Water Management
The GoN (through IOB missions) evaluated the implementation of water management projects twice: in 1998 for the period 1972-1996, and in 2016 for the period 2006-2016, the latter supported with a Bangladesh Country Study in 2017.
The evaluation report of 1998 learnt the following: The early water management projects covered the objectives set by the GoN and GoB, i.e. increasing agricultural production and reducing damages caused by flooding. The effectiveness of the construction and/or rehabilitation of embankments was high while the effectiveness of excavating drainage canals was reasonably good. Deficient maintenance was identified as a main problem. The effect of water management projects on employment was good, especially for the rural poor through increased agricultural production. The projects also strongly supported the participation of landless and marginal farmers in construction. The effect on institutional development was limited. All projects suffered from delays in project implementation as a result of poor preparation and overambitious targets. Institutional sustainability was a problem due to lack of O&M funds.
The Bangladesh country study of 2017 focused on policy and institutional aspects. The main conclusions were: During the review period, Dutch support for local level water management planning was ‘effective’, leading in general to technically effective construction or rehabilitation of water management infrastructure. Netherlands-supported programs were also effective in achieving short to mid-term livelihood benefits for the rural poor, including building local institutional capacity through Water Management Organizations (WMOs) and social empowerment. But the growing threats of climate change, and the same worries about maintenance and long-term sustainability as in the first evaluation, diminished the value of these achievements, however important they were in the short to medium term. Similarly, strong immediate outcomes were realised in local institutional development, but the failure to provide convincingly for institutional maintenance weakened any confidence that these WMOs would remain functioning in the longer term.
Regarding impact at the national level, IOB’s conclusion was less positive. Dutch support during the review period was not considered effective in building the long-term capacity of national water management institutions, or even sustaining it in the short term. In line with the Dutch policy dating from well before 2006, support to water management in Bangladesh emphasized participatory approaches. Major effort was devoted to local institutional development for this purpose, sometimes reactivating WMOs that earlier projects had helped establish. The assumption that water users do contribute significantly to the management and maintenance of water infrastructure proved largely true at this local level, at least during periods of project presence. Insufficient provision for institutional maintenance meant that it was less true after projects had closed. A main finding was that there was inadequate provision for ‘institutional maintenance’ at the local level; and that the extent and effectiveness of Dutch support for institutional reform and development at national level – particularly within the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) – dwindled over the review period, with insufficient analysis of the issues and interests involved. There was political will for Netherlands-supported policy and institutional initiatives, especially at the highest levels in the GoB, for example, with regard to major planning action through the BDP2100 initiative. However, there was less political will at the working levels of building effective institutional capacity within BWDB for ensuring that WMOs would be sustained in the long term. The key conclusion of the review was that Dutch water management policy had not succeeded in supporting adequate institutional development within the GOB between 2006 and 2016, so that conventional projects with large technical assistance teams were still seen to be necessary. The prospects of sustainability were not improved. However, over the years a shift can be observed towards a greater and more substantial participation of Bangladeshi consultants in the project teams.
Promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women was a Dutch policy priority throughout the review period. The IOB found that this was well reflected in the design and implementation of the water management interventions over those years and some significant results were achieved. IPSWAM (2003-2011) facilitated the launch of a gender strategy for BWDB in 2006, even though the 2011 project evaluation found that BWDB had not made much progress in implementing the action plan that accompanied the gender strategy.
The Gender and Water Alliance Programme Bangladesh (GWAPB), 2013-2016, supported six major water management projects with training, capacity building, awareness raising and networking. This led to gender action planning in these projects leading to some useful outcomes, however, GWAPB’s effectiveness suffered from the lack of a formal mandate.
At field level, Dutch-funded projects made significant progress in promoting the roles of women in water management, as well as their economic benefits from land and water use. Women’s engagement with these projects had been economically and socially beneficial for them. Women gained positions in WMOs, though this did not necessarily correspond with active engagement in, or influence over, WMO decision-making. CDSP was particularly praised for its promotion of women’s economic, social and institutional interests, for example through its arrangements for registering new land allocations in women’s names. Though the effectiveness of this gender mainstreaming partly depends on the sustainability of the institutions within which Dutch-supported projects promoted women’s interests, field observation and informant opinion both confirmed that there is unlikely to be any reversal of the empowerment benefits that have accrued to women through these projects.
Summarizing, taking into account the conclusions in the IOB-reports and earlier made observations, the Dutch supported interventions in water management have:
- Improved water management related infrastructure
- Increased agricultural production and food security for small farmers and landless households
- not found solutions for the lack of O&M funds, especially for governmental organizations
- created and supported local water management institutions, but failed to provide a national framework to sustain these institutions
- stimulated an integrated approach towards water management issues
- contributed significantly to give attention to planning, both at project and national level (i.e. the ICZM, CEGIS and BDP2100 efforts).
WASH
WASH programs in Bangladesh have been largely successful, especially in the areas of improved sanitation, results can be found in the UN’s Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) data. This monitoring program of the World Health Organization (WHO) and UNICEF is the custodian of global data on Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene. These data show good progress for Bangladesh, as illustrated below:
UN JMP Monitoring data for Bangladesh (2000-2020) showed good progress towards achieving universal access to basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services. Between 2000 and 2020, the population with access to safely managed drinking water at home increased from 55 per cent to 58 per cent; safely managed sanitation services grew from 18 per cent to 38 per cent; unimproved sanitation services decreased from 48% to 22%, and the number of people with hygienic facilities (latrines or septic tanks) increased from 42 million to 115 million.
Child mortality, which has a clear link with the quality of WASH services, has improved considerably over the years. From 1990 to 2020, the under-five mortality rate has fallen from 146 deaths per 1.000 live births to 29 deaths.
There is wide recognition that an integrated WASH approach, including proper drinking water and sanitation facilities and awareness on hygiene, helped to build resilience in communities in face of crises, such as covid-19 pandemic and natural disasters.
Involving women in decision making and increasing their access to information has an empowering impact and contributes to more gender equality. This went hand-in-hand with recognizing the importance of WASH for women: improvement in drinking water supply reduced the time for fetching water; women often value good sanitation as more important than men, as for women open defecation also involves a security risk; proper latrines is a dignity issue for women including attention to menstrual hygiene; and adequate school sanitation is often a precondition to reduce school dropout of (adolescent) girls.
In the last decade, Dutch private sector became involved in Dutch supported WASH
projects. An example is the Water Operation Partnership (WOP) implemented by
Vitens Evides International (VEI) as lead, with Dhaka Water Supply and Sanitation
Agency (DWASA). External mid-term reviews of WOP1 and WOP2 were
implemented in 2015 and 2019. WOP1 focused on new software and technologies,
proactive distribution system management balancing water production and demand,
and better provision of WASH services to low-income communities. Challenges
under WOP1 were the poor understanding of the project concept and contexts, the
multitude of activities and the time required for organizational changes needed for
the new technologies. WOP2 learned from WOP1, building on its experiences,
focusing more on mutual understanding and knowledge transfer. WOP2 key
challenges related to organization and management, including capacity building of
staff for cross-cultural communication and cooperation. (Source: Mid Term Review
WOP1, 05 July 2015; Mid Term Review WOP2, Final Report, 22 November 2019).
Another private sector project under the WOP umbrella was the Urban Dredging
Demonstration project (UDDP), also by VEI with DWASA. This UDDP project has
demonstrated that mechanized dredging is superior to manual dredging with respect
to efficiency, labour safety and environmental safety. However, planning for
Operation and Maintenance (O&M) remained a problem, the Long Term Urban
Dredging Plan, Asset Management and Modelling were by and large not properly
implemented at the end of project implementation. Since these Planning tools were
not yet sufficiently internalized by DWASA, the O&M Circle approach to planning for maintenance of its drains is still incidental dredging mostly based on newspaper
reports and hearsay, instead of the envisaged more structural approach (Source:
Mid Term Review, 31 August 2015; Final Report UDDP, Jan 2017).
Summarizing, taking into account the conclusions in the IOB-reports and earlier made observations, the Dutch supported interventions in WASH have:
- Contributed to an integrated WASH planning and implementation
- Contributed to institution strengthening at local level
- Strengthened national WASH programs through NGOs
- Contributed to women’s empowerment and gender equality – given that WASH projects integrated gender concerns into their project design
- The more recent support to WASH with the private sector showed mixed results; dredging and community participation went well, long term O&M planning and execution were less successful, demonstration of urban dredging technologies went well
