Wetland Management in Southwest Region of Bangladesh:A Case Study on Beel Kendua in Fakirhat Upazila, Bagerhat

Abstract

Bangladesh is essentially an area of wetland. The wetlands of our country are rich in biodiversity and have great ecological, commercial and economic values. These wetlands are the key to the rural economy and to the environment of the country. About twelve million people are directly dependent on them and twenty million people are indirectly dependent on them. But these wetlands are being degraded rapidly due to overexploitation and lack of proper management of the wetland resources. 

The southwest coastal region is formed by alluvial soil carried out throw flows of the river Ganges. Most of the part of the region is characterized by coastal wetlands connected with many estuarine rivers of the Bay of Bengal. Beel Kendua is one of the most productive wetland areas in the eastern part of Khulna district and northern part of Bagerhat district. A series of development activities has been carried out over many years which cause greatest damage for Beel Kendua. These development projects were not accomplished in an integrated and proper way. So, water logging, salinity, silt deposition has been introduced in the Beel areas which caused severe impacts, destructive and productivity on the surrounding wetland community. Now the situation of Beel Kendua is worsening rapidly and declining its natural resource base. The present degraded situation call for an urgent sustainable management planning and practices.

The present study summarizes the existing management system of Beel Kendua practiced by different agencies. Here special attention has been given to the management activities initiated by the NGOs. An inventory of various problems related to management aspects has attached in this report. A detailed survey has been carried out to know the natural resource base of Beel Kendua through FGDs of the local people. Some case studies are also undertaken to portray the existing livelihood pattern of the rural community living surrounding to Beel Kendua. Some future measures are also provided with concluding remarks at the last of the report for sustainable management practices of Beel Kendua.  

1.1: Background:

Natural systems such as wetlands are often very dynamic, changing from season to season and year to year. Cause and effect are not always clear and may operate over long time periods and across great distances. Furthermore, management often involves many different stakeholders, with differing perceptions, values and interest. Wetlands throughout the world have been recognized as key natural resources for biological, hydrological and economic reasons. (www.wetland.org.za)

Wetland ecosystems yield a wide range of goods and services, many of which have a high economic value. Yet, paradoxically, they have long been perceived by decision-makers as having little value -there are seen to be few economic benefits associated with wetland conservation, and few economic costs attached to their degradation and loss Given this tendency to under-valuation, it is hardly surprising that wetlands are being rapidly modified, converted, over-exploited and degraded in the interests of other more’ productive’ land and resource management options which appear to yield much higher and more immediate profits. Dam construction, irrigation schemes, housing developments and industrial activities have all had devastating impacts on wetland integrity and status, and economic policies have often hastened these processes of wetland degradation and loss. At the same time conservation and management efforts have traditionally paid little attention to economic values -as result it has often been hard to justify or sustain wetlands in economic terms, or for them to compete with other, often destructive, investments and land uses (www.ugandawetland.org).

It is estimated that approximately 8,600,000 sq. km. (around 6.4% of the earth’s land surface), an area somewhat larger than Europe, are covered by wetlands (Laquer, 1999). Wetlands are found in every continent except Antarctica and in every climate, from the tropics to the tundra. However, it is calculated that since 1990, and with the alleged intention of recovering these lands for other uses, nearly half of the world’s wetlands have been destroyed, adding yet another threat to the many posed by human activity to the earth’s ecosystems.

The first and foremost distinction between many countries and Bangladesh is the nature of relationship that exists between its people and wetlands. Wetlands and Beels are vanishing or degrading due to population pressure, demand on the wetland products for distant markets including the sustenance of local population and infrastructures that prevent wetlands, particularly floodplains, from maintaining their ecological and hydrological functions (Haque, 1998). In addition, government policies and institutions that govern access, control and utilization of wetlands have weakened traditional customs and practice of wetland governance leading to poverty and stressed ecosystems.

The southwest coastal region is formed by the alluvial soil carried out through flow of the river Ganges and thus it is known as Ganges Delta. Most of the part of the region is tidal wetlands connected with many estuarine rivers of the Bay of Bengal. The tidal wetlands are very rich in biodiversity and highly biological productive in nature and these are the grazing and breeding ground of many aquatic species. (Tutu, 2004)

Beel Kendua in Fakirhat upazilla is a prominent wetland site in the southwest region of Bangladesh. Once upon a time it had a potential wetland environment with rich verities of flora, fauna and various aquatic species (Habib, 2004). Over many years of saline water intrusion into the Beel through the rivers and streams draining the area and caused severe impacts, both productive and destructive, on the wetland environment. Due to lack of proper management, awareness and sedimentation of the silts the wetlands are degraded day by day. Beside this various development activities were also made barriers for the proper management of Beel Kendua.

1.2: Statement of the problems

Wetlands are among the most productive ecosystems on Earth, yet, they are fast becoming one of the world's most threatened habitats as a result of over-exploitation, indiscriminate pollution, draining and unsustainable development. Gradual drying up of vast wetlands with infrastructure expansions in marshy lands exposes deltaic Bangladesh to immense economic and ecological losses posing a threat to sources of livelihood as well as culture (Laquer, 1999).

The rapid degradation of wetland environment causing the following negative impact (Nishat, 1993):

v  Water logging

v  Salinity intrusion

v  Silt deposition

v  Shrimp farming

v  Changing land use pattern

v  Low productivity

v  Over exploitation of resources

v  Degradation of wetland

v  Serious reduction of fish habitats, fish population and diversity

v  Degraded wetland environment most often causes serious health hazards for the surrounding communities.

Some specific issues related to the present degraded condition of Beel Kendua these are (Habib, 2004),

v  Polder and sluice gate construction

v  Improper deployment scheme

The present study takes an attempt to portray the existing condition of the wetland of Beel Kendua an area located at Fakirhat Thana, Bagerhat district in terms of management perspectives. The study tries to highlight the constraints related to management practices of Beel Kendua.  It also finds out the activities performing by some selective NGOs on that area and their problems and success for management activities.

1.3: Objectives:

For the study the following objectives have been selected:

R  To identify the existing wetland management situation of the study area.

R  To identify the problems related to land, infrastructure and resources management of the study area.

1.4 Rationale of the study:

In the recent history of landscape development, wetlands have been among the most affected ecosystems. In many cases, wetlands served as recipients of wastewater, in others they were drained and transformed into arable land. Indirect but serious degradation has also been caused by non-sustainable, destructive management of landscape as a whole. Amongst the most serious types of damage is the deterioration of the water cycle due to excessive drainage and destruction of natural vegetation cover, which is coupled with high mineralization rate and irreversible matter losses.

The study area Beel Kendua had sufficient depth at previous time but due to fast silt accumulation process the depth is reducing at a rapid rate. With the increasing number of population, the amount cultivable land is also reducing. The overall environment is degrading rapidly due to uncontrolled use of chemicals, pesticides, insecticides, and fertilizers. Beside this over fishing and over felling of trees also becoming a threat for total ecosystem. Water logging is also a dominant problem of the Beel area.  On the other hand due to saline water intrusion into Beel area from rivers and streams is the prime cause of land use change in this area which turns agricultural land in to shrimp cultivation area well known as Gher. Improper construction of infrastructures, irrigation projects, dam, embankments are also degrading the wetland ecosystem. In a word the ecosystem of Beel Kendua is at risk due to lack of conservation and proper management (Habib, 2004).

Recently NGOs are taking actions for sustainable management and conservation of wetland. In the study area some NGOs are working for wetland management and relevant issues. They are trying to involve the surrounding communities in to management actions because they are the ultimate gainer or looser for the whole thing.  It is not real that they are succeed at all stages of the programs, they have also some limitations.

1.5Literature review:

This chapter presents a review of literature on trip wetland management and different wetland studies on Bangladesh and general theoretical concept as well. An extensive literature survey of the documents on relevant researches and studies both in Bangladesh and overseas has been performed and some of them are abstracted in this chapter. A review of literature has revealed that only a limited number of studies have been accomplished on Bangladesh. Some ideas are taken from the review to complete the research. Here a short description of those research publications is given:

Abbasi, S (1997): Wetlands of India, (vol-1, 2 and 3)- in the 1^st volume the author discuss about threats for declining rare species due to over exploration from wetland of India. He also makes discussion on irrigation process, flora, fauna, water quality and ground water resources of wetland and impact of coastal poor on them.  In the 2^nd volume the author included meteorology, geology, minerals, and heavy metals of Lake Chilka a vulnerable wetland of India. He also suggest some precaution measures for conservation, preservation of wetland and fish marketing system and fish breeding. Again in the 3^rd volume the author assessed the environmental impact of coastal wetland. He identified some reasons for ground water pollution and also assessed the quality if drinking water of wetland. Sediment and heavy metal characteristics of wetland also discussed here.

Ali, M.Yousuf (1998): Wetland Resource Management-this publication is specially focused on the utilization, management and monitoring of aquatic biological resources of Chanda Beel, a wetland of south central region of Bangladesh. Here the writer gave a brief description of the aquatic, animal and plant resources of Chanda Beel. He also makes some guidelines for the conservation and management of Chanda Beel resources and their use at sustainable level.

Bishnu, B. Bhandari (2004): Community Action in Wetland Conservation- in this seminar paper the author focuses on various environmental problems related to wetland management and the solution of which requires the active and responsible involvement of the entire community. He also suggested collective action by the stakeholders (students, teachers, local leaders, parents and NGO representatives) for the active participation of the community anyhow related to wetland resources.

Cunningham et al (1999): Environmental Science- is a popular book, which discuss about various environmental issues on global concern at present time. The author stated here the importance of wetland as natural resources and wetland degrade with the development of human civilization. He also described various services provided by the wetland, which are most commonly known as irreplaceable ecological services.  The author also took attempt to show how wetland losses in all over the world due to human intervention for rapid growth of population. He also explained various policies, which were undertaken for wetland preservation and management for the future generation.

Diwan, A.P (1995): Environmental Ecology, (vol-13) - in this book the author explained freshwater environment and ecological process of various aquatic living being. The book includes brief discussion on wetland communities like Bog, Marsh, Swamp and various wetland plants and animals. He also assesses the ecological qualities of various materials found in wetland.

Khan, M.Salar et al (1994): Wetlands of Bangladesh-is the first book that gives a clear overview about the wetlands of our country. The author discussed about the classification, function, problems and prospects of wetland resources. He took an attempt to portrays the livelihood pattern of the communities depend on wetland. In this book the author also highlights major problems against wetland management and tries to find possible solution for better management as well.

Nishat, A (1993): Freshwater Wetlands in Bangladesh- in this book the author quoted a lot of issues and approaches for wetland management. In our country freshwater wetland environment are degraded due to development activities and lack of proper legislative control. Here the author make a constructive framework for wetland management and suggested to adopt policies, rules and regulations in the favor of wetland conservation and management. He also makes a statement about the participation of NGOs and local communities for community based wetland management.

Nishat, A (2002): Changing the Profession-in this report the author intended to explore the evolution process amongst the professionals to water policy and practices and to discuss about various issues related to water resources management. He gave a brief review of water resource management practices in previous time. After discussing water related strategic issues he expressed the importance of floodplain wetland, haor, baor, Beel, triplet, canal etc. At last the roles of different institutions for water resource management also discussed in this report.

Philip Gain (2002): Bangladesh Environment- is an important book, which analyses various important environmental issues such as wetland of Bangladesh to provide a context to understand the country and construct informed opinions. The author marked wetland as savior because of its important role on nature. He also described various wetlands on floodplain in different river basin of Bangladesh. He also identified wetland as nursing ground for rare aquatic species, crop yielding field and driver for river system. At last the author also suggests some structural solution for wetland management. 

Tatu, K et al (199): Remote Sensing for Wetland Monitoring and Waterfowl Habitat Management- in this book the author ecological characteristics of natural and man made wetlands. The book intended to give direction for conducting ecological research with the help of ecological data by using remote sensing for survey, mapping, modeling, and evolution and wetland conservation. He also developed a methodology to utilize satellite remote sensing technique for ecological monitoring and waterfowl habitat assessment of inland wetland.

Beside these a lot of published and unpublished reports, journals, dissertations, thesis, and books are reviewed for conceptualization and for the preparation of study framework that are included in the Bibliography as well.                                                                                                                                                                      

1.6 Scope:

The wetlands in southwest coastal region are increasingly being recognized as a habitat for a large variety of wildlife and as escape cover and a safe nesting site for the avifauna. The marsh vegetation associated with wetlands also forms important breeding areas for a wide variety of waterfowl and roosting places for a large number of resident and migratory birds. The vegetations contribute to the biological cycling and mobilization of chemical elements, which allows the ecosystem to directly support a wealth of fisheries. (Tutu, 2004)

In the study area improper construction activities causing severe water logging which is the major constraint against management of Beel Kendua. Severe erosion in the catchment areas are causing increased siltation and having major impacts on the key wetland areas. Wetland environment in this areas are being degraded primarily because of the recent developments, such as, shrimp culture and encroachment reflecting a lack of awareness of wetland functions and values. Recently NGOs are performing their activities to improve the degraded environment directly and indirectly with the help of local community. They are also interested how to find possible ways for wetland management.

So, the study is conducting to analyze the existing situation, constraints related to wetland management and analyzing the NGOs initiatives for the management of Beel Kendua

1.7 Limitations:

·         Actually Beel Kendua covers a wide range of areas that approximately 35.09 thousands acres. For Fakirhat has been selected as the study area that covers approximately 5.20 thousands acres which do not gives complete scenario of the Beel Area.

·         There is no complete map of Beel Kendua so that some important maps like land use map, water logging map, salinity map are not presented in this study.

·         It is a community level assessment and data are collected through participatory approach so some data might be wrong. Beside this for overall management situation data from different govt agencies are also needed which are not incorporated in the present study.

·         During data collection period some important data was impossible to collect from different NGOs due to official security which may contribute in this study.

Only three management issues (land, resources and infrastructure) are considered for this study.