Formulation of New Project Char Development and Settlement Project-IV (DPHE Part)
Chars in Bangladesh are a by-product of the hydro-morphological dynamics of its rivers. It is estimated that the total area covered by chars in Bangladesh was 1,722 square kilometers in 1993 (EGIS, 2000). In the process of erosion and accretion, the sandbars form landmass in adverted lands is commonly called char.
Living conditions on newly accreted chars are very poor. People build mounds and erect houses made of poles and straw. At this stage land may be barely above water and the char may have been planted with mangroves by the Forest Department to accelerate accretion. Water will inundate the char at high tides, but in the monsoon season this water is fresh a crop of paddy may be grown- at considerable risk of damage by storms, excessively high tides, or by potable drinking water (the shallow aquifer is saline, and no services such as roads, schools clinics and markets. These chars need support to provide basic services to the inhabitants.
The Netherlands started supporting char development during the land Reclamation Project, which commenced in 1978 and was followed in 1994 by the Char- Development and settlement project (CDSP). CDSP now completed its third phase focusing on Boyer char covering 6,600 ha with activities in Noakhali District. The project involves six GOB departments with the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) as the lead agency.
The experiences of CDSP-III has shown that development of water and sanitation quickly would generate some immediate and visible benefit it is a major priority for people (especially women) - and so gain local support for other project activities.
Experience in CDSP III shows there is a need for test tube wells to fist identify saline GW areas and so show if alternative water sources and needed where GW is saline. However some information should be available from DTWs that have already been installed in the CDSP IV area by Danida and other agencies. Even if fresh water is available, the capacity of this aquifer to supply household water is not known, and further information should be sought (although initial advice suggests that, providing extraction continues to be limited to hand pumps. this should not be a problem).
One alterative to GW is rainwater collection ponds with sand filters, but these are not yet operational in CDSP III and the experience of other programmers should be sought to collection from roof, but almost all private houses have grass/straw roofs, which are not suitable, not are the flat roofs of cyclone shelters and other public buildings.
Community ponds: if GW supplies are adequate for household use, there seems little justification for continuing to construct community ponds, apart from in cluster villages. The rational for such ponds is to supply households with non-potable water, leaving uses them in preference to DTW as a supply of non-potable water. However CDSP III is a DTW for all their water needs. In addition ponds cost about three or four times as If panda Rae used for non-potable water, for most of the year they are likely to be the individual household ponds that exist in virtually all homesteads.
Cyclone shelter water supply: it has been observed that in CDSP III DTW have been automatically included for all cyclone shelters. At two of the cyclone shelters visited by saline. It is pointless installing DTW in such places purely because they are part of an excluded from such packages of works, but that the water and sanitation component has where they are needed and where the aquifer is suitable.
Based on the experiences of CDSP-III and the report prepared by the project formulation team, the CDSP-IV project for water supply and sanitation has been prepared.
Chars in Bangladesh are a by-product of the hydro-morphological dynamics of its rivers. It is estimated that the total area covered by chars in Bangladesh was 1,722 square kilometers in 1993 (EGIS, 2000). In the process of erosion and accretion, the sandbars form landmass in adverted lands is commonly called char.
Living conditions on newly accreted chars are very poor. People build mounds and erect houses made of poles and straw. At this stage land may be barely above water and the char may have been planted with mangroves by the Forest Department to accelerate accretion. Water will inundate the char at high tides, but in the monsoon season this water is fresh a crop of paddy may be grown- at considerable risk of damage by storms, excessively high tides, or by potable drinking water (the shallow aquifer is saline, and no services such as roads, schools clinics and markets. These chars need support to provide basic services to the inhabitants.
The Netherlands started supporting char development during the land Reclamation Project, which commenced in 1978 and was followed in 1994 by the Char- Development and settlement project (CDSP). CDSP now completed its third phase focusing on Boyer char covering 6,600 ha with activities in Noakhali District. The project involves six GOB departments with the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) as the lead agency.
The experiences of CDSP-III has shown that development of water and sanitation quickly would generate some immediate and visible benefit it is a major priority for people (especially women) - and so gain local support for other project activities.
Experience in CDSP III shows there is a need for test tube wells to fist identify saline GW areas and so show if alternative water sources and needed where GW is saline. However some information should be available from DTWs that have already been installed in the CDSP IV area by Danida and other agencies. Even if fresh water is available, the capacity of this aquifer to supply household water is not known, and further information should be sought (although initial advice suggests that, providing extraction continues to be limited to hand pumps. this should not be a problem).
One alterative to GW is rainwater collection ponds with sand filters, but these are not yet operational in CDSP III and the experience of other programmers should be sought to collection from roof, but almost all private houses have grass/straw roofs, which are not suitable, not are the flat roofs of cyclone shelters and other public buildings.
Community ponds: if GW supplies are adequate for household use, there seems little justification for continuing to construct community ponds, apart from in cluster villages. The rational for such ponds is to supply households with non-potable water, leaving uses them in preference to DTW as a supply of non-potable water. However CDSP III is a DTW for all their water needs. In addition ponds cost about three or four times as If panda Rae used for non-potable water, for most of the year they are likely to be the individual household ponds that exist in virtually all homesteads.
Cyclone shelter water supply: it has been observed that in CDSP III DTW have been automatically included for all cyclone shelters. At two of the cyclone shelters visited by saline. It is pointless installing DTW in such places purely because they are part of an excluded from such packages of works, but that the water and sanitation component has where they are needed and where the aquifer is suitable.
Based on the experiences of CDSP-III and the report prepared by the project formulation team, the CDSP-IV project for water supply and sanitation has been prepared.
