![]() In their first year, the youth committees have already had an impact. The committee members are well aware of the gendered impacts of water logging in the region, and have laid the groundwork for documenting these impacts as input into water management decision-making. ![]() The aim is to engage a new generation in inclusive, gender-just water governance. In 2019, with support of Both ENDS, Uttaran set up two youth water committees, with nearly equal participation of young women and men. To address this, Uttaran is working to increase the involvement of young women and men in the area’s local water committees, which Uttaran helped to establish. One challenge is that community-based does not necessarily mean that all voices in ‘the community’ are heard: women and youth are often excluded from discussions and decision-making. It offers an opportunity to implement lessons-learned from the time when the polders were introduced, and to ensure that the inclusive governance of tidal rivers this time also translates into sustainable solutions that can adapt to sea level rise and climatic changes. It could be an example of what Both ENDS calls a ‘Negotiated Approach’ to inclusive water governance: the key to this transformative practice is that local actors actively develop, propose and negotiate policy and investment measures, based on their own knowledge, needs and realities. For Uttaran and Both ENDS, tidal river management done right means that the approach is both nature and community-based. TRM is featured in the Bangladesh Delta Plan. Along with many other proponents of this approach, Uttaran helped ensure that TRM was seen by policymakers as an effective solution to waterlogging in the region. By directing the sediment into the floodplains, they raised and enriched the low-lying land, whilst maintaining a healthy free flowing river. Over generations, people in the area learned to harness the tides by controlling the deposit of sediment. TRM is based on age-old community practices that have developed in their coexistence with the tidal ecosystem. For many years, Uttaran has advocated tidal river management (TRM) as the best approach for addressing the waterlogging problems in the region. Adopted in 2018, the plan focuses on six hydrological ‘hotspots’, one of which is the southwest coastal region. With support of the Dutch government and the Dutch water sector, the government of Bangladesh has developed the Bangladesh Delta Plan (BDP2100) to address these and other problems. TIDAL RIVER MANAGEMENT AS A NEGOTIATED APPROACH Some are water-logged for as much as eight months a year. The polders, which were built to protect the people from flooding, have now turned into ponds: during monsoon and cyclones, water is trapped inside them. Over the decades, sediment accumulated in the tidal waterways, raising their level above that of the polders, which have gradually sunk. But with all eyes on controlling the water, little thought was given to sediment, and the delicate dance between water, land and people was disrupted. Some fifty years ago, polders and dikes were built to protect the area from flooding. For many years, Uttaran has been a front-line advocate for community-based adaptation to climate change in Bangladesh’s southwest tidal river basins, which are extremely prone to sea level rise and cyclones. ![]() A long-term partner of Both ENDS, Uttaran supports local communities in addressing social, environmental, health, economic and cultural issues and concerns. It is a fitting name for a social and environmental organisation whose aim is gender, class and caste equality in Bangladesh. In Bangla, the word for transition is ‘uttaran’.
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