Blue Gold is a collaboration program between the Government of the Netherlands and the Government of Bangladesh. The Blue Gold Program establishes and empowers community organizations to sustainably manage their water resources, and based on their priorities, delivers the services for which those community organizations have expressed a demand.
We have contributed to this program in 2017 through a study that we undertook on exploring ways, both technical and governance, to improve the role of roads for polder management and flood protection. During this study, MetaMera in collaboration with the Bangladesh Engineering and Technology (BUET) carried out a comprehensive assessment of the impact of embankment roads and internal polder roads on water management and drainage in Polders 26 and 43-2F. Impacts on local livelihoods have been quantified and practical solutions have been identified (see key outcomes here) and ranked jointly with key actors (BWDB, BG, LGED, UP, WMAs, WMGs). Here you can access a document that we produced with Recommended Good Practices to facilitate the systematic integration of road development with internal polder water management and improved flood resilience in the coastal areas of Bangladesh. One main recommendation was the use of gated culverts to control/store water for irrigation.
We were very happy to see that our recommendations were very well taken up by the Blue Gold Program in 2020 as many of our recommendations have been introduced on a big scale. One important example is the use of gated culverts for improved polder management and maximized returns from agriculture. You can find more information here.
Last modified: February 10, 2021