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INTERNATIONAL YEAR OF FRESHWATER
2003
Global Water Data
Geography and population
Bangladesh is located in southern Asia, in the northeast of the
Indian subcontinent, and covers a total area of 144 000 km². It
has a common border in the west, north and east with India, a
short border with Myanmar in the southeast, and is bounded by
the Bay of Bengal in the south. Administratively, the country is
divided into 6 divisions, 64 districts and 490 thanas. There are
four metropolitan areas including the capital city, Dacca.
The
country is flat with some uplands in the northeast and
southeast. A great plain lies almost at sea level along the
southern part of the country and rises gradually towards the
north. The land elevation in the plain varies from 0 to 90 m
above sea level. The maximum elevation is 1 230 m above sea
level at Keocradang in the Rangamati hill district. The
geo-morphology of the country consists of a large portion of
floodplains (79.1 percent), some terraces (8.3 percent) and
hilly areas.
The
total cultivable area is estimated at 8 774 000 ha, which is
about 61 percent of the total area. In 1994, the total
cultivated area amounted to 7 743 000 ha, of which 392 000 ha
under permanent crops. Of the area cultivated under annual
crops, about 19 percent was single cropping, 59 percent double
cropping and the remaining 22 percent triple cropping. In 1994,
due to double and triple cropping, the total area of crops
amounted to about 13.5 million ha, giving an average intensity
of 154 percent. Subsistence farming practices characterize
agriculture in Bangladesh. Cereals, occupying nearly
11 million ha or 76 percent of the total area in 1994, are the
most important annual crops, with rice alone representing more
than 10 million ha. Other annual crops are pulses, oilseeds,
jute and sugar cane. The average holding per farm household was
0.9 ha in 1983. Nearly 24 percent
of farm households own less than 0.2 ha and another 46 percent
own up to 1.0 ha.
In
1996, the population of Bangladesh was estimated at
120 073 000 inhabitants (81 percent rural) with an annual growth
rate of 1.88 percent. Bangladesh is one of the most densely
populated countries in the world with about 834 inhabitants/km².
The agriculture sector continues to play an important role in
the economy of the country. It accounts for about 30 percent of
GDP and 61 percent of overall employment, 57 percent of the
labour force being directly engaged in farming activities.
more
Source: FAO-Forestry
Bangladesh has made
commendable progress in supply of safe water to its people.
However, gross disparity in coverage exists across the country.
The sector benefits from a vibrant private sector which accounts
for over four-fifth of the tubewells and two-thirds of the
sanitation coverage. Notwithstanding the achievement, the
government’s centralized, supply driven and subsidized approach
does not respond to community demand; undermines the private
sector, and puts service sustainability in doubt. Furthermore
the detection of arsenic pollution in ground water threatens the
gains achieved over the past years.
The challenge for Bangladesh is to transform the Government from
‘provider’ to ‘facilitator’ of services and make programs more
responsive to what the community needs and is willing to pay. In
the coming year, it is anticipated that the major public agency,
Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE), would revisit
its role in the sector and formulate a strategy for re-orienting
its role in the sector. WSP-SA (Bangladesh), along with other
external support agencies (ESAs) and stakeholders, will be
actively working to this end, and is expected to participate in
all World Bank WSS projects and be able to influence the design
of other ESA investment projects..
The Program in Bangladesh is uniquely placed to create the
necessary impetus to forward the sector reform agenda. The
Program chairs the Donors’ Coordination Group on WSS, the Sector
Stakeholders Consultative Group on WSS, the UN Coordination
Group on Arsenic and participates in the GOB-IDA-SDC Arsenic
Mitigation project.
The Bangladesh Team enjoys the confidence of the ESAs and has
played a leading role in the passage of the National WSS Sector
Policy in 1998. It employs multi-disciplinary staff and works
closely with World Bank Operation Teams, SDC, Danida, AusAid and
DFID. It has close working relationship with the Government
(ministries and agencies) and non-government organizations
(NGOs)..
Drawing on global and regional experience and skills, adapting
them to country situation, piloting the concepts in selected
areas and finally scaling-up the lessons and experience into
investment projects is the focus and strength of the Bangladesh
team. Similarly the lessons from Bangladesh would be documented
and disseminated through the regional and global learning
agenda..
The agenda for WSP-Bangladesh is to bring about procedural and
institutional changes to ensure access of urban and rural
population to sustainable water and sanitation services,
recognizing that water is an economic good and finite in
quantity. The services would be based on community demand and
willingness to pay with appropriate safety nets for the very
poor. This would require restructuring of service delivery
mechanism including community contracting, decentralization with
greater
emphasis on the
roles and responsibilities of the elected local government
institutions, involvement of stakeholders, suitable regulatory
framework to introduce competition, monitoring and control,
mobilization of local resources, alternate financing/credit and
promotion of private sector including strategic partnership and
management contracts.
The World Bank Group, Water Supply and Sanitation Division
http://www.wsp.org/english/sa/bangladesh.html
Water is essential
to all life.
It gives good
harvests, health, prosperity, and ecological abundance - only if
managed carefully and sustainable. But its improper use can also
bring poverty, diseases, environmental degradation, and human
conflict. The Asia-Pacific region is home to nearly 900 million
of the world's poorest -- yet its freshwater supply is among the
world's lowest. The poor are hardest hit by water-related
problems that threaten their survival. Today, one in three
Asians does not have access to a safe drinking water source
within 200 meters of home while one in two Asians does not have
adequate water and sanitation. ADB responds to these challenges
and considers water as one of the major development challenges
in its operations in the region.
Basic Water
Information
http://www.adb.org/
Source: The World's Water
Source:
http://www.worldwater.org/waterData.htm
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