Abstract
Water crises are often crises of governance. To address interrelated issues of securing access to sustainable sources of safe water for the world’s populations, scholar and practitioners have suggested fostering improved modes of water governance that support the implementation of integrated water resource management (IWRM). Recently, implementation of an IWRM approach was announced as a target for achieving Goal 6 of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This study employs an analytical hierarchy process with a SWOT analysis to assess the current institutional and political context of water governance in Bangladesh and evaluate IWRM as a means to achieve the SDGs.
Highlights
Water is the lifeblood of the planet and water resources are inextricably linked to global climate change dynamics [1,2]
Only 25%–30% of irrigation water is used by crops and the rest is lost due to inefficient flood irrigation systems [46]
This study attempts to develop a conceptual space for expanding integrated water resource management (IWRM) in Bangladesh by analyzing the current institutional and political contexts of water governance in the country
Summary
Water is the lifeblood of the planet and water resources are inextricably linked to global climate change dynamics [1,2]. The uncertainties accompanying climate change include a potential redistribution of water resources across the globe [3]. This creates a critical problem for water resources management organizations and institutions that rely on socio-political scales to derive authority and legitimacy, and only have the capacity to affect change at these scales. Governance encompasses more than just government; it includes formal and informal institutions (laws, policies, regulations, and social norms) including markets, as well as organizations and groups of actors that create a direction for the use and allocation of resources (e.g., water) through political processes. Management is often considered the operationalization of governance processes and supporting transparent decision making and is manifest in direct actions on the ground [8,9].
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