the following statement of a community member from polder 7/1 in Shyamnagar, Satkhira:
There were narrow ring embankments in those days and they would easily breach in tides. When the breaching started at one end, there were people who would set out with drums to alert others about the impending flood, and people would rush to save themselves. The rest of the year people used to catch fish which was in abundance but there was no significant income generating activities. The local economy was at the subsistence level. Except for the houses which were built on raised ground, the land was subject to diurnal tidal flooding. There was no trace of roads in those days and the only means of communication was boat which all families did not have access to. There was limited social interaction among the inhabitants and people had to undergo lots of difficulties when they needed to go to the local administrative headquarters, or even to the local growth centre for obtaining groceries. Poor communication system with no physical infrastructure restricted access to formal education for the children of the families living on the southwest coast. There were no schools in any of the three case study polders (7/1, 32 and 33) as was noted during the interviews with the elderly inhabitants. Poor communication also adversely affected access to emergency health services. While the provision of institutionalised health facilities (hospital or clinic) in the pre-embankment time was inadequate and located at great distance (mostly at Upazila/Sub-district or District level), difficulties in communication made the situation worse.
Resilience
For coping with soil salinity arising as a consequence of regular tidal inundation, the people on the southwest coast cultivated their crops between the months of July and December with the aid of temporary low-height earthen embankments (locally known as Ostomashi Bandh or eight-month embankment) around individual land parcels. The principal crop in the region was (and still is) transplanted Aman rice which used to be grown during the wet season when the salt from the soil had been leached out by rain. However, a small amount of pulses or oilseeds could be cultivated on the less saline soils in the winter.
Poor communication owing to tidal inundation and also to absence of any physical infrastructure restricted the mobility of the people living in the present day
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polders. Even for obtaining groceries from the closest market place once a week or so, many people had to cross the river channels/canals by swimming or wait for a passing boat for a lift since they did not own boats. Difficulties in physical communication also restricted access to education for most of the children and consequently most of them remained illiterate. From a health services perspective, patients had to suffer for longer before families were able to get them to hospitals. In many instances, they would resort to seeking medical advice to health professionals who were trained as medical assistant (locally known as LMAF) but not doctors.
8.1.2 Development Stage Development Stage has been considered as the time since the commissioning of the embankments under CEP for the case study polders till May 2009 when cyclone Aila hit the southwest coast. Development works for the three case study polders for this study started off at different times between 1961 and 1968, and were completed between the years 1966 and 1971. So roughly, the time period covered under ‘Development Stage’ is the years between 1966 and 2009. Development Stage for all three case study polders is characterised mostly by prosperity of the community. The safety and security that the embankments imparted to the physical environment, led the community towards economic and social stability. However, the improved built environment that was created through intervention into hydro- geomorphologically sensitive areas, over the time gave rise to a new set of vulnerability components which is mostly attributable to socio-economic aspects. The following section elaborates on different components of vulnerability of the community over the development stage in the southwest coastal zone of Bangladesh.
Exposure
Construction of polders saved the coastal land from diurnal tidal flooding. Crops were now free from the risk of damage by sudden flooding, and human settlements started to expand. Taking advantage of the secure physical environment, physical communication within and beyond the polders improved and diversification of economic activities started taking place. The perspectives of exposure (i.e. hazards) changed with the construction of embankments as they redefined the coupled human-environment relationships on the coast and gave rise to a new social- ecological system. Previously, tidal flooding and occasional cyclones were the major
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perturbations against which exposure was considered. Now the prevailing exposure was mainly eliminated but a new set of perturbations (shortage of irrigation water in some parts inside the polders; water logging inside the polders because of siltation in the drainage channels and concurrent land subsidence; salinity of soil as a consequence of saltwater shrimp cultivation) gave rise to a new set of exposure. The waterlogging issue is more concentrated in the low-lying parts inside the polders which are natural depressions (Beel). In the following statement by a community member from polder 7/1 the mechanism behind waterlogging is well articulated:
In the pre-WAPDA era when we had low-height embankments, water from the rivers could overtop the (low-height) embankments and spread silt over the land. But after WAPDA embankments were constructed, the water remained outside (the embankments). As a result, the elevation of the land inside embankments became lower than the outside river water level. For the same reason, the water accumulated inside the polders from precipitation cannot flow down to rivers causing waterlogging inside. The sector that was primarily affected by all these perturbations was agriculture and vegetation. Absence of proper maintenance of the embankments (particularly to offset the erosion effect) made them weak at various points across all three case study polders (among others) posing risk to humans and their assets inside.
Sensitivity
The Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) brought economic and social stability to the coastal landscape. But the changes in the human and environmental conditions subsequent to construction of the polders accumulated over time and manifested in new ways. The immediate change that was obvious to the community was the disappearance of native fish. Earlier people could catch fish quite effortlessly, but cutting off the tidal plain from the river channels pushed the fish population away. In the statement of an interviewee from the community in Polder 32:
There was abundance of fish in all sorts of waterbodies…we wonder where the fish has gone after the embankments were constructed (Badhbondi howar pore mach je kothay gelo). Some of the community members in polders 7/1, 32 and 33 reported continued existence of fish inside the polders even after the construction of the polders – as long as the drainage system worked. They think that the fish has disappeared because of saline water shrimp cultivation inside the polders and also for using excessive pesticides and insecticides for crops which eventually ended up in water in the drainage canals.
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The major social and ecological changes that contributed to the vulnerability of the polder community are directly connected with saltwater shrimp cultivation. All the community members who were interviewed in the case study polders unequivocally agreed that saltwater shrimp cultivation has been the main source of their destruction following construction of the embankments. A timeline showing expansion of shrimp cultivation in the southwest coastal region (Figure 8.2) supports this statement.
Large scale saltwater shrimp cultivation inside the polders made the croplands saline and unsuitable for crop cultivation. Thus the marginal farmers who grew crops for their subsistence suffered from loss of yields. In addition to this, loss of vegetation including kitchen gardens, fruit trees and grazing grounds for cattle was a significant blow to the local ecology which had many socio-economic ramifications. Vegetation and cattle and poultry were positive additions to the coastal social- ecological systems in the southwest which are solely credited to the polderization process. The Coastal Embankment Project reclaimed land from diurnal tidal flooding and the salinity in soil and water inside the polder came down to a level conducive to vegetation. The positive changes that developed taking advantage of salinity- and a flood-free environment were reversed with the expansion of saltwater shrimp cultivation inside the polders. All vegetation and poultry and cattle started slowly disappearing bringing a desert-like situation in the polders (Figure 8.3). A United Nations Environmental Programme report (UNEP, 1999) highlighted Bangladesh being haunted by the prospect of turning itself into “a desert in the delta” following the expansion of shrimp cultivation all over the coast. In the statement of a resident from polder 32:
Shrimp cultivation made a few people rich while most people suffered….The side-effect of shrimp cultivation was widespread. Saline water brought inside the polder for salt-water shrimp cultivation made the soil saline rendering it unsuitable for any plants. Over the years of expansion of shrimp cultivation, all the plants inside the polder died. We could not grow any vegetable. We could not feed our cattle and as a result there were no cattle after some time.
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202576 205346
179420 171506 163848 Area in Hectare
107962 Traditional shrimp-in- 104624 paddy field farming. 80418 No record of commercial 69053 shrimp culture. 62448
39976 Small-scale shrimp export began in 1972-73. Mainly open water catches.
1960-1983 1984-85 1985-86 1987-88 1988-89 1993-94 1997-98 2003-04 2004-05 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12
Pre-development Stage Development Stage Post-development Stage
<<< Polder Development Perspective >> > Figure 8.2: A timeline showing expansion of shrimp cultivation area in southwest coastal region of Bangladesh (Adopted from Fisheries Resources Survey System (FRSS), 2010)
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Furthermore, unauthorised and indiscriminate cutting of the embankments for saltwater inlets for the shrimp damaged the overall structural integrity of the embankments. Waves in the rivers eroded the embankments at the points where saline water inlets were dug out. A major cyclone in 1988 hit the southwest coast and breached the embankments at those weak points submerging the land inside. This was repeated at a much higher magnitude in 2009 with cyclone Aila when the condition of the embankments had grown much worse owing to a combination of lack of maintenance and simultaneous weakening of the embankments because of saltwater inlets. The concern about the condition of the embankments is reflected in the following statements by the respondents in polders 32 and 7/1:
It is true that we had developed a sense of safety in our mind being inside the polder protected by the embankment. We thought the embankment will definitely not get washed away in the first instance. However, we had been worried too about the embankment in normal time. [Polder 32]
Breaching of embankments is not a new phenomenon. We have been living with this since long. There is always some breaching somewhere. However, cyclone Aila made the breaching of embankments widespread. [Polder 7/1]
Figure 8.3: Shrimp ponds and saltwater inlet in polder 7/1
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Expansion of shrimp cultivation in the polders had some socio-economic implications. The already prevailing skewed land ownership, as is the case in most of the rural areas in Bangladesh, became more intense with the beginning of shrimp culture. A significant proportion of the land was in the hands of absentee landlords who normally lease their land in sharecropping. Among these sharecroppers, there were many who did not own any land and sharecropping was their way of life. When these lands became unsuitable for cropping because of residual salt in the top soil, this group of subsistence sharecroppers were at risk of losing their means of living. Shrimp cultivation is far less labour-intensive than crop cultivation and hence did not offer those marginal people an alternative livelihood. This led to social tension among the polder dwellers which became more acute as the powerful elites encroached on more land for shrimp cultivation. The following statements from residents of polders 32 and 7/1 depict the concerns of small land owners:
Because of sharing of ownership among the ancestors, we do not have the amount of land that our forefathers had. The land we have now is not enough to feed us all the year round. [Polder 32] Small land owners were initially tempted for the hard cash they received leasing out land for shrimp cultivation. Later when they realized the harmful effects of shrimp cultivation, they wanted but could not get out of the contract because of the powerful lessees. [Polder 32] After10 to 15 years of the WAPDA construction, shrimp cultivation started. But to be true, we did not gain from shrimp cultivation; rather the rich people, who have 100/150 Bighas11 of land and who are mostly absentee landlords, they gained from shrimp cultivation. They have made lots of money out of it. Thus the gainers were the outside people. [Polder 7/1]
Apart from shrimp culture, crop cultivation was affected by drainage congestion inside the polders. The rivers surrounding the polders had the silt they carried deposited on the riverbeds and eventually the riverbeds rose above the land level inside the polders. This made the sluice gates (which were installed for draining off excess water from the polders and restrict saline water intrusion through flap-gate mechanism) inoperable. Besides, the drainage channels inside the polders also silted up reducing their conveyance capacity and became incapable of draining off the excess rainwater that accumulated inside and which submerged the croplands.
Drainage congestion inside the polders is also attributable to indiscriminate laying of internal roads. Construction of the embankments made the land inside
11 1 Bigha is approximately 1,340 square metres.
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flood-free and suitable for road communication. Over the years, the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) constructed roads but without due consideration for their impact on the drainage inside the polders. In most of the cases, internal roads act as cross-dams obstructing drainage of the water from inside. This issue is duly recognized in the statement of a water resources development professional:
Construction of internal roads for communication interfered with the drainage system as they were not considered during the design of the polders. There was no coordination between BWDB and the agency responsible for road communication (which is LGED in this case). They did not keep the provision as necessary for proper drainage; the culverts have too narrow openings in most instances.
Resilience
Embankments brought many direct positive effects to the coastal community. Earlier there was no economic activity other than growing crops; but the changes in the built environment that embankments facilitated, for example, road communication within and beyond the polders; dry land for vegetation other than crops; poultry and cattle as a household asset; all these had a positive bearing on the community’s socio-economic profiles. Improved physical environment encouraged development of agro-based small scale entrepreneurships, for example, rice processing, packaging, transport and marketing to other places which connected the local polder economy to the regional level and beyond.
Success of shrimp cultivation paved the way to some income sources for some people who collect shrimp fry from the rivers and sell them to the shrimp cultivators. Although this has a negative ecological impact, it is considered as a good source of income and people of all ages in the southwest coastal area can be found involved in this task at some time of the year. Thus through diversification of means of livelihoods, coastal embankments played a significant role in the uplifting of socio- economic conditions of the coastal community until the May 2009 cyclone Aila wreaked havoc on the community.
Before 2009, coastal embankments played a tremendous role in protecting the community against cyclone-associated surges. Although the embankments were not originally designed for protection against cyclonic surges, in reality they acted as the
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first line of defence against them. This was realized in the 1988 cyclone when the embankments in polder 32 breached at some spots and damaged the standing crops. Then again in 2009, cyclone Aila brought ravaging effects to the polder community bursting embankments in many polders across the southwest. This reminded the community of the safety and security they have enjoyed because of the embankments. The scale of damage done to the embankments by Aila was unprecedented but the immediate response for repairing the breaches was insufficient. Families in the affected polders who lost their houses and household assets had no other place to move to except for the unaffected parts of the embankments which were the only grounds to offer them refuge from tidal inundation. Once again, it was the embankment that helped them cope with the effect of the hazard. This particular benefit of embankments is conspicuous in the voice of an inhabitant in polder 32:
Embankment actually saved us. If there was no embankment, where would we have stayed after Aila? We would have nowhere to go.
8.1.3 Post-Development Stage The post-development stage refers to the time following cyclone Aila that struck the southwest coast on 25 May 2009, through to the present. For the case study locations, this time period is characterised by the widespread destruction of livelihood assets which exposed the community to a set of unprecedented hazards such as, salinity of protected land and potable water sources (Figure 8.2). This was met by a variety of community coping mechanisms developed with extensive external support from the government and the non-government development organizations. Detailed analysis of the community’s vulnerability components has been provided in the following sections.
Exposure
Breaching of the embankments by the impact of the surge that came along from cyclone Aila exposed the community primarily to diurnal tidal inundation. The vast tracts of land that were protected ever since the coastal embankments were constructed became subjected to flooding by saline water from the rivers as a consequence of the natural tidal activities. Apart from the croplands and shrimp ponds, the houses and household assets were all exposed to tidal flooding.
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Tidal flooding totally destroyed the sources of potable water in the polders. As has been discussed earlier, the major source of water for drinking and other household purposes in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh is still surface water. Some ponds in the community are preserved for potable water which are strictly restricted for other uses. These ponds in combination with pond-sand filters are the most viable source for potable water in the region. Besides, recently rainwater harvesting has become another provision for potable water supply. As the saline tidal water made way through the breaches of the embankments, the preserved ponds became contaminated with saline water. This caused an acute shortage of drinking water in the polders and the community was forced to drink from the contaminated sources which further exposed them to waterborne diseases like diarrhoea, dysentery and various skin diseases. The crisis of potable water affected almost all the people in polders 7/1, 32 and 33. The inhabitants of polder 7/1 in Shyamnagar, Satkhira, shared their experience in the following way:
Among many challenges after cyclone Aila, scarcity of drinking water was the most acute. All the pond-sand filters were unusable because of salinity and we were totally dependent on supply from outside. Such exposure of the community persisted for almost two years in polders 7/1 and 32, and the community lived in an emergency situation for the whole period of time being totally dependent on external support for the bare necessities.
Sensitivity
The post-development stage social-ecological sensitivity of the southwest region’s coastal polders consisted of the legacy of saltwater shrimp cultivation that flourished in the secure environment during the development stage. Cyclone Aila in May 2009 was a trigger to manifest the nature and extent of the sensitivity.
Polders 7/1 and 32 were among the worst affected ones by cyclone Aila. Embankments in these two polders were already very weak at many points owing to the combination of two causes: (i) cutting of inlets for saltwater intake for shrimp cultivation, and (ii) riverbank erosion. Breaching of embankments started at those weak points and the huge pressure of surge carried by the cyclone washed sections of the embankments into the polders submerging almost all the protected land inside with brackish water (Figures 8.4 and 8.5). At many locations, the rehabilitation of the embankments to the pre-cyclone condition took up to 34 months in these two polders
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(JICA, 2012). Over this whole period of time the lands used to get flooded twice daily by tidal action which made them highly saline and unsuitable for cultivation even after the rehabilitation of the embankments until the salinity was washed away by consecutive spells of monsoon rain.
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Figure 8.4: Extent of inundation and damage to embankments in Polders 7/1 and 32 (JICA, 2012)
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Before cyclone Aila, the southwest coast of Bangladesh had not experienced a major cyclone since 1988. As a result, many of the inhabitants were unaware of the preparedness and response activities. Besides, there were very few cyclone shelters in this coastal part of the country at that time. Although Bangladesh has a highly acclaimed Cyclone Preparedness Program (CPP) managed jointly by the Government and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRCS), this program is concentrated mostly to the south-eastern coast. Following the catastrophic cyclone in 1991 which killed more than 139,000 people, the south-east coast received substantial national and international attention and was equipped with hundreds of cyclone shelters and awareness programs. This whole time, the southwest was left unattended. Consequently, people had no place to seek refuge but the sections of embankments that were still intact.
Figure 8.5: Condition of the houses on the embankments and the interior of the polder 7/1 after
Aila in October 2009 (five months after the strike)
Living on the embankments in temporary housing arrangements without access to basic services, like drinking water, food and sanitation, created miserable conditions among the people. Outbreak of waterborne diseases because of poor sanitation as a consequence of overcrowding became a major concern within a short time since people took shelter on the embankments. These people endured rain, heat and cold living in poor shelter conditions as the reconstruction of the embankments
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took a long time and people could not rebuild their houses because the land was still under water.
After the repairs of the embankments, restoration of normal life began. But the physical environment inside the polders has changed. This has some far reaching impacts on the social aspects. After the breaching of the embankments, the drainage canals inside polder 32 became wider over time because of the erosion of land by unhindered water. Now after the reconstruction of embankments, those canals have been leased out to influential people for fish cultivation. Practically, those people have control over much more than what the government has leased off to them. For example, the Kamrkhola Canal in polder 32 has 30 hectares of Khas (government controlled) land; but because of erosion, more than 81 hectares of land are under water now. Thus the leaseholder has been given control over land most of which is other people’s property. Furthermore, the leaseholders would not allow water for irrigation from the canals under their control which makes it difficult for the farmers to cultivate crops. This is creating a new type of tension between the influential people and marginal farmers in the polder in the post-rehabilitation stage which is reflected in the following statement of a resident in polder 32:
We were happy at the departure of shrimp ponds from our polder. We were inspired at the prospect of crop diversification. But now shortage of irrigation water makes it difficult. The influential people who control the drainage canals would not let us use the water. Recognizing the role of embankments in safeguarding coastal populations, the government of Bangladesh felt the need to adopt a systematic approach to upgrade the coastal polder system. This need was further enhanced by the damages done to the polder system by the two consecutive cyclones (Sidr in 2007 and Aila in 2009) and also by the looming threats of sea level rise. The ongoing Coastal Embankment Improvement Project (CEIP) is the outcome of this systematic approach and polder 32 is one of the first five polders currently under development under this project. While the sections and crests of the reconstructed embankment have drawn praise of the people, they are concerned that the riverbank protection work should have covered more sections of the embankment in order to make it more sustained. An engineer of BWDB who is associated with the CEIP admits this issue for Polder 32 and states:
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Polder 32 is in a critical condition. This is the most vulnerable one among all the polders. Under the current project only 1.5 kilometres of the embankment has been brought under riverbank protection work. It is understood that additional riverbank protection work must be incorporated in order for the polder to be stable. But the current project does not have provision for more riverbank protection work. Like the predecessor (CEP), CEIP is following the same model in the way that it is concentrated to agriculture; shrimp production was not at all considered in the design and construction of the embankments. There is no provision kept with the embankments to facilitate shrimp cultivation without harming the structural integrity as has been the case with the CEP embankments. While shrimp cultivation is not an unlawful act, keeping the built-in provision for saltwater intake in the design of embankments could reduce the risk arising from unauthorised and indiscriminate inlet creation. This might lead to the same consequences as has happened to the old embankments. A BWDB engineer associated with the CEIP, posited that:
Unauthorised structures for shrimp cultivation (water inlets for intake of saline water) do have a role in weakening of the embankment. However, even the ongoing CEIP did not consider keeping the provision of these structures in the design and construction of the embankment. CEIP considered crop production and that is why kept the provision of sluices….We cannot avoid shrimp cultivation and hence we should consider keeping the provision for saline water intake. Otherwise, shrimp cultivators will do the same – cut the embankment across to get water to their shrimp ponds which in the long run will weaken the embankment making way for tidal water.
Resilience
The effects of cyclone Aila on polders 7/1 and 32 were widespread. Sections of embankments that breached in these two polders kept on expanding owing to tidal activities. Repairing the breaches of the embankments was the first part of proper rehabilitation of the community as their homesteads were all subjected to tidal flooding. The financially better-off members of the community who had such alternatives moved away to other locations including Khulna city and Satkhira town, but most of the people made the embankments their homes. The scale of damage done to the embankments by the cyclone and the continued deterioration was far beyond the provision of routine maintenance works of the local Operations and Maintenance (O&E) Division of Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB). Starting from the assessment of damage to the embankments carried out from the local office through to the design done at the headquarters in Dhaka down to the
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execution of the repair work involved a time-consuming administrative process. Meanwhile the breaches widened and at some critical points they went beyond the capacity of the work plan that was then sanctioned from the headquarters. This was further aggravated by the advent of the monsoon immediately after the cyclone hit which postponed the repair works in many locations. In the following statement from the Executive Engineer responsible for polder 32, the level of difficulty associated with embankment repair can be sensed:
When we do assessment of damages, we have to do it based on what we see and that is what we do. But for breaching of embankments it is very difficult to predict what the breach will turn into in a day or two; sometimes it is too difficult even for us to imagine. By the time we are able to execute the task after all the administrative procedure, the work we have been endorsed to carry out is too little compared to what the damage has become in the meantime. Even when the repair work started, it was not successful in all instances. For many breaches it took multiple efforts to be finally able to restore the embankments; for polders 7/1 in Satkhira and 32 in Khulna. This was nearly two years. Throughout this period of time, no agriculture or aquaculture was possible inside the polders and the families that were solely dependent on these became totally reliant on external support for their subsistence. As the rehabilitation of the embankments took long periods, the adult members of the families went to cities as no work was available. The sustained issue of homelessness was very difficult for the people to cope with but this situation was not immediately addressed with due attention from the government. Because of the nature of the crisis being localised, the government was reluctant to declare an emergency and make an appeal for external assistance and that is why there were leadership and coordination issues among the humanitarian agencies (Walton-Ellery, 2009). This only prolonged the suffering of the affected people. People had moved on to the embankments as that was the only place safe from tidal inundation. But they did not imagine that they would have to live there for such extended time. Apart from the few families who could afford to relocate themselves to nearby city and towns, some families moved back to their original homesteads albeit they were subject to tidal inundation. These families managed to cope with the water level by raising their beds over the high tide level. They had to rush with their cooking as they wanted to do it before the arrival of tides and they reported obtaining less relief compared to those living on or near the embankments.
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But still they preferred to avoid living on the embankments because of privacy and health and sanitation concerns.
Next to shelter the major challenge of cyclone Aila that affected people was related to access to potable water. Restoration of the potable water sources, which were mostly the preserved ponds, was not possible before repairing the embankments. For nearly two years, drinking water was supplied externally. Non- governmental development agencies (NGOs) and humanitarian groups made arrangements of supplying potable water on boats. Every day the water carrying boats would arrive at specific locations where people would queue up with their pitchers, jars and other pots to collect water. The limited supply of potable water made the community cut their daily consumption and they had to implement water rationing. An inhabitant in polder 7/1 in Satkhira said:
We could give you something to eat if you asked for it, but we could not give you any water to drink. The initial outbreak of waterborne diseases after the cyclone arising as a consequence of congested shelter arrangements and lack of sanitation provision in polders 7/1 and 32 was tackled with extensive support from the humanitarian agencies. As the repairs of the embankments commenced and the community started going back to their homesteads, the government and the development agencies provided generous support to them. All the affected families received monetary and technical support for rebuilding their houses. Many families were provided with rainwater harvesting provision which included the construction of water reservoirs or supply of water storage tanks and associated training. Throughout the period of crisis, the government through its local administrations ran programs like Cash for Work, Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) and Vulnerable Group Development (VGD). Besides, many community members from polder 7/1 reportedly borrowed from NGOs (in the form of micro-credit). A group interview with the community members in polder 7/1 revealed the following:
After Aila we could not engage in income generating activities as all the land was subject to tidal flooding. We were mostly dependent on external support for living. There were some food for work/cash programs where poor and rich both worked for their living…The NGOs provided loans and we took them. We took the loans and spent the money on food. Now most of us owe money to NGOs….NGOs lend money with good intention. But it is on individual borrowers how they choose to spend the money.
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Beside all these, the community reported that many people moved to nearby urban areas for work. A rough estimate by the community in polder 7/1 was that almost 20% of the inhabitants moved out after cyclone Aila in quest of better livelihood and living. They were mostly the low-income people who earned their livelihoods working as day labourers. A good number of them went to neighbouring towns in India (border with India is very close to Satkhira) some of whom returned later. However, those who have been able to find a secure means for living are unlikely to come back.
The community’s long-time resistance against expansive shrimp cultivation in polder 32 met with success in 2008, one year before cyclone Aila struck. This was possible because of active support from the then local Member of Parliament (MP). The benefit of removing most of the saltwater shrimp ponds out of the polder was evident at the sight of bumper production of paddies (Figure 8.6) during the field visit in 2018. Over the years after repairs of the damaged embankment sections, the salt from the topsoil that had accumulated from shrimp cultivation and then extended inundation from tidal flooding, leached out making the soil in polder 32 suitable for cultivation. On the contrary, in polder 7/1 where saltwater shrimp is still dominant, hardly any crop was sighted (Figures 8.6 and 8.3).
Figure 8.6: Landuse in polder 32 (above) and polder 7/1 (Below)
The establishment of an LPG processing plant (G-Gas) on the north of polder 33 (Figure 8.7) has opened up job opportunities for many, including people of
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polders 33 and 32. With the main plant in Polder 33 and the regional distribution centre and landing station located some 4 kilometres away in polder 30/2 (Batiaghata), this is the only industrial installation on the western side of the river Rupsa and the people in polders 32 and 33 hope there will be more such places that will open up more job opportunities for them. On the other side of the river Rupsa are the Mongla river port, Mongla Export Processing Zone and some cement factories and oil refineries. People in polder 33 reported that Mongla river port is not as busy as it used to be earlier and does not offer significant job opportunities for them. But many people work in the under-construction Rampal Power Plant which is also located on the other side of the river from polder 33. Thus industrial establishments in and around the polders are creating new employment for polder dwellers.
Figure 8.7: The LPG processing Plant (top) and the ongoing CEIP work in Polder 33
The ongoing Coastal Embankment Improvement Project (CEIP) (Figure 8.7) has significantly contributed to the increase of the value of land in polder 32. People reported that a piece of land that used to be sold at Taka 60,000 to 70,000 (AU$ 1,000 to 1,200) before cyclone Aila (prior to 2009) is now sold at Taka 200,000 (AU$ 3,300). Particularly, ‘companies’ (industrial establishments) tend to pay well
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for land and people are happy to sell off their land to them. In the statement of a member of community from polder 32:
They are paying good money for the land they need. We are happy to sell our land to them for a good price. Then we can move further inside where people will happily sell part of their land to help us settle and have us as their neighbours. We still have the fellow-feeling and we are happy to help. The community in polder 32 thinks that the Coastal Embankment Improvement Project (CEIP) will boost their overall development. They consider the network of roads as a precondition for development and believe that the new embankment project will eventually bring paved roads to their locality to facilitate their connectivity with cities.
8.2 CROSS-TEMPORAL ANALYSIS OF VULNERABILITY
As part of an integrated analysis of vulnerability of the coastal polder social- ecological system in the southwest coast of Bangladesh, identification of the elements of vulnerability and their changes over three different periods of time have been discussed in the preceding section. The analysis of cross-temporal interaction of vulnerability, development-stage specific differentiation of vulnerability factors has been presented below (Table 8.1).
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Table 8.1: Cross-temporal vulnerability scenarios
Hazards Vulnerability Components (perturbations, stresses, Exposure Sensitivity Resilience stressors)
Subsistence agrarian economy Low-height Unusual tidal Nature-dependent agriculture embankments flooding Arable land Single/Partial crop (Ostomashi Bandh) to Cyclone and Sparse human Poor physical communication facilitate agriculture
associated settlements Limited social interaction Development
- Labour-intensive surge Limited access to formal communication
Pre education and health services Disappearance of native species Diversified economic of fish activities Shortage of irrigation water Improved physical Waterlogging owing to siltation communication of drainage canals and poorly Better access to Soil salinity planned interior roads education and healthcare Siltation of Crops and Increased soil salinity owing to services drainage vegetation shrimp cultivation Upliftment of overall channels Cattle and Disappearance of interior socio-economic Riverbank poultry vegetation conditions
Development erosion Disappearance of cattle and Embankments as the Cyclone poultry first line of defence Erosion of embankments at the against cyclones and points where inlets for saltwater surges intake were dug Embankments as refuge Insufficient designated shelters after disaster Supply of relief over protracted period Diurnal tidal flooding of once protected lands Generous rehabilitation Croplands support from Suspension of all economic Shrimp ponds government and activities Human nongovernment Displacement of people from Regular tidal settlements development their homesteads flooding Household organizations Overcrowding in temporary Soil salinity assets Migration to urban areas shelters on the embankments Potable water Sources of Removal of expansive Outbreak of waterborne salinity potable water shrimp cultivation
Development diseases - Cyclone Educational Reconstruction of Protracted rehabilitation process Riverbank and health embankments under Post In sufficient measures for erosion facilities new project erosion prevention in new Overall socio- Improved drainage embankments economic provision under new New embankments without development project consideration for shrimp Construction of new cultivation cyclone shelters cum schools
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Owing to unfavourable physical conditions, human habitations and economic activities in the southwest coast during the predevelopment stage were limited. Thus, exposure contained mainly arable land and sparse human settlements. Since exposure of human assets was low, the extent of vulnerability during that stage was also limited. From the policymakers’ viewpoint of optimal use of resources, the tidal plain was underutilized and the development plan for water resources management followed the structural development path. The coastal embankment project introduced favourable physical conditions for the flourish of human habitation and economic development enhancing communities’ resilience. However, in the backdrop of such changes, the ‘perspective of vulnerability’ (or the considerations of hazards) also changed and so did the corresponding elements of vulnerability components (exposure, sensitivity and resilience). This continued throughout the development stage as, on one hand, siltation of rivers and drainage channels gave rise to waterlogging inside the polders, and on the other hand, shrimp cultivation significantly altered the biophysical environment. The sensitivity of human and environmental conditions that accumulated over the development stage outweighed the community’s resilience resulting in high vulnerability which was manifested at the occurrence of the cyclone Aila. The post-development stage exposure is attributed to the breaching of the embankments. The extent of sensitivity in the post- Aila situation indicates how the embankments have been the lifeline of the polder social-ecological system.
The development stage is marked by socio-economic prosperity of coastal population. The land that used to be under water for nearly half of the day was made free of flooding which eventually imparted a sense of permanence in the minds of coastal people. Secure cropping, ease of communication and diversification of economic activities along with the enabling environment for vegetation, poultry and cattle changed the socio-economic settings in the southwest coastal zone. Since this was done by modifying the hydrological regime, there were consequences like siltation of rivers and drainage channels and the subsequent waterlogging inside the polders.
The nature of vulnerability across the development stages is different because of the varied ‘perspectives of vulnerability’ (hazards) across the stages. Likewise, the
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components of vulnerability are inherent in the corresponding stages. In terms of access to basic services and utilities and the overall standard of living, the development stage is the baseline condition for the coastal community because prior to this there was no infrastructure to offer.
The evolution and ramification of vulnerabilities over the development stage that triggered the post-development crisis has more to do with the governance issue than the embankment itself. Before the commissioning of the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP), there was no organised institutionalised governance system in water resources management in Bangladesh. The repair and maintenance of the low-height embankments, which allowed a single crop to be cultivated, used to be organised by the Zamindars (Landlords). However, after the partition of British India in 1947, the Zamindari system was abolished which disrupted the organisation of the maintenance and repairs of the temporary embankments. Consequently, breaches occurred in many locations causing severe crop failure and, eventually, the majority of the embankment sections disappeared (East Pakistan Water and Power Development Authority (EPWAPDA), 1960). In 1958, embankment reconstruction was initiated by the Irrigation Department of the East Pakistan in an effort to increase rice production. The effort was successful but proved to be inadequate compared to the need (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968). Eventually, EPWAPDA took over the initiative and expanded the scope of work espousing the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP).
The sensitivity of the social-ecological system in the polder settings is primarily attributable to the physical changes created by the embankments. Issues like disappearance of open water fish, waterlogging inside the polders and shortage of irrigation water – all are the consequence of the construction of the embankments. Although embankments provided a favourable environment, the flourish of shrimp cultivation inside the polders was driven by high global demand and subsequent government patronization for export earnings. Thus the issue of governance has a role in the sensitivity of the polder social-ecological system. The factors behind much of the post-development stage sensitivity, which was manifested by the onset of cyclone Aila, had accumulated over the development stage. However, the failure to comprehend the magnitude of the problems (the consequences of the breached embankments) and the resulting longstanding sufferings of the community are an
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epitome of blatant governance failure. The provision and procedure of operation and maintenance of embankments (see section 8.1.3 - Resilience) are largely responsible for the delay in proper rehabilitation works. Such delays even create misconception among the people about the very intention of the engineers involved in development works; in the statement of an engineer of the BWDB it is evident:
There is a misconception about the Water Development Board that we deliberately delay the execution of the embankment repair works so that the project would get bigger and we would make more money out of it. It is absolutely wrong...The fact is, the repair work that we could do in a day or two, sometimes takes more than two week to get administrative endorsement under the current management system. Recognizing that bureaucracy is a major deterrent in the timely operations and maintenance of the embankments and the related hydrological structures (e.g. sluice gates), the ongoing Coastal Embankment Improvement Project (CEIP) has made a provision within the scope of the project. With the view to substantially reducing operations and maintenance (O&M) cost for the BWDB, CEIP is working to institutionally integrate participatory O&M of the project polders through community-based Water Management Organizations (WMO). Besides, CEIP has also made Contingency Emergency Response a component of the project which offers accessing post-disaster financing needs bypassing the bureaucratic procedures (The World Bank, 2013).
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Chapter 9: Conclusions
This chapter first elaborates on how the findings of this research address the research questions and then summarise the major outcomes of this research. This is followed by a section that gives an account of issues which are relevant but lie outside the scope of this research. After a summary recommendation for policymakers, a conclusion has been drawn based on the implications of the research findings and the outcomes which are then followed by some directives for potential future research to further the knowledge generated from this work.
9.1 MAJOR FINDINGS
This study investigated how development initiatives may accompany unintended consequences that may in the long-run cause vulnerability to communities. In doing so, the development-vulnerability nexus has been articulated through water resources development in the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh.
The research problem that concerns this study is the fragile state of the physical and social environment in the southwest coastal polders in Bangladesh which surfaced with the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP). The core issues that defined the research problem are: whether the negative consequences of CEP were considered during the implementation of the project, and if those consequences are results of inappropriate planning and maintenance of the structures, or were they simply inevitable.
The first research question (How do social, environmental and political factors interact in the adoption of water resources infrastructure development projects?) was formulated to address the macro level planning perspectives, and subdivided into two objectives (To analyse how water resources development evolved throughout the development planning process of Bangladesh; and, to examine the evolution of structural development projects in the southwest coastal area that began with the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP)). The second research question (How did the physical infrastructure transform coastal communities?) is more specific and has been addressed through two objectives (To investigate how coastal embankments
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impacted the coastal social-ecological system; and, to address the role of embankments in coastal communities’ vulnerability to disaster.).
In answering the first research question, cross-spatial analysis of issues underlying vulnerability was followed. For the second research question, cross- temporal analysis of vulnerability in the southwest coast of Bangladesh was carried out. Broadly, the findings from the research questions demonstrate that, water resources infrastructure development in Bangladesh was rushed disregarding considerations for local ecology. However, at some significant social-ecological costs, the coastal embankments have positively contributed to the overall development of the communities in the studied polders. The following sections elaborate on these two findings.
9.1.1 Development rushed The establishment of EPWAPDA in 1959 following a recommendation of the UN Technical Assistance Program was the beginning of institutionalisation of water resources development in Bangladesh. The planning and designing of large scale water resources development projects, including the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP), were carried out by EPWAPDA appointed foreign consultants. Those plans and designs were later criticised by development practitioners (Thomas, 1974) for following a narrow approach to development disregarding the local contexts. Although back in early 1960s there were no established norms of conducting environmental and/or social impact assessments as can be found now, it does not necessarily mean that there was no provision for considering them in the project planning and designing. A review of the water resources development projects in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan) carried out in early 1970s (Thomas, 1974) states that: The problem lies in undertaking major construction that transforms basic elements in the existing relationships between land, water and human activity. With only superficial knowledge of the environment and human behaviour, WAPDA and its consultants have seldom established adequate contact with the project area and the intended beneficiaries. Project designs have not been adequately planned on the basis of specific conditions, and too little effort has been made to inform and work with the farmers and other residents of the area.
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This observation is echoed in the following statement of a senior water resources development professional in Bangladesh who was interviewed as part of this research:
Apart from engineering aspects, the polders have some socio-environmental issues which need to be addressed for proper functioning of the structures…Engineers alone cannot solve the problems; they must work with communities. That CEP did not consider the local ecology in the formulation of the plan was evident as partial implementation of the project had taken place. The plan did not address any water management provision inside the polders and consequently farmers in the completed polders had problems with irrigation and drainage. Having found this, people from other places where polder construction was scheduled to take place, resisted it. That is when an interim evaluation of the CEP was commissioned and subsequently some arrangements for drainage and irrigation were made (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968). All these observations suggest that water resources development on the southwest coast was rushed, disregarding local social and environmental aspects, perhaps to fuel the government’s ‘grow more food’ campaign.
Siltation of the peripheral rivers is the major cause of the widespread waterlogging which is mostly affecting upstream polders (to the north of the case study polders). Review of the CEP related documents reveal that, siltation was not considered as a major concern in the planning of the project. CEP project documents also reveal that there was no comprehensive study at that time on the dynamics of sediment transportation through the river system in Bangladesh. This further reinforces the notion that development was rushed without much forethought for its impact on the hydro-geo-morphologically sensitive Ganges delta.
9.1.2 Embankments: A catalyst for development despite significant costs Although not at the project formulation stage and not to the full extent, some of the negative consequences (e.g. waterlogging inside polders; shortage of irrigation water) were evident at the early stage of the project implementation which led to revision of the polder design for the later phase to incorporate water management inside the polder (Leedshill-De Leuw Engineers, 1968). However, this was not fully realized because of shortage of funds (ibid). Thus, it can be inferred that the Coastal
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Embankment Project was not flawless at the time of its implementation. It is also clear that the operation and maintenance of the embankments and sluices were not carried out as per the guidelines (‘Coastal Embankment Project: Operation and Maintenance Manual’) developed as part of the project. This, along with the unanticipated damages to the embankments for facilitating shrimp cultivation, caused deterioration of the polder system at an accelerated pace.
Despite all the negative consequences, coastal embankments had brought a sense of permanence in the community by creating a flood-free built environment which facilitated other secondary benefits (e.g. improved communication, access to basic services and amenities etc.). But at the same time, intervention into natural ecology accumulated a range of negative consequences (waterlogging, shortage of irrigation water etc.) and harnessed counterproductive ecological services (e.g. shrimp production) with far-reaching social consequences (marginalization of crops, seasonal migration of labour, and eventually longstanding exposure of the community to vulnerable conditions). Nevertheless, the community considers embankment as a lifeline, and their perception of development is centred on it. They are thankful to the embankment as it provided shelter to them in the aftermath of cyclone Aila, and they firmly believe that a stronger embankment would facilitate further improvement of physical communication and hence their socio-economic conditions.
9.2 MAJOR OUTCOMES OF THE RESEARCH
Drawing on the findings, two inter-related outcomes of this research can be noted; one is the recognition of Polder Social-Ecological System (Polder SES) evolving from the system-wide changes brought about by the embankments; the other is the uncovering of the dynamic nature of vulnerability of the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh which was triggered by those changes in the bio-physical system. These two interlinked outcomes have been described below.
9.2.1 Recognizing the Polder Social Ecological System Construction of the embankments in the coastal area of Bangladesh evolved a new form of land delineation called ‘Polder’. The vast tract of tidal land in the southwest coast of Bangladesh was criss-crossed by numerous tidal creeks which were connected to the rivers flowing from north to south prior to the construction of
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embankments. Subjected to diurnal tidal flooding, this vast tract of land looked like a maze of waterways. Construction of embankments to cut-off the tidal water did not just reclaim land from saline water inundation; rather, the embankments altered the bio-physical arrangements of the open coastal-tidal landmass in ways that redefined the social-ecological systems. The ecological elements of the uninterrupted coastal system and those of the embanked land (polder) have stark differences. This includes loss of native fish species, loss of land elevation inside the polders, loss of waterways, shortage of irrigation water, waterlogging incidences inside the polders etc. These phenomena, along with external political and economic influences, substantially reshaped the social elements of the coastal system which include both, benefits (e.g. secure cropping, improved physical communication, improved poultry and cattle, protection against floods and cyclones etc.) and shortcomings (shrimp taking over crops, soil and water salinity, weakening of embankments, and finally breaching of embankments exposing community to diurnal tidal flooding). The magnitude of the changes between the post-polder and pre-polder times warrants the recognition of transformation that had taken place evolving as the Polder Social- Ecological System, or Polder SES.
9.2.2 Revealing dynamic nature of vulnerability The cross-temporal analysis of vulnerability across three periods of time with regards to the embankment construction (pre-development stage, development stage and post-development stage) suggests that elements of vulnerability are intrinsic to the development stages. The southwest coastal community had a specific nature of vulnerability (e.g. poor resilience, high sensitivity and high exposure to tidal flooding and cyclonic surge) before the embankments were constructed. The embankments helped the community limit some of those vulnerabilities (e.g. embankment as a safeguard against tidal flooding and cyclonic surges) but they engendered some new types (e.g. waterlogging inside polders, shortage of irrigation water; conversion of croplands into shrimp ponds). This continued through the post-development stage when the embankments breached and exposed the community to tidal flooding again. Transformation of social-ecological system results in changes in sensitivity and resilience of community consequently changing the nature of vulnerability. Development of major infrastructure creates changes in the physical, social and
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economic spheres of the community. With this the perspectives of vulnerability (hazards/perturbations/stressors) change over time but never get eliminated. The cross-temporal analysis reveals this dynamic nature of vulnerability.
9.3 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY This research has been conducted with the aim of addressing transformation of the bio-physical environment of southwest coastal area of Bangladesh which was triggered by the coastal embankments. The very motivation for taking up this research was to trace the beginning of structural interventions on the Bangladesh coast which are often blamed for the vulnerability of the community. It has elements of interest to the broad research and scientific communities, such as those involved in climate change, transboundary river systems and shrimp farming related research. While all these issues are valid and have various researchable dimensions in the context of the coastal region of Bangladesh, the researcher refrained from delving into those issues to remain within the focus of this particular research.
This research was designed and conducted in the physical, social and cultural contexts of Bangladesh, specific to the coastal area. The findings of this research are specific to the locations and may not be the same for other places.
9.4 SOME POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS The ongoing Coastal Embankment Improvement Project (CEIP) in polder 32 and 33 has a comprehensive approach but still does not have any provision to accommodate shrimp farming in its project plan. While shrimp farming is a reality and not unauthorised, rather encouraged, the new embankments should keep the provision of saltwater intake to facilitate shrimp farming. Properly designed saline water inlets will restrict any damage to the embankment sections. New policies for regulating shrimp cultivation include zoning of shrimp ponds, and CEIP for its next phases may consider aligning its execution with the relevant policies.
Physical infrastructure development should be carried out in a comprehensive manner rather than in piecemeal to ensure that any future work does not become counterproductive to the one being planned. For the preparation of a master plan for comprehensive planning, Social-Ecological System (SES) approach offers an all- encompassing platform, particularly for addressing disaster vulnerability associated to development projects.
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9.5 CONCLUSION Water resources development is seen as a precondition to water security and, it is argued that significant public investment is needed to create ‘minimum infrastructure and institutional platform’ for growth to ensue (Grey & Sadoff, 2005). It is also argued that until a significant stock of infrastructure has been built, marginal analysis of investment returns will likely show early investments to be uneconomic and that the countries with high hydrological variability will need relatively more investment to yield the benefits (Grey & Sadoff, 2005). This may be the case with Bangladesh too. The polders in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh have made significant contributions to the social and economic development of the community despite the negative consequences of the embankments. It is obvious given the high density of population of Bangladesh that communities cannot afford to live without embankments and other hydrological infrastructure that are protecting people from floods and at the same time allowing crops to be cultivated. Being a lower riparian country in the Ganges-Brahmaputra- Meghna (GBM) basin, the fourth largest river system in the world (Cornwall, 2018), Bangladesh suffers from both – flooding during monsoon when the upper riparian countries open up dams for releasing excess water, and shortage of water in the rivers during the dry season as water from the upstream is diverted for those countries own benefits. In addition to these, Bangladesh is facing significant threats from sea-level rise as an impact of climate change because of its low-elevation (almost 70% of the country’s total land is within 1 metre from the Mean Sea Level (Government of Bangladesh, 2017)). In such context, physical infrastructure has been playing a significant role in the subsistence of people and also the overall development of the economy. Embankments and riverbank protection measures against erosion have brought large areas under agricultural activities while they also helped contain floods. Irrigation management and drainage improvement (along with other improved agricultural inputs) have contributed to increased crop production. Besides, fundamental changes have been made in the local level water resources management across the country where communities are made part of the operations and maintenance programs for embankments and other physical structures [e.g. Command Area Development Project (CADP), Water Management Improvement Project (WMIP), South-West Area Integrated Water Resources Planning and
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Management Project (SWAIWRPMP), Integrated Planning for Sustainable Water Management (IOSWAM) (Government of Bangladesh, 2016)]. This is helping to make the governance system more participatory and hence more accountable compared to the centralised command and control approach. However, any irreversible damage to the environment will always put the development gains into question. For development to be sustainable and the benefits to be equitable across all strata of society, much discretion needs to be imparted in the planning and implementation of physical infrastructure development. Development policy needs to take account of how social changes are reflected in changes to vulnerability. The lessons learned from the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP) need to be reflected in the formulation of any future development initiatives. This is particularly relevant because Bangladesh has embarked on a series of very large scale infrastructure development projects (1320 MW Coal-based Thermal Power Plant in Rampal; Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant Project; Payra Deep-Sea Port; Matarbari LNG Terminal and Sea Port, among others) which will have considerable negative impacts on corresponding social-ecological systems if proper attention is not imparted.
9.6 THE WAY FORWARD This research was focussed mainly on the sea-ward polders in the southwest coastal area of Bangladesh where the nature of problems might be different from those of the polders north of the southwest, and the other coastal zones (south-central and southeast). Drainage congestion and perennial waterlogging is lot more intense in the areas to the north of southwest coastal polders and the vulnerability of the communities in those locations has different dimensions. Research on those locations following the approach adopted for this study will help further understand the extent of impact of the Coastal Embankment Project (CEP).
The political-ecology and social-ecological system based conceptual framework developed for this research (Chapter 3, Section 3.1), and the subsequent cross-temporal and cross-spatial strategies (Chapter 3, Section 3.5) adopted for analysis of issues, are generic in nature and replicable for understanding the relationship between physical infrastructure development and disaster vulnerability in any combination of physical, social and cultural contexts anywhere in the world. For analysing the scope and limitation of structural development projects in terms of the transformations that they may cause within a Social-Ecological System, the
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conceptual framework and analytical strategies developed for this study will prove beneficial. This is particularly relevant as we are bracing ourselves to combat with the rising impacts of global climate change.
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Appendix
SUMMARY TRANSCRIPTION OF INTERVIEWS
Polder 7/1
There were lots of sufferings in the pre-WAPDA days. There were narrow ring embankments in those days and they would easily breach in tides. When the breaching started at one end, there were people who would set out with drums to alert others about the impending flood and people would rush to save themselves. Paddy grew in abundance in those days. The Zamindars or the rich elites used to build those embankments. Only one crop was possible back in those days. There was abundance of fish. There was no other job to do after the harvesting of one crop. People used to spend time sitting idly or catching fish. After the WAPDA embankments, almost every household had cattle. People did not have to worry about feeding the cattle as there was abundance of grass in the Beel area. Since the reconstruction of the embankments after cyclone Aila, we can cultivate two crops at some locations where we have irrigation water. Growing paddy has good return on investment. Compared to shrimp cultivation, paddy has an insignificant share of acreage in polder 7/1. Only some higher grounds where saline water cannot be taken, is left for paddy cultivation. We were happy when the WAPDA embankments construction started. We were troubled earlier as the weak low height embankments would breach every now and then and submerge the standing crops. Before WAPDA only crops would go under water when the Beribadh breached because our houses were on higher ground. Siltation of the rivers was not observed before WAPDA embankments were constructed. But now because of siltation the rivers have lost their navigability.
Appendix 195
We don’t exactly know why siltation is occurring but guess that the reason could be the absence of enough water in the rivers. Shrimp cultivation flourished around 1990-91. Since then, we started losing the grazing ground and fodder for our cattle. Shrimp cultivation brings lot more money than cultivation. But very few people get to earn that money. Earlier when we used to cultivate paddy and keep cattle, everybody was busy working. But now, people lease off their land to shrimp pond owners and sit idly. They don’t get much money. We need both: paddy and fish. The amount and types of fish we used to consume when we had only one crop is now unimaginable. Now even though we cultivate fish in the ponds, we sell the big ones and get to consume the small left overs. There were no qualified health professionals around this area before the WAPDA embankments were constructed. Earlier people were not affluent but could barely make their living. Shrimp cultivation has benefitted only the people who own them. Poor people do not gain from shrimp. Young people from here go places for work, mostly to brick fields because they pay well. Sometimes they go for work for six months. But working in the brick fields is very labour-intensive and has a toll on health. This trend has become popular over last eight to ten years. Some people also work during harvesting time in places around the country where there is a shortage of agricultural labourers. People are not earning a lot of money but nobody is starving. There is always something to do to earn some money. Some people collect shrimp fry from the rivers and sell them to shrimp cultivators and that gets them good money. Others go places to find a work. Those who own good amount of land have secured income. Waterlogging is not a very big issue for us. This is may be because of our proximity to the sea; the water comes in flood tide flows out in ebb tide.
196 Appendix
However, there are some areas where waterlogging occurs because the sluice gates are not functional. Is they were functioning properly, we could have avoided waterlogging. The canals have disappeared since shrimp cultivation started. There is no point having sluice gates while the canals have disappeared. If there are no canals how would you carry the water from waterlogged areas to the sluice gates? Nearly one and a half months in monsoon season we remain waterlogged. The water from inside the polders cannot drain off because of high river stage. We suffer a lot during that time. We are fortunate that shallow tubewells work in our locality. We do not have much problem with potable water. Women here hardly work outside. Compared to the rest of the country you will see lot fewer women in this region working outdoors. Before WAPDA people used to cultivate only crop. After WAPDA shrimp cultivation started and people started going to places for work. We suffered nearly two and a half years after cyclone Aila. The reconstruction of the embankments took this long time that why we suffered. The reason behind this long delay in reconstruction is solely attributable to Water Development Board (WAPDA). When the breach is small and manageable, the water board would not look at this. The Union Council Members are even more notorious. They will not ask the water board to fix the breaches. They want it to get bigger so that they would have a bigger project and more money. Emergency repair works should be carried out in an urgent manner bypassing the bureaucracy. Emergency times are not like normal time. After Aila we could not do our income generating activities as all the land was subject to tidal flooding. We were mostly dependent on external support for living. There were some food for work/cash programs where poor and rich both worked for their living. The NGOs provided loans and we took them. We took the loans and spent the money on food. Now most of us owe money to NGOs.
Appendix 197
Some argued: NGOs lend money with good intention. It is on individual borrowers how they choose to spend the money. ------ Before WAPDA embankments there was Ring bandh (circular embankments). Many people worked in the construction process. Mostly did the earth-cutting and carrying jobs. We were part of the Sundarbans before the WAPDA embankments were put up. Earlier people were engaged only in paddy cultivation and fish capture. Only one Aman crop could be cultivated. There were many special varieties of Aman rice grown only in this area. Aromatic and small grain rice (Datkhani) was famous all over the country. There was abundance of open water fish. Anyone could catch them. People are more interested to lease off their lands for shrimp cultivation because it brings more money than cultivating paddy. With the money they get from leasing off the lands, many people started small businesses. Paddy cultivation brings food to home but it takes lots of efforts to cultivate. This has encouraged many people to lease off their lands as they get handsome amount of money readily. Shrimp ponds have ruined our natural environment. There is no vegetation or plants around shrimp ponds. There is no poultry or cattle in our polder because there is no food for them. In the pre-WAPDA era when we had low-height embankments, water from the rivers could overtop the (low-height) embankments and spread silt over the land. But after WAPDA embankments were constructed, the water remained outside the embankments. As a result, the elevation of the land inside embankments became lower than the outside river water level. For the same reason, the water accumulated inside the polders from precipitation cannot run down to rivers causing waterlogging inside. Breaching of embankments is not a new phenomenon. We have been living with this phenomenon since long. There is always some breaching
198 Appendix
somewhere. However, cyclone Aila made the breaching of embankments widespread. Some people who could afford moved to towns after cyclone Aila. But most people stayed. The poor people are now better off. After the cultivation season is over, they go to the sea for fishing. When they come back from the sea, they go to other parts of the country for work. So they are much better off now. However, the previously better off group of people have been affected the most by cylone Aila as all their assets (shrimp ponds mostly) got washed away and they lost their investment. ------ Before WAPDA embankments (CEP) were constructed the land would go under water in high tide and resurface in low tide. We could not even move from one house to another without boats. However, those days there were less people and hence less households. Before WAPDA only one crop could be grown and that was not even everywhere, only on the higher ground. Other than cropping we did not have any work to do. We used to catch fish which was abundant back in those days. The varieties of fish have disappeared after the polder construction. Large landholders benefited from shrimp cultivation, not the small landholders. Small landholders could not resist shrimp cultivation because of the big landholders who blocked small parcel of lands from irrigation. Thus small landholders were forced/coerced into leasing off their lands for shrimp cultivation. The side effect of shrimp cultivation was widespread. Saline water brought inside the polder for salt-water shrimp (Baghda) cultivation made the soil saline rendering it unsuitable for any kind of plants. Over the years of shrimp cultivation, all the plants inside the polder died. We could not grow any vegetable. We could not feed our cattle and as a result there were no cattle at a time.
Appendix 199
Reconstruction of embankment will help improve the road communication. We will be able to move around with ease. Now the roads are in bad shape and it is very difficult to transport patients, particularly if it is at night time.
Polder 32
Mr Salam of Aijgatee was a contractor for the WAPDA embankment construction. My father worked in the project (earthwork) and I remember of watching him work. Before the construction of the embankment, there was the ‘eight-month duration’ embankment/Ostomashi Bandh which allowed people cultivate one crop annually. Besides, there was plenty of fish that we could catch in the Beel and canals, and also cows and their milk. As the embankment construction was taking place, people were happy that they will have a better life free from inundation. Back in the Pakistan period (1970) there was a mega cyclone. There was no place around here where we could take shelter, so we went to the other side of the river where there was a ‘building’ (house of an affluent person) that saved our lives. The cyclone in 1988 was very severe. My father was sitting inside the house and without any warning the thatched roof was blown away. We took shelter to another house and I came back home swimming to release the cows so that they can find themselves a safe place rather than drowning in the cowshed tied to the poles. Ostomashi Bandh was not successful all the time. Sometimes the flood in Bhadra would wash away the embankment and hence the standing crops. Ostomashi Bandh was not strong. So when the construction of WAPDA/CEP started people grew optimistic that they would no longer lose their crops in flooding. This made them happy. We still grow one crop a year but there are places where people can grow more than one. After10 to 15 years of the WAPDA construction, shrimp cultivation started. But to be true, we did not gain from shrimp cultivation; rather the rich people, who have 100/150 bighas of land and who are mostly absentee landlords,
200 Appendix
they gained from shrimp cultivation. They have made lots of money out of it. Thus the gainers were the outside people. Small land owners initially were tempted for the hard cash they received leasing out land for shrimp cultivation. Later when they realized the demerits of shrimp (the damage it does to land), they wanted but could not get out of the contract because of the powerful lessees. Eventually people got together to drive away shrimp form the polder. The movement was supported by the then MP and that is how it has been possible to achieve the target. Most of the people in Polder 32 moved on to the embankment after cyclone Aila ravaged their homesteads. For many, it took three years before they could move back to their old places as the embankment reconstruction took so long to prevent inundation inside the polder. Embankment actually saved us. If there was no embankment, where would we stay after Aila? We would not have anywhere to go to. Among many challenges after the cyclone Aila, shortage of drinking water was the most acute. All the pond-sand filters were unusable because of saline water in them. So we were totally dependent on the potable water that the NGOs would distribute on a boat. Every day we used to wait for the water distributing boat to come. As soon as the embankment reconstruction was complete, we went back to work. But for the entire period before the reconstruction was complete, we were dependent on support from outside (government and, NGOs mostly). Even after the construction of the embankment there were some native species of fish to capture (as long as the drainage system worked); but with the beginning of the salt-water shrimp cultivation, the native varieties of fish are all gone. 'Native varieties of fish that used to get inside the polder through the sluices would leave their eggs that would stay in the soil, and the following rainy season fish fries would hatch out’. Sweet water shrimps (Baghda/Galda?) are alright to culture. Some NGOs have taken initiatives to mainstream sweet water shrimps and vegetable gardening together.
Appendix 201
Some people who had settled in Polder 32 more recently, sold off their land after the cyclone Aila and moved away. But we did not leave despite the sufferings arising as a consequence of the cyclone. We did not leave because this is where we belong to. Those who left actually did not belong to this place. They were sort of ‘seasonal migrants’ (ure eshe jure boshche). With the reconstruction of the embankment some ‘companies’ are coming over to our polder (there is one LPG plant in polder 32). They are paying good money for the land they need. We are happy to sell off our land to them for a good price. Then we can move further inside where people will happily sell part of their land to help us settle and have us as their neighbours. We still have the fellow-feelings and we are happy to help. They have a combination of tubewell and rainwater harvesting for potable water supply. There is a number of tubewells in the Union but not all of them get drinkable water because of salinity. In pre-embankment years, there were only few informal schools (Pathshala). Education was not an option for most of us. But now because of improved communication our children can go places for higher education. My son attends a college (Degree/Bachelor). Embankments have a tremendous role in the improvement of overall communication system. Back in the pre-embankment era there was not even many boats to move around. These days we can go to so many places on a day which was unimaginable earlier. We had to wait for the opportunity to get on a boat if there was any passing by. Access to education and health facilities was limited and challenging. ‘The reason behind the delay of embankment reconstruction is mostly because of the reluctance of the authority (BWDB). The longer they wait the larger the breach gets so they get larger amount of money for the task’. Bangladesh Army was deployed to look after the reconstruction work. Members of the Army used to come and ask the local people who were engaged as labourers if they are getting paid properly. Sometimes we lied to them at the request of the contractor who could not pay on time but promised to pay off soon. However, there are some incidents where the contactor did not keep their commitment and left without paying the labourers.
202 Appendix
The vegetation you see around the homestead, there was no trace of this when extensive shrimp cultivation was in place as the salinity in soil did not allow. Now we grow vegetables and we have fruit trees.
------ They are brothers. They have been living here all their life. Prior to WAPDA/CEP embankment construction, people used to catch fish and grow paddy. However, crop destruction was a common phenomenon. For 14 years before the embankment was put in place we could not cultivate because of high salinity in soil. Since the embankment was constructed there was no incident of crop destruction. We were happy as the embankment construction begun to save us from saline water. The embankment kept us well so far. During cyclone Aila we took shelter on the embankment. Our houses were all under water. There was no trace of crops inside the polder as far as your eyes would go; this remained for two years. We lived on relief from NGOs and government. We did not dislike shrimp at the beginning. But the rich gained more from shrimp cultivation. We don’t have the amount of land that our forefathers had. The land we have now is not enough to feed us all the year. We heard the new embankment (World Bank) will be made higher, but we can’t believe it until it is really made so. Aila has left us with the fear that such storm surge may revisit us. The cyclone in 1988 was more severe in terms of wind effect; WAPDA protected us. Aila came along high surge that breached the embankment and overtopped in some places. We wonder how high will be enough to protect us from future threats. Embankment breached at the points where large saline water inlets were installed for shrimp cultivation. WAPDA (Polders) was created to protect our land from salinity and we were happy. But shrimp cultivation has made our soil saline again. We don’t have the vegetation that we used to have when we were young.
Appendix 203
We wish the reconstruction of embankment comes along the construction of road network so that we could move around conveniently. There was no cyclone shelter around here before Aila. Now there is one near their home but they still seem reluctant when they were asked if they were happy now that there is one place to move to in case of an emergency. This is because they are concerned about their household assets. They fear that they will lose their stuff if they leave them behind to take refuge in a cyclone shelter. This keeps them back in their home and they wish the wind would subside soon. We don’t know how long we may have to stay in the cyclone shelter and how we would manage food during that time. This is another issue that makes us hesitant to move to a shelter.
------ Because of increased salinity in river water, they can cultivate one crop in a year. For the rest of the time, some cultivate fish. Shrimp ponds do not let vegetation grow because of soil salinity; so we can’t have any livestock. Half of the year the water is sweet and the rest half salty. WAPDA contributed to the upliftment of people’s economic conditions. Our major concern is the erosion of the embankment. We welcome ‘companies’ (industries/factories) in our polder since they will offer job opportunities for us. I had to move house for four times including the last one because of cyclone Aila. We believe things are lot better now compared to the pre-embankment situations. World Bank initiative (CEIP-I) will bring more prosperity to our lives. Better embankment will make road communication better and thus facilitate development. To us, development means better communication. If we have good road communication we can move around more conveniently and even the cost will be less. Now in rainy season, going around is very difficult because of muddy roads.
204 Appendix
We are very excited that we are going to have electricity in our polder. Electricity will facilitate further development. When we don’t have work here we go almost everywhere in the country to work. We are not any short of food now. For all the year round, we have enough stock. We don’t have to worry about feeding our guests. After the cyclone Aila some people moved to their relatives places – only those who had the option. After Aila and the reconstruction of the embankment and also because of the World Bank Project, the land price has got vey high. Before Aila, 1 Bigha of land would sold for BDT60,000 to 70,00; now it is around BDT200,000. As the physical conditions get better, the land price goes higher.
------ We used to get one crop every year before the construction of the embankment, and still get one. WAPDA has brought in big changes in the landscape/locality. For cultivation, earlier we had to make the temporary embankments around our land in order for us to do the cultivation. In many cases the temporary embankments (ostomashi bandh) would get washed away by the tide damaging the standing crops. The reason they still can’t grow more than one crops is the salinity in river water (impairing the provision for irrigation/increased salinity in soil in summer). Some people yet do cultivate summer paddy (Aush?) in their land where salinity cannot reach. WAPDA improved our connectivity. The World Bank project (CEIP-I) is strengthening the embankment. It is making the embankment higher and wider. Besides, the modern equipment they are using for the reconstruction of the embankment will make it robust. We did not have any cyclone shelter around here to take refuge. People moved to higher ground (the embankment) for shelter. After cyclone Aila a few cyclone shelters have been built in our polder.
Appendix 205
Living without the protection of embankment (after Aila) is so miserable. Our suffering knew no bounds. We were subjected to tidal flooding every day. We did not even have clothes to put on. During the high tide when water would cover our land we even saw crocodiles around here (the area is very close to Sundarbans). For two years, we lived a miserable life. Until the reconstruction of the embankment, our homes would submerge in the tidal activities. During high tide we used to move on our bed and during the ebb tide we would come down. A few families in our locality including us did not have an appropriate/proper place to move to so we remained in our homes. We had to rush with our cooking as the water started to rise during the time of high tide. We did get external assistance (relief goods) but those who lived near the roads got more unlike us who are a bit inside. Because most of the households moved on the embankment, it got really crowded. The health and sanitation condition deteriorated because in absence of proper latrines. Many people got affected by diarrhoea. We are hopeful that the ongoing World Bank project will protect us from storm surges in the future. The main problem lies with the ‘gates’ (sluice gates). Saline water rushes in through the damaged gates/drainage channels rendering the land uncultivable. (Seems like the embankment has been reconstructed somehow but the sluice gates still remain damaged). Drainage channels are incapable of draining off the excess rain water (sweet water) that accumulates inside the polder and crops are damaged by inundation. If sluice gates could be made operable, they would be able to cultivate their lands properly. Paddy grows very well in this area. This year they got 15-18 maund per bigha although there was some damage owing to storms. ------ Polder 32 was under water for nearly 2 years starting from 25 March 2009 when cyclone Aila struck.
206 Appendix
Only a few families remained in their houses which were concrete/brick built although they were subject to tidal inundation. The rest of the residents in Polder 32 lived on the embankment until the breaches were repaired to keep away the tides. Until the embankment was repaired, every family received 20 kg of rice every month for nearly 2 years. After the embankment was repaired, every family received Taka 20,000 for reconstruction of their houses. All these came from the government alone. Over the period of inundation the vegetation was all gone. Then over the last 7 years people are bringing them back. The project undertaken by the World Bank seems to be good. The embankments are being made stronger and higher. Yet, we think more sections of the embankments should be brought under erosion control. If erosion is not properly controlled, no embankment will sustain. We have tried to communicate our concern (that erosion control is necessary for sustained development) even to the Prime Minister. Given the huge cost of the project, if erosion control is not done properly the whole project will face the threat of becoming unsuccessful. We believe, digging a canal from the sluice through to the further inland (3- 3.5 kilometres) will ensure the maximum benefits of such structures (sluices). The canal will help preserve sweet water and facilitate irrigation for crop production round the year. The soil is so fertile here that a provision of irrigation can ensure bumper production. Even crop diversification that has been taking place these days will be enhanced if irrigation through canals could be guaranteed and we will be able to yield two crops in a year. How do you perceive your development in the future: We want to be able to find work to do. New embankment will help raise the price of land. Already the land price has shot up a few times as the embankment rehabilitation works take place. But, we are mostly agro-based and agriculture can offer work for many. If we have sweet water in the canal for irrigation all the year round, the landless people will get to work in crop production. There is a lot of work in crop production and processing and people would not have any trouble finding jobs.
Appendix 207
Rich people are more interested about salt-water shrimp cultivation. Subsistence farmers do not benefit from salt-water shrimp cultivation. They always wanted to cultivate crops so that they don’t have to buy food (rice) for their families. Shrimp cultivation was brought to a stop in 2008, just the year before Aila struck. Poultry and cattle rearing started as soon as the WAPDA embankments were constructed. But shrimp cultivation made the soil salty and the land was no longer suitable for vegetation. So there was no fodder/food for poultry and cattle. As a result, we hardly had any poultry or cattle. Now that we have been able to remove shrimp cultivation, poultry and cattle are coming back. Vegetable garden and fruit bearing plants, which were once part and parcel of every household, became extinct as shrimp cultivation took over. They are also coming back to the landscape. Poultry and cattle are very good sources of income for families. They grow in number/size every year and families can make good money. Removal of shrimp cultivation and returning to crops and cattle are helping families getting out of debt. There was time when all the families living in the polder had debt to NGOs (microcredit); but now only a quarter of them have debt. We believe shortly all families will be self-sufficient. ------ Before WAPDA embankments were constructed, communication was difficult. The embankments facilitated people’s physical communication. In pre-embankment times there was abundant of fish but the living standard was dismal. Understandably, owing to diurnal tidal flooding there was hardly enough social interactions among the inhabitants. There was no social institution (schools for example). Holistically speaking, embankments initiated the beginning of proper social life in this region. We realized how embankments had protected us from the fury of nature after cyclone Aila struck breaching the embankments at various points and submerging our homesteads. We had to live on the top of embankment as that was the only raised ground free from tidal flooding. This continued for two
208 Appendix
years until the breaches were repaired to keep tides away and we were able to rebuild our homesteads. We hope the World Bank project will make the embankments strong enough to protect us from future events of cyclones. However, we keep on hearing that the project goals are being compromised that the embankments are not being made as high and wide as we had heard they would be. Erosion of the embankments is a matter of grave concern but adequate measures are not being taken to make the embankments erosion-proof. We have conveyed our concerns to the local government’s representatives but they tend to ignore those issues. There was negligence in the assessment of damage to embankments and also in taking immediate measures right after cyclone Aila struck. If the breaches were repaired in the first instance, they would not get so damaging. Because of delays in reconstruction, the extent of the breaches went out of control and then the piecemeal approaches did not work. This is partly attributable to the business-minded attitude of some local representatives (UP Chairman and UP Members) who deliberately delayed the reconstruction work so that the work package gets bigger. Finally when the Army was deployed for supervision of reconstruction work, it happened properly and we got relieved from living a subhuman life. Another reason that the final attempt of embankment reconstruction succeeded was that the local community in collaboration with BRAC (NGO) already had reconstructed many of the internal roads moving the tidal water away near the closure. This facilitated the success of the final attempt of embankment breach repair. (However, there is an issue of seasonality associated to this. Understandably, in dry season it is relatively easy to reconstruct the embankment given the low volume of water in the river/channels). We have undergone many situations but none as catastrophic as the cyclone Aila. In cyclone Aila the surge spread too quickly. When we heard of a breach in embankment in a faraway location, we did not think that it would come this far. Although the embankment breached, we thought, there were
Appendix 209
internal roads that would halt the water for some time. But the water moved so quick that the internal roads could not offer much resistance. There was water all over the land. I could not understand which direction to go as all the places looked the same. It is true that we had developed a sense of safety in our mind being inside the polder protected by the embankment. We thought the embankment will definitely not get washed away in the first instance. However, we had been worried too about the embankment in normal time. How do you perceive ‘Development’? The precondition to development is communication network (road communication). We are kind of disconnected from the district headquarters (Khulna). With the improvement of the embankment itself we need metalled roads/communication network to connect to Khulna and the country hence. The embankment should be protected from erosion too. Keeping proper setback and plantation on the riverside can help in this regard. Shrimp cultivation brought money to many but did not improve our quality of life because of environmental impacts. There was no green around our homesteads, nowhere inside the polders because of high salinity in soil; no vegetable gardens, no fodder for cattle. We got rid of shrimp ponds but our new concern is the hatcheries which take in saline water through the irrigation canals we have making cultivation difficult for us. This again is owned by politically influential people.
------ We are happy that the Coastal Embankment Improvement Project (CEIP) is underway and we thank the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina for implementing this project in collaboration with the World Bank. However, we are concerned that the measures taken for preventing river erosion is not adequate. Only 8 kilometres of the embankment is being considered for protection against river erosion in Polder 32; this is not enough and without proper protection against river erosion, the embankment will not last long. Protection against river bank erosion should be taken into consideration on a priority basis.
210 Appendix
Almost 20% of the inhabitants moved out after the cyclone Aila in quest of better livelihood and living. These are mostly the low incoming people who earn their livelihoods working as a day labourer. A good number of them went to neighbouring India part of whom came back later. Among the people who moved out, those having been able to find a secure living and livelihood, are unlikely to come back here. However, some better-off people also moved out to cities where they could buy land or house to live. For the wellbeing of the people, the government should also think about securing livelihoods of the inhabitants of polders 32 along with the embankment construction. The drainage canals inside the polder became wider over the time after the cyclone because of the flow of unhindered water through the breaches. Those canals have been leased out to influential people for fish cultivation and they are not allowing irrigation water off the canals. As a result farmers are unable to cultivate Aman paddy in the land adjacent to those canals. Ironically, what government is leasing out to the musclemen comprise lot more than the government controlled (Khas) land. For example, the Kamargodha canal has 74 acres of Khas land; but because of erosion almost 200 acres of land are under water now. The lessee/leaseholder influential people have control over the whole waterbody most of which is actually private properties. This is kind of arising as a new dimension of problem when we have moved away from shrimp ponds/ cultivation. We need roads over the embankment. We want to be connected to Khulna. Otherwise, the people cannot change their life much. A proper road network can boost up tour operation to Sundarban from our area. I see the industrial activities taking place around here as a positive sign because this will create job opportunities for our people. I don’t think this will have a negative consequence on agriculture. We are not happy for the setback of the embankment. At some points the embankment is close to river while at other points it is far inland. We don’t understand why this has to be like this because lots of people will lose their
Appendix 211
lands. We tried to communicate our concern to the implementing authority but they say they cannot revise the plan as this will require the redesigning of the whole embankment. The reason behind the delay in reconstructing the embankment: First, the Water Development Board (BWDB) which is responsible for the maintenance of the embankments did not have sufficient funding for emergency reconstruction. Second, their administrative procedure for carrying out a task takes long time; meanwhile the extent of the damages to embankments increase. Besides, as the ongoing CEIP (WB project) has been underway (at the design level?) before the cyclone Aila struck so there was reluctance in permanently reconstructing the damage parts of the embankment. All these reasons contributed to the longstanding suffering of the people. One quality change after the cyclone Aila is that we now have emergency shelters in our Union. Out of the 13 schools we have in Kamarkhola Union, 12 are school cum emergency shelters and the one left will soon be turned into so. We are lagging behind in many aspect compared to the other parts of the country. I reckon our national leaders can’t hear the cry of the coastal people. However, with electricity and improved road communication, I believe we can bring change to our lives.
Polder 33
Before the embankment was built, land used to get inundated during high tide; embankment protects them from tidal inundation; embankment keeps the salt water away and they are able to cultivate now. Before the CEP, they could cultivate single crop and remained unemployed for the rest of the year. Worked in the CEP; closed the canals to enable the putting up of the embankment; There was abundance of fish in the waters. Those fish species have disappeared.
212 Appendix
Earlier there was only one crop in a year; now there’s been crop diversification. We grow vegetables (pumpkin) and water melon besides paddy; we hardly have any time to kill/spare. Cyclone Aila did damage to households; water overtopped the embankment and inundated households; people had to move on to the embankment; The embankment breached in two locations of this polder. Because of the tidal activity, most of the land was rendered uncultivable for about three years in some places. Scarcity of drinking water was led to spread of water-borne diseases. Water from ponds and the river is treated with alum to make it drinkable. After cyclone Aila, rainwater harvesting has been introduced as an option for potable water. NGOs provided with 500L water tanks for capturing rainwater. But rainwater harvesting does not secure drinkable water for the whole year; so the traditional alum-treated pond/river water is still in practice. For a long time after Aila, NGOs/development organizations transported safe drinking water to community everyday by boat. People used to wait pitchers for the boat to come with water. The community people who were relatively less affected by the cyclone came forward to help the people who suffered more. They supplied food to those who needed according to their ability. In some places some families remained dependent on others for about three years. Besides food stuff, they shared firewood as there was a crisis of this owing to diurnal inundation. Reasons for delay in rebuilding the embankment after the cyclone: ‘the problems are with the engineers. The things that they can fix in the first attempt, they would rather take several. Instead of using concrete blocks in the first attempt, they would use some bamboo, then some sandbags which minuscule efforts are given the force of the water rushing in. they do this only to increase the cost of reconstruction. And engineers are reluctant to listen to the farmers/community. ’ Community people suspect that the construction works are substandard because of use of low grade materials or for not using the materials in proper proportion.
Appendix 213
The undergoing work (CEIP-I/World Bank) seems to be very good because they are using excavators for earthwork and the embankment looks robust. But they don’t have any idea how tall or how wide this embankment is going to be. Over the period of time when shrimp or crop cultivation was suspended because of tidal inundation (almost three years), most of the people went to other areas for work. The females who remained home were engaged in the small-scale reconstruction work (VGF?). Because of the establishment of the gas company on the river, the road had to be diverted which now costs some land of the farmers. Montu Sardar is not happy for the compensation he is going to get as the embankment would take off part of his homestead land. At the beginning of the project the compensations were proper but now as the compensation process has moved over to the DC Office, it is much less than it used to be. When Montu Sardar was young and there was no embankment, they had to go to Chalna Bazar to attend school. He attended school till year 9 until the War of Independence began. CEIP does not offer as much income generating opportunity for the local people as did CEP; only a few people get to work in the sluice gate construction process. However, they understand that using machines/excavators for the earthwork will significantly reduce the time necessary for the reconstruction and this will make the embankment more robust. Never still, the repair of the old parts of the embankment (not construction of new parts) could utilise local labour offering them some income opportunities.
------ Prior to the embankment construction, we had to travel to Chalna Bazar for weekly groceries (tel-daal). Those who did not have a boat had to cross the river/waters swimming (gamcha pore jete hoto). The embankment saved us from the trouble of ‘gamcha pora’. I did not have a chance to go to school but I sent my children for education. However, they just finished primary level and now my grandchildren are going even beyond high school.
214 Appendix
Before the embankment era I used to grow crop/paddy; one crop a year was possible with the help of the temporary embankment (oshtomashi bandh). For the rest of the time we used to catch fish. In those days, there was abundance of fish; we could not consume all the fish we caught. But they have disappeared after the creation of polders. Fish was sold so cheap; but there were not many people to buy them. There was no ice to preserve fish to be transported to other places. Some people moved in from surrounding areas (e.g Koyra) after the embankment was constructed. Abdul Gafur apparently moved in here because of the enhanced safety that came along the embankment as they lost standing crops in Koyra in 1988 cyclone. Also, there was a shortage of land for cultivation in Koyra. There was no cyclone shelter around here until the cyclone AIla hit. People moved to higher grounds for shelter. There was no death from cyclone Aila in Polder 33 but many people died in Polder 32 (Kamarkhola). They did not receive any warning before Aila. The acclaimed Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society started off in this region after the cyclone (Sidr/Aila???). Internal drainage is problematic; sometimes excess water remains in the field as they don’t have a way out. Excavation of canal is necessary for remedy but this is not part of the ongoing CEIP-I project; this is rather the responsibility of the Local Government Division (LGD). Back in old days, there was hardship. But now there is no short of money or work. People go places, particularly the other side of the river (TATA Company/Rampal?), for work. This is a major change. Besides, our offspring are able to pursue education to bring changes to their lives. All these because WAPDA/The embankment contributed to improved communication. If anybody had anything to do in Chalna, they would have to go there one day ahead of the schedule. But now people are going even to Khulna and coming back so conveniently which was unimaginable back in the days when embankment was not constructed. Sanitation—hanging latrine
Appendix 215
Environmentally/Visibly, dearth of fish is the only shortcoming of embankment construction. Crop diversification is a major change that came along the polder system. There are places where people get lot more money from Rabi crop (water melon, teel) than traditional paddy cultivation. We got inspired to move away from shrimp culture at the prospect of crop diversification which brings more money. Shrimp cultivation leaves the land saline rendering it unsuitable for crop cultivation. Shrimp cultivation made a few people rich while most people suffered. There was no vegetation. No cattle could be reared because there was no grass or other fodder to feed the animals. They don’t know of families who moved permanently out from the polder after the cyclone Aila. Rather people are coming to this polder because of the job opportunity on the other side of the river (Rampal/TATA Company). Apparently they are happy with the compensation they received (BDT 100,000 to 300,000), but admitted that the compensation at the beginning (one year before) was better than that now. They think BWDB misappropriated the compensation fund (rate komaise).
------ ‘Badhbondi chilona’; only one crop could be done (Amon paddy). Now Aush and also Rabi crops are cultivated. Back in old days we did not have the opportunity to attend school. There were very few schoold/Pathshala. But hardship did not leave us with an option obtain education. Now my grandson is studying in college (Honours). Aila was a tremendous cyclone; water level in the river almost submerged the embankment. There is a cyclone shelter but they decided to stay home because they did not want to leave their belongings behind. People rather prefer staying home and embrace their destiny. The WAPDA embankment was repaired/reconstructed three times before the ongoing initiative (CEIP-I). Job opportunities on the other side of the river (Mongla) have made a major difference now compared to old time.
216 Appendix
The abundance of fish has disappeared after the polder came into being (Bandhbondi howar pore kothay je gelo mach…). Even after the creation of the polder, there was plenty of fish (as long as the drainage system worked??). That fish disappeared with the introduction of saline water shrimp cultivation. Besides, pesticides/insecticides and fertilizers used for crop cultivation is a reason why the native species of fishes disappeared.
------ Before the polder era, people were mostly engaged in agricultural work. Only one crop could be yielded. There was abundance of fish before the creation of polders which disappeared later on. But the communication has improved a lot. Improved communication has increased people’s mobility and hence their income. Embankment has played a role in protecting from storm surges too. In 1988 cyclone the embankment breached in some places and there was water inside the polder which damaged standing crops. The recent cyclone Aila caused damage to polder 32 more than polder 33. There were a few schools and no college earlier; now we have an improved access to education because of increased number of schools and even colleges nearby. Some people moved away from here to India while some came in from other places in Bangladesh. The Mongla port was lot busier earlier and offered job opportunities to many. Now the port activities have decreased but there are many ‘companies’/industries where people can work. Being close to Mongla (just the other side of the river Poshur), we have an added advantage for getting jobs. The embankment under the new project, CEIP-I, looks very strong/robust but we thought it would be wider. We wish it gets strong enough to protect our children in the future. We hope the embankment would be wide enough to allow at least two vehicles to pass side by side.
Appendix 217
People are turning away from shrimp cultivation. This started even before the cyclone Aila struck. Shrimp cultivation costs the vegetation; because of salt in the soil, we could not have even a coconut tree or a banana plant. But now, you can see we have some green around us. We can have some cattle now. Shrimp cultivation benefitted only the owners of shrimp ponds over large parcels of land; subsistence level farmers/workers, which most of us are, did not get much benefit from shrimp cultivation. General people’s voice does not go far unless the leaders/representatives take it further. We can reach maximum to the Upazila/subdistrict level; not any point beyond. Turning away from shrimp cultivation has been possible because of people’s resistance as well as for the support we received from the political leaders (the then local MP has been very supportive on this issue). People realized that crop cultivation has more to offer to communities.
Policymakers and Professionals
Land in polders is very fertile. Farmers do not have to spend money on irrigation as is the case with other parts of the country; rather they have to drain off excess water in rainy season to facilitate cultivation. Even they do not have to spend much on other agricultural inputs (fertilizer, insecticide, pesticides etc.). The young people living in the polders do not have any idea how it was in the pre-embankment era. Most of the land used to be flooded in tides and people were very poor. However, because of what happened after the breaching of embankments, now they have seen a bit of pre-embankment situations. The elderly people who have been living here before the Coastal Embankment Project was initiated, they always acknowledge BWDP (or WAPDA in their words) for creating a liveable environment in the coastal region. They admit that WAPDA changed their lives. The width of the rivers around the polders has increased while the depth reduced because of reduction in upstream water flow. That is why it now seems that the CEP did not leave any setback to the embankments; this is
218 Appendix
actually not true. There was setback that washed off over the years because of the aforementioned reason. The reasons behind the poor condition of the embankments are two: one, the earthen embankment surface washes off in rain reducing the height over the years; and two, the unauthorised saline water inlets for shrimp cultivation. The point to be noted here, shrimp cultivation was encouraged as part of government policy; it was not a forbidden business. But it is true that much thought was not imparted in provisioning the saline water inlet structures through the embankments. For issues like embankment repair or drainage congestion, community members normally contact their local representatives (Union Council Members/Chairman) who then directly get in touch with us and from there we take over. Sometimes the Upazila (Sub-district) Chairmen or even the Members of Parliament inform BWDB of the concern of their community for proper action. Political leaders of all levels seem sincere in addressing the problems of community. There is a misconception about the Water Development Board that we deliberately delay the execution of embankment repair works so that the project could get bigger. It is absolutely wrong. The fact is, when we do the assessment of the damage (particularly breaching of embankments) we have to do it based on what we see and that is what we do. But for breaching of embankments it is very difficult to predict what the breach will turn into in a day or two; sometimes it gets too worse even for us to imagine. Thus by the time we are able to execute the task after all the administrative procedure (from field to headquarter in Dhaka and then back to the field), the work we have been endorsed to carry out is too little compared to what the damage has become in the meantime. The design for any structure related work is done in Dhaka. We collect data from field and sometimes it takes a week for that data to reach Dhaka. From my perspective, bringing the design engineers to the field and having them to design the work on the spot with a 30% to 40% overdraft could reduce the time significantly. The repair work that we could do in a day or two sometimes takes more than two weeks to get administrative endorsement.
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------ The embankments are in a vulnerable condition at many points. As the community identifies the embankment is about to give in at a point or that there is already a breach, they notify the Union Council Members/Chairman (who apparently are the first point of contact in the local government system and who are easily accessible). The Members/Chairman can directly contact the Water Development Board which these days is very simple and easy because of the provision of mobile communications. Having heard from the local government representative/s, the BWDB local office takes the measures necessary to restore the embankment. That the maintenance works for the embankments have been going on. The ongoing CEIP-I has been formulated considering the impacts of recent cyclones, Sidr and Aila, and also the sea-level rise as a consequence of global warming. Polder 32 is in a critical condition. This is the most vulnerable one among all the polders. Under the current project only 1.5 kilometres of the embankment has been brought under the riverbank protection work; but it is understood that additional riverbank protection work must be incorporated in order for the polder to be stable. But the current project does not have provision for more riverbank protection work. There is another issue apart from the structural deficiency (?)/shortcomings; that is the local people’s perception about the embankment. Local people expect that all their lands will be protected by the embankment and they think engineers deliberately put their land outside of the embankment. They don’t understand that we need to keep a setback considering the river dynamics/hydro-geomorphology in order to make the embankment structurally viable. Riverbank erosion is very difficult to predict. For CEIP, study was carried out in 2012 and the ongoing work is based on the study findings. Now over the years following 2012 the hydro-geomorphology around the study locations has changed and so has the characteristics of riverbank erosion. The point is, the locations which were vulnerable to riverbank erosion in 2012 and the locations vulnerable to the same now may not be the same, and also the extent of erosion may have changed.
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Development Project Proposal/Profile (DPP): For donor funded projects, sometimes the extent/scope of the project is curtailed/compromised to match with the funds available. That’s why we cannot do many things which ideally should be done in a development project. [For projects in water resources development, first the field level office sends the requirements to headquarters from where it goes to the corresponding ministry. Then the Planning Commission reviews the plans and decided where the budget allocation will be made from. If it is an aided project, the scope of the project is sometimes compromised as the donors ask to fit the project into the funds they can make available]. More extensive riverbank protection work on Polder 32 would mean the project getting more expensive. For each kilometre of riverbank protection work it costs between BDT 300 and 500 million [The total budget allocated for Polder 32 under CEIP-I is approximately BDT 6970 million]. Unauthorised structures for shrimp cultivation (water inlets for intake of saline water) do have a role in weakening of the embankment. However, even the ongoing CEIP did not consider keeping the provision of these structures in the design and construction of the embankment. CEIP considered crop production and that is why kept the provision of sluices. We cannot avoid shrimp cultivation and hence we should consider keeping the provision for saline water intake in the next phase of the project to be implemented in other polders. Otherwise, shrimp cultivators will do the same – cut the embankment across to get water to their shrimp ponds which in the long run will weaken the embankment making way for tidal water. ------ Before the CEP, there were two types of paddy: Aush and Amon. Early flood would damage Aush and big flood would damage Amon. Some years flood would damage one crop and some years both. When both crops are damaged, there is a crisis of food. Tidal amplitude is very high in our coastal area. Unlike anywhere in the world. The concept of polder is about preventing the river water from spreading over the floodplain by building dykes around the land. This would not interfere with the river flow.
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For the rainwater that would accumulate inside the polder, regulators were installed which would drain out water from inside the polder during the low tide when water level in the river is very low. Agriculture was the major concern behind polder construction. Secured agricultural production played a role in increasing settlements in the polders. With the increase of settlement, need for utilities and services, basically road network and schools, also increased. Construction of internal roads for communication interfered with the drainage system as they were not considered during in the design of polders. There was no coordination between BWDB and other agencies for infrastructure development (mainly Local Government Engineering Department, LGED). The agency responsible for (road) communication did not consider the impact of their structures on drainage system. They did not keep the proper provision as necessary for proper drainage; the culverts had too narrow openings in most instances. The point here is, individual agencies execute their agenda but without much thought about other agencies’. Holistic planning approach is absent. The embankments under CEP were constructed keeping high tide in mind; cyclones were not in consideration. However, after the 1970 cyclone, this issue got to the surface but not to any effect. Then again, in 1991 there was a great cyclone and the issue of raising the height of the embankments came into discussion. Even the height of a few embankments in the south-east coast was raised. For the south-western coast, no measures were taken. This is partly because it was presumed that the Sundarbans, the mangrove forest, will protect the polders on its north. But the fact is, Sundarbans did take much of the effects of cyclone Sidr (2007) but it cannot do anything to reduce the surge height. Later (in 2008/2010?) under the Pilot Programming for Climate Resilience (PPCR), some of the polders were considered for making them climate resilient. The point to be noted here, the notion ‘climate resilient’ does not necessarily mean hundred percent climate proof; but the idea was, if another cyclone like Sidr or AIla strikes, those polders will provide better protection. This is what we have tried to follow in CEIP-I.
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Apart from the engineering aspects, the polders have some socio-environmental issues which need to be addressed for proper functioning of the polders. CEIP-I is working on commissioning an NGO to look into this matter as the construction works progress. The NGO will work closely with the community to form sort of Polder Management Committee which will have a stake in the issues related to polder management. Engineers alone cannot solve the problems in polders; they must work with communities. Within polders there are community groups with different vested responsibilities; for example, the croppers want the water out of the polder so that they can start cultivation whereas the fishers wish the water stayed longer so that they could raise their fish for more time. Issues like this have no engineering solution; these are purely socio-economic concerns. The proposed Polder Management Committee will be given the authority to solve problems as such in consultation with the community members. Besides, through the PMC we are planning to build partnerships with community for performing activities like plantation in the polders with a view to impart a sense of ownership to community which we believe will make the polder management more effective. The internal road network inside the polders will be constructed in consultation with the community through the PMC so that it does not hinder the drainage system. We have improved the drainage system design compared to the old (CEP) one. We have kept provision for a larger opening of the sluices so that the water from inside the polder can drain off quicker, may be in 3 hours rather than 6 hours of low tide. However, even a large opening would not work if the internal road network works as a cross dam and obstruct the water from draining off the polder. To address the impact of climate change, we have designed our drainage system considering an extra 36% of regular precipitation/rain given the increase in erratic pattern of precipitation/rain. We have considered sea level rise of 0.5 meter in drainage design. In both the cases, we have followed the IPCC predictions.
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The design principle we have set will apply to first 17 polders that we have selected for CEIP-I. Based on the performance of these polders we will decide on the remaining ones. The 17 polders selected for reconstruction under CEIP-I have been identified based on some priorities of course. But all of them do not belong to the ‘most vulnerable’ category. To make it a success story/ to make development visible we cannot only choose the most vulnerable ones for reconstruction as this will make the task very difficult. Polders in the upstream may not need the embankment as high as is the case with the ones in the downstream. Even the height of the embankment of the downstream polders is not the same all along as was the case earlier in CEP. To make it economic, the design height of embankments under CEIP-I has been made variable which is governed by the level of risk associated to the particular section of the polders. Waterlogging is not as much an issue of concern in the downstream polders as in the upstream ones (e.g. Bahbodaho). The estimation of the sediments carried through Bangladesh rivers is around 1 Billion tons annually. However, this estimation was made during the Flood Action Plan Study in 1991/92. Since then many parameters of sediment transportation have changed including upstream river flow. Now we need to do a fresh estimation of this. Under the CEIP, we are initiating a new study to do this calculation because we believe this is particularly important for setting a functional polder management strategy. We need to know how much sediment is being carried in to Bangladesh now and how it gets distributed over land. Policy makers in our country are in favour of (physical/infrastructural) development. They believe visible development will contribute to increase their popularity. For this reason, sometimes unnecessary physical developments come into being. This has become sort of political culture in our country. All political leaders were sincere about the rehabilitation of the embankments/polders which were damaged by cyclones Aila and Sidr. For any development project funded by international development partners, a feasibility study is a must. Feasibility study looks into four aspects: technical, social, environmental and economic.
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For CEIP, extensive stakeholder consultation was carried out and everyone spoke in favour of embankments. The waterlogging in the upstream polders is attributable not to the concept of polders but to the reduced water-flow in the rivers arising as a consequence of upstream river water withdrawal. Sediment that used to get carried to the sea is now remaining suspended on the river bed because of lack of water flow in the river. Even if the embankments are decommissioned/removed, the water logging will not disappear. If polders are to blame for rivers to be silted up and then causing waterlogging, how about the places where we don’t have polders (e.g. the Kushiara)? We other rivers are losing navigability and drying up? Isn’t it obvious that this is happening for drastic change in river water flow? Polders have an enormous role in terms of inhabiting people and also food production in the context that Bangladesh is a land-scarce country with a huge population size.
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