Small-scale Water Resources Development Sector Project

Small-Scale Water Resources Development Sector Project

The objective of this project was to bring about a sustainable increase in agricultural production and incomes for smallholders in western Bangladesh, where more than half the population lives below the poverty line. To that end, the project worked to remove constraints such as inadequate flood protection, water-logging and limited irrigation.

By the end of the project 280 water management cooperative societies had been set up, and their members had been trained to manage small-scale water resources development schemes. In addition, 800 training courses had been conducted for almost 24,000 smallholders to enable them to use and maintain their water resources more efficiently

By learning to manage water resources, the fisheries sector alone saw fish production increase from 653 tonnes to 2,375 tonnes between 1996 and 2002.

Source: IFAD