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Prospects and Problems of Fisheries Development Under the Small Scale Water Resources Development Projects

Howlader Md. Shahjahan
Chairman, Aquaculture Development Foundation, Dhaka,

Islam, Md. Nurul
Superintendent Engineer, Integrated Water Resources Management Unit, LGED, Dhaka,

Abstract/ Executive Summary:

The Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) under its Small Scale Water Resources Development Sector Project (SSWRDSP) carry out major small-scale water resources development activities to facilitate mainly the plant crop production. Certain SSWRDSP interventions entail some adverse impacts on the fisheries sector but also create good fisheries ecosystems for fish production. However, the inbuilt mitigation measures as well as increasing management support of the SSWRDSP has started yielding encouraging results in the sector. A recent survey showed that there has been 33% increase in the incremental fish production in 85 selected subprojects in 5 years. This paper describes the status as well the prospects and problems of the SSWRDSP fisheries program activities in light of the experiences of the completed (SSW-1), ongoing (SSW-2) and proposed (SSW-3) projects.

Keywords: Small- Scale- Water- Resources, Fisheries, Prospect, Problem, Impact- Mitigation

Location:

Start Date:

End Date:

Program Area: Socio-economic and Policy

Non-commodity: Performance

Objectives:

This study describes the status of the fisheries sector as well as the prospects and problems of fisheries development under the "Small Scale Water Resource Development Sector Project" (SSWRDSP) interventions based on the experiences of the completed and ongoing projects and pre-investment study conducted for the 3rd phase of SSWRDSP.

Methodology:

This study is based on the field data and experiences of the completed (SSW-1, 1996-2000) and ongoing (SSW-2, 2002-09) and upcoming (SSW-3-SAPROF) phases of the SSWRDSP. Relevant pre-project data were compiled from the Subproject Appraisal Reports while the monitoring and evaluation data were drawn from the Management Information Systems (MIS) and various project reports. Data related to the project operations were fetched from the field through project supported exercises while the Integrated Water Resources Management Unit (IWRMU) of the LGED collected the post-project data. SSWRDSP subprojects of fisheries importance were selected on the basis of set criteria and thus 106 subprojects of fisheries importance were identified from 280 SSW-1 subprojects, 147 from 171 SSW-2 subprojects. Pre- and pos-project data were compared to determine the effects of the SWRDSP interventions.

Source of Information: International Conference on Water & Flood Management (ICWFM-2007) 12 - 14 March 2007, BUET, Dhaka, Bangladesh

Article Link (Online Journal):

Funding Source:

Budget:

Total Budget (Tk.) :

Achievement/Findings:

A basic weakness of the SSWRDSP in respect of the fisheries sector is the practice of making horizontal expansion of the plant crop farming at the cost of reduction of the fisheries ecosystems. This situation can be improved by making (i) vertical development of the plant crop farming for which there is ample scope and (ii) increasing efforts for integrated farming of plant and fish crop which has already been initiated under the SSWRDSP program. For the SSW-3 project, it has been recommended that existing fisheries water bodies should be protected from reclamation and used for integrated rice-fish culture. SSW-1 and SSW-2 fisheries program were set to mitigate the adverse impacts of the SSWRDSP interventions and there were limited coverage to tap the fisheries potentiality to the fullest extent under those projects. If the recommended approach is pursued, there will be significant development of the fisheries sector under the SSWRDSP program. Given that the SSWRDSP interventions create (a) aquatic ecosystem suitable for planned production, (b) dependable institutional base (WMCA) to provide needed management and financial support (through the WMCA credit program), (c) needful arrangement for the required fisheries extension support from the Department of Fisheries (DOF) under the competent catalytic coverage of the LGED, that these arrangements have been proved to be instrumental not only in compensating the production loss occurred due to the project interventions but increasing the subproject fisheries production, and that the productivity may increase from 76 kg ha^-1 to 1500 kg ha^-1 as attained in other known efforts, there is real great prospect of fisheries development under the SSWRDSP of the LGED.

Knowledge Management: Report/Proceedings