Distributional and Social Impacts of Flood Control in Bangladesh

The losses and suffering of the rural poor of Bangladesh during floods are frequently in the attention of the world media. This is despite a considerable investment in flood protection over the past three decades. This paper reports on distributional and socio-economic impacts of selected flood control projects which were subject to multidisciplinary evaluations using both rapid appraisal and sample survey methods. Flood protection has disadvantaged some groups, notably fishermen and boatmen, but has generally had a limited impact on work opportunities, partly because some projects had little impact on agriculture. One consequence of differential impacts is new conflicts over the management of water inside projects. Where there were benefits these accrued mostly to larger landowners, but labourers and small farmers did also benefit. There is little evidence that flood protection has stabilized the economic condition of households. In four out of five projects studied in detail flood losses were higher in the 1988 flood inside the project compared with unprotected control areas. Embankment failure (owing to erosion and deliberate embankment cuts associated with conflicts) is a serious hazard, although embankments also act as refuges in peak floods.