From flood to scarcity of water: re-defining the water debate in Bangladesh

The paper challenges the concept of scarcity as a water supply availability and demand problem. It argues that water scarcity is a problem where there is a failure to gain access to the service (or services) that water resources provide. The issue is not just of water quantity, but of water quality and socio-economic conditions of stakeholders. It is this more complex, subtle concept of scarcity that is the basis of the analysis of the situation in rural Bangladesh. It does not have the simple attractiveness or dramatic impact of many of the more conventionally used measures, but it does have one over-riding advantage: it provides a basis for understanding local-level reality that conventional measures do not.A recent study found that <B>scarcity</B> not excess of monsoon floodwaters appeared to be the primary concern of the majority of livelihood groups. Scarcity of floodwaters is impacting on livelihood in multiple ways that include: a reduction in soil fertility due to lack of silt being deposited on their fields that replenish the soil nutrientsa decline in the amounts of fish fry, fingerlings and fish reaching the tributaries and floodplain from the permanent water bodies where breeding takes place leading to a major decline in open water fish catcheslow water levels in the rivers and canals cause problems in relation to the bathing of humans and livestock, and hamper farming practices such as the retting down of jutea drop in the watertable means women now find it increasingly difficult to pump water out with handpumps towards the end of the dry seasonThe research suggests a need to re-think the prevalent paradigm in Bangladesh from how to cope with too much water in monsoon (i.e., flood) to how to cope with lack of water in future