Water management for agriculture
Photo: Kakoli Prodhan / Driknews
I am referring to two articles published recently in your daily. The first one entitled “Understanding Bangladesh from a Neighbour's Door” (Jan 24,09) by Nitish Sengupta and Arindam Banik from India, the second one entitled “Better Water Management for improved livelihood” (Jan 31, 09) by Muhammad Zamir of Bangladesh. The issues discussed in both the articles are very relevant in the present day situation in Bangladesh and deserve some discussion. Particularly the issue of better water management vis-a-vis agriculture. Agriculture is by far the largest consumer of available fresh water followed by municipal and industrial sectors in most countries, with shrinking arable land and growing population Bangladesh is facing a bigger challenge in this sector. To cope with the population growth it has to produce enough food by bringing more cultivable land under irrigation. Therefore, augmentation of both surface and ground water through minor irrigation devices like deep tube wells, shallow tube wells, low lift pumps, floating pumps etc. will be the key factor. Being a scarce resource, water can only be made available by managing it in a better way. Water management projects need investment and appropriate institutional network. Technology development and their extension need public sector institutional support. In neighbouring India most of the states have public sector involvement in minor irrigation development. The state of West Bengal has a separate Minor Irrigation Ministry to look after this sector. Bangladesh can use their experience in this regard. The issues of flood mitigation, river training including water sharing with neighbouring countries are of prime importance. Dry season water scarcity has become a major concern for people living in Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) basin area. As a lower riparian country, this concern in Bangladesh has turned into a bone of contention. In a recent editorial (Jan 03,09) Anandabazar Patrika of West Bengal has voiced the same concern. Another article captioned “ Ecologists warn that the world is running out of water” ( Loe Lewis, Times of London dated January 22, 2008) has mentioned this (the excerpts) “There are places West Africa today, the Ganges-Brahmaputra river system in Nepal, Bangladesh and India, and Peru within ten years where major changes in the rivers generate a significant risk of violent conflict. Good water management is part of peace building.” History repeatedly taught us one thing without fail, that unilateralism and isolationism have always been the “recipe for disaster”, because the real security and prosperity of one fifth of humanity lies in unison not in unilateralism.
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