Supporting water management in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, WARPO (Water Resources Planning Organisation) is the national organisation responsible for water management planning. One of WARPO's main tasks is to prepare periodic updates of the National Water Management Plan (NWMP).

Updating of a NWMP with the intention to review and adapt national water management strategies is a major task, which involves intensive studies in coordination with national and international experts and institutes. For the preparation of the next round NWMP, a structured planning procedures had to be developed to analyze alternative national water management strategies.The aim of such a framework is to provide information for decision making. To make optimal use of experiences and avoid duplication, the presented outline accounts for the existing models and experiences.

A modular structure has been adapted to keep the flexibility to add new modules and change approaches. It is emphasized that the presented outline only depicts the framework in its broad set-up, tentatively identifying modules, their functions and boundary conditions for their developments. Each of the identified models needs detailed and separate analyses, taking into account and giving full credit to the available models and experiences in Bangladesh. Recently, WARPO prepared a design report on analytical framework for IWRM with inputs from CEGIS, BUET, Delft Hydraulics, and PCRaster Environmental Software.

PCRaster is chosen as platform for the integration of detailed hydraulic model results and water balance studies for regions in Bangladesh. PCRaster was mainly chosen because of the flexibility of the tools, the open structure towards integration of existing models and the capability of developing own models and modules. In February 2004 a first visit to identify potential use was made. During this visit, the skeleton of a water balance module for the North Central region was developed in PCRaster, as well as a structure for water allocation and water demand. This work should be finalised during a visit planned in June/July 2004.