Water Logging in Keshabpur: A Focus to the Coping Strategies of the People

1. Water Logging in Keshabpur: A Focus to the Coping Strategies of the People by Neelopal Adri Royal Holloway, University of London

2. Study area Study Area: Keshabpur Thana in Jessore District Target Unions: Sagardari Trimohini Bidyanandakathi Sufolakathi Source: Keshabpur Thana Information Booklet, 2008 Total Population: 200,229 Most of the area is waterlogged for the last 10 years.

3. Research Objectives • Goals • To reduce water logging in Keshabpur Thana by taking effective policy decision. • Objectives • To investigate the coping practice of vulnerable group in the study area. • To find out the effectiveness of ongoing GO, NGO programs in response to water logging problem.

4. Coping Common Local Practice of Coping Recent Institutional Initiative of Coping NGO CBO General Gender specific GO Methodology Participatory Vulnerability Assessment (PVA) & Questionnaire Survey (sample size 270; 5% of total 5500 poor households)

5. Prioritization of problems in Keshabpur; FGD’08 Major Problem faced by people due to water logging; FGD, 2008 • Inundation agricultural land • Health • Reduced food security • Reduced social security of women • Sanitation • Drinking water

6. Major Findings: Common Local Practice of Coping: (1)Structural Modification (2)Agricultural Coping • Late varieties of Aman are sown • Seed beds are prepared by raising the ground • 34% respondents changed occupation due to water logging • (3) Livelihood Coping • Taking loans generally with high interest rate • Sell valuable household assets • Migration (17% families found) People increase plinth height of house and latrines

7. Major Findings: Gender specific coping Coping with water borne diseases • Use of water purification tablet • Fetch water from long distance • Boil water • Rainwater harvesting • Consult local health care centers • Using cheap ointments is common in case of skin disease

8. Major Findings: Gender Specific Coping: Sanitation • Increase ground level of toilet • Defecate in the field/ dry land at night • Defecate on the roof • defecate on a paper inside the house and then throw that to the open water • Women suffering from menstruation use unhygienic pieces of cloths inside • homes and wash them in dirty water Women cope by changing defecation places; questionnaire survey, 08

9. Major Findings: Recent Institutional Initiative of Coping Government Programs (2) Management of refugee camps (1) Reducing Livelihood Risk Project Only 15% respondents got the benefit of the RLRP. This project is limited to only two unions.

10. Major Findings: Recent Institutional Initiative of Coping NGO Programs Cooking is done on a higher platform (1) Ring based vegetable gardening (2) sustainable cooking technology Ring Based Vegetable Gardening big cement rings are filled up with suitable soils. These rings with soils are then used to plant trees and vegetables. This technology reduces the risk of water logging as vegetation is accepted to grow at a higher level than the ground.

11. Major Findings: Community based coping effort: Embankment construction • people constructed an embankment covering Trimohini and sagardari unions with polythene, plastic and bamboo and restricted water from overflowing the crop field. • people contributed money for buying polythene, bamboos etc. and those, who couldn’t, just became involved in the physical labor.

12. DPHE Local Health Centers School Micro Credit Organizations Relief giving Agency P Union Parishad Govt’s safety net program NGO Health Project Refugee Shelter Findings on effectiveness of GO, NGO projects in context of WL Only 29% respondents have institutional membership of local NGOs. Source: Questionnaire survey, 2008 Figure 5.1: People’s Access to Institution (Venn diagram drawn during FGD)

13. Findings on effectiveness of GO, NGO projects in context of WL Projects for improving water logging scenario: a) TRM b) Kabodak re excavation c) Government’s canal excavation d) Community based embankment construction TRM Projects for coping with waterlogged situation a) Reducing Livelihood Risk Project (RLRP) b) Ring based gardening c) Producing bamboo crafts d) Community based open water fish cultivation e) Water and Sanitation GO f) Water and sanitation NGO

14. Major Findings: • Effective programs: • Kabodak re excavation • Canal excavation • Community based embankment construction • Reducing livelihood risk project • Ring based vegetable gardening. • Constraints towards reducing vulnerability: • Climate Change ( and its effects people’s livelihood and health) • Poor coordination between stakeholders. • Little scope to participate in the development project • Limited institutional initiative of coping. • Lack of prioritization of problem area • lack of gender sensitive initiative

15. Policy recommendation: • Facilitating Drainage (2) Strengthening Research and Activities on Agriculture and health (3) Coordinated approach of all stakeholders (4) Strengthen institutional coping • (5) Emphasizing problem areas in government projects • (6) Creating enabling environment for women

16. Thank You All……