Integrated Water Resources Management: A Case Study for Barind Area, Bangladesh

The objective of this paper is to review the state of art on integrated water resources management (IWRM) approaches for sustainable irrigation at the basin scale under semi-arid and arid climatic conditions, with main emphasis in Barind area where Surface water irrigation has not been developed satisfactorily due to its limited availability and undulated topography. As IWRM is an interdisciplinary approach and used for different objectives, the main emphasis is given to IWRM approaches for sustainable irrigation and their environmental aspects. In general integrated approaches in Bangladesh are scarce. Groundwater is the main source of irrigation as well as for domestic and industrial purposes in Barind area. In recent years, lowering of groundwater table is observed in some areas of the region. Lowering of groundwater table during dry months creates problems in the operation of STWs and hand tubewells. In some places of Tanore Upazila, declining trend of groundwater level also observed. In the next 25 years, food demand of the country is expected to increase by 29% which will require increased cropping intensity. In absence of major surface water diversion, added pressure on groundwater will lead to further depletion of the sources. Rivers being recharged from groundwater causing a major natural loss of groundwater through Mahananda and the Ganges river. Reduction of surface water flows and lowering of groundwater table combined with climate change will aggravate the existing water scarcity problem. All these have compounded the sustainable management of water in this area. To overcome this complexity, an integrated water resources management (IWRM) is necessary. Upazila wise potential resource as well as usable resource, present and future demand for expanded irrigation coverage, number of DTW, surface water availability, impact of conserving surface water on kharies have been assessed for the study area which is very important for IWRM.