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Going with the Flow
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KAMARGANYA, JESSORE, BANGLADESH
LEADER Rima Begum (second from right) has gained a lot from the water management cooperation association
Circumstances could hardly seem more dire for Rima Begum. The mother of four children is illiterate. Not long ago she lost her husband to leukemia. Yet the Bangladeshi widow recently learned how to write her own name, helps run a successful small-scale canal fishery, and is diversifying a vegetable business to help cover her family’s monthly expenses—all thanks to the local Nongakhal (Ichhali) Water Management Cooperative Association.
In Bangladesh, where most poor people live in the countryside, increasing food production and providing income-earning opportunities are considered the most direct ways to reduce poverty. Boosting harvests requires better irrigation during the dry season and better drainage during the wet season.
The Small-Scale Water Resources Development Project—started in 1996, executed by the Local Government Engi- neering Department, and now in its second phase—is doing just that. Innovations involving local people at every level, particularly women, have helped raise cereal crop production and create new windows of opportunity for improving livelihoods.
Project beneficiaries have been organized under the water management cooperative associations through which they are responsible for everything from planning, designing, and constructing canals, channels, and other infrastructure, to providing user-financed operation and maintenance. When started, this was a new approach for water resources management projects in Bangladesh.
In phase one, some 190,000 farm families, over 70% of them either small or marginal landholders or landless farmers, raised their productivity and income with the help of the $53.5 million project, supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB), International Fund for Agriculture Development, Government of the Netherlands, Government of Bangladesh, and the beneficiaries themselves. Phase two carries the program through to 2009, comprising 300 additional subprojects and covering 280,000 households in 61 of the country’s 64 districts.
The issues of gender in the water sector do not simply involve access to water for better health, sanitation, nutrition, and higher productivity. They involve questions of rights, responsibilities, and women’s participation at all levels. When they do not participate in decisions regarding water management, they are delinked from the efforts to protect water resources.
" If we are not bringing women into the decision-making process, their problems will not be addressed properly "
The growing involvement of women has been central to the success of the project. “Women first started going to the water management committee informally,” says Rima Begum, who is a member of the Nongakhal (Ichhali) Water Management Cooperative Association and chairperson of the women’s subcommittee.
Women have accounted for about a quarter of the membership in water management associations in the 280 subprojects of phase one, and comprise one third of the members in the management committees of each.
As water management committee members, they take decisions on their roles and responsibilities to manage their water resources. This means sharing the work required for overseeing construction of infrastructure and taking over operations and maintenance. Hard decisions are made about each family’s contribution to these efforts—but they also gain a lot of benefits.
“If we are not bringing women into the decision-making process, their problems will not be addressed properly,” says Bashir Uddin Ahmed, Project Director.
The project aims to increase the number of women involved in water management cooperative associations to 30% of the total—previously there were none. It also wants to improve their skills, and to better assess their needs to ensure they derive benefits. To make this happen, a gender specialist position has been created on the project team and an international gender expert also provides advice.
To create an environment supportive of women, the project includes conducting gender capacity training in local govern- ment engineering departments, collecting data to reflect gender issues, and commissioning the design of gender-sensitive training modules. The project is also working to ensure that one third of all operation and maintenance committee members are women, and is supervising work and wage differentials between men and women to ensure equal pay for equal work.
DETERMINED Selina Parveen, a bright 18-year-old and the youngest member of the association, says her father encouraged her to join so she could learn
Some of the poorest women in the rural areas work in labor contracting societies, which are responsible for infrastructure work. They did 25% of the project’s earthwork and are solely responsible for the upkeep of trees planted along embankments and canals, which earns them incomes. Others have cleared ponds and are now profitably raising fish.
“Five to ten years back, there was resistance in incorporating gender issues into infrastructure projects that were perceived as ‘men’s domains’,” says Ferdousi Sultana, Gender and Development Specialist, ADB Bangladesh Resident Mission. Now it is more accepted that women must participate to reduce poverty. “They comprise the greatest share of the poor,” she says.
Others are more blunt. “Women do better work. (They) are a very important part of our subcommittees,” says Jinnat Ali, Secretary of the predominantly male water management committee of the Nongakhal (Ichhali) Water Management Cooperative Association, which has five subcommittees and one management committee. Every subcommittee now has one to three women members. Ever an optimist, Mr. Ali predicts that one day a woman will lead the water management committee.
Crop production in the subproject areas has clearly benefited from improved water resources management. In 2002 alone land under cereal crop production in 131 subproject areas rose by 18,500 hectares, up 15.8% from before the project. The proper control of flooding and floodwater conservation has also increased fish production. In 46 subproject areas in 2002, fish production rose by 890 tons in floodplains, and by 820 tons in more permanent water bodies.
Rima Begum started with a fisheries training course in another district, during which she learned how to create and maintain canal fisheries. When she came back, she shared with others her newly gained knowledge—complete with useful technical words. She and other women have cleared three ponds and are now profitably raising fish.
Organizers say the success can be repeated. Aside from the second phase of the water resources project, a third ADB project is in the pipeline, subject to the approval of ADB’s Board of Directors. The promising results in Bangladesh have inspired ADB to replicate the participatory approach to water resources development in Cambodia, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, and Viet Nam. Wherever implemented, women like Rima Begum will certainly benefit.
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