Workshop on ‘Water Storage in South Asia’ held in Dhaka

Workshop on ‘Water Storage in South Asia’ held in Dhaka

DHAKA, June 12, 2024 (BSS) – A workshop on “Built Water Storage in South Asia” with the participation of water experts was held at a city hotel here.

Bangladesh Water Partnership (BWP), International Water Management Institute (IWMI) and Global Water Partnership jointly organized the meeting, a press release said.

Md. Rezaul Maksud Jahedi, director general of the Water Resources Planning Organization (WARPO), attended the workshop as chief guest with BWP President Moshiur Rahman in the chair.

Director General of Ministry of Haor and Wetlands Development of Bangladesh Md Akhtaruzzaman and Executive Director of Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) Malik Fida A Khan spoke as special guests.

BWP Secretary General Siddiqur Rahman delivered the opening speech at the workshop.

At the workshop, water experts in South Asia said that increasing population is driving rapidly increasing demand for water, although declining water storage remains largely unnoticed and is a major contributor to local and regional water crises, ultimately affecting millions of people and many ecosystems around the world to threaten. the region.

They said the natural variability in water availability, with often too much water in the monsoon and too little water in the dry season, is why water storage in landscapes is an essential part of water management.

Yet experts say decades of degradation of wetlands, watersheds and soils, sedimentation of reservoirs and over-extraction of groundwater have undermined both natural and built water resources in South Asia.

The workshop informed that in an effort to identify potential solutions, a joint project would be launched in January 2023. The project titled “Increasing Adaptive Capacity and Improving Water Security through Water Storage in South Asia,” funded by the US Department of State, aims to transform water storage planning and management across the region .

The project has enabled a series of meetings, informant interviews and field visits. This particular meeting was the fifth cohort meeting with the participation of water sector experts representing the Government of Bangladesh, IWMI, BWP and Global Water Partnership South Asia.

The meeting provided a platform for the IWMI researchers to disseminate key findings on a policy and institutional study on water storage in Bangladesh and a study on water storage mapping and analysis.

The national participants carefully evaluated the studies and provided comments to improve the studies.

The Built Water Storage South Asia project aims to strengthen national capacities for integrated water storage planning and management and enable relevant ministries and line agencies to make better use of data and approaches for understanding water storage gaps and the options to fill it.

These meetings are expected to facilitate cross-border and regional dialogue to address water storage shortages in the South Asian region, the release said.