Floods Fail to Dampen Spirit of Bangladesh

["Irfan Khan" <khania2@super.net.pk>]

Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003 10:56:34 -0700 (PDT)
   From: BANGLA ICT <banglaict@yahoo.com>
Subject: Floods Fail to Dampen Spirit of Bangladesh


Source: 
http://www.centerdigitalgov.com/international/story.php?docid=53250

 
Floods Fail to Dampen Spirit of Bangladesh 
Partha Pratim Sarker, May 2003 

Partha Pratim Sarker is Editor of Bytes for All and the Asia 
correspondent for GTI.



Bangladesh, located in the Bay of Bengal and surrounded by India, is 
afflicted with too much water. The Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna 
rivers flow through the low-lying country, and cyclones bring storm 
surges that often submerge coastal areas. In 1987 and 1988, for 
example, severe flooding submerged more than half the country, and 
killed an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 people.  

But while many in the West are likely to identify Bangladesh as a 
country of natural disasters, what is often neglected is the sprit of 
the people who have lived with these calamities for centuries, and 
who are finding new methods of dealing with them.  


In 1986, 'The Surface Water Modeling Program'(SWMP) was launched by 
what is now knows as the Water Resource Planning Organization as an 
essential and integral part of the National Water Planning Process 
and was funded by UNDP to develop analytical predictive tools like 
mathematical modeling for planning and design analysis.  

The need for sophisticated analysis of water system was felt more 
rigorously after the disastrous 1987 and 1988 floods. Immediately 
after that, the Surface Water Modeling Center (SWMC) was established 
as a Technical Assistance (TA) project from DANIDA to support Flood 
Action Plan Studies. In 1992, the Center was transferred to the hands 
of River Research Institute (RRI) to take care of their mathematical 
modeling functions. But in December 1996, the government of 
Bangladesh founded SWMC Trust to act under the Trust Act and the 
center started to operate on a self-sustainable model.  

A devastating flood in 1998 was an important test case for the center 
to prove its utility and it supported the government through 
mathematical modeling of floods, GIS and Internet-based flood 
information dissemination that resulted in better preparedness for 
the country and minimum loss of lives and properties. From August, 
2002, the Board of Trustees officially renamed the Center as the 
Institute of Water Modeling (IWM) to reflect their real activities 
and also to capitalize on the fact that IWM works both on ground and 
surface water.  

In 1986, the organization provided one-dimensional mathematical 
modeling for the main rivers and of the Southeast region of the 
country to support the national water planning studies. Now the 
services are expanded from hydraulic and water resources management 
to environmental engineering and science. The Institute also 
developed the basic model required for flood elevation computation. 
Supports are also provided on river modeling to study river flow and 
floods, morphology, sediment transport, salinity, water quality, off-
take dynamics etc. The modeling system forms the basis also for the 
assessment of environmental impact, such as, discharge of pollutants, 
dumping of spoils or land reclamation, salinity intrusion, cooling 
water discharge, floods and storm surges.  


IWC is also engaged to support the Flood Forecasting Warning Center 
(FFWC) in the expansion and improvement of forecasting system and 
capacity building of the FFWC. Under the project the flood 
forecasting model was further extended to flood-prone areas. Other 
activities include improved flood mapping and more extensive 
dissemination of flood warning even through the Internet.  


Cyclone and Storm-Surge Protection 

For the cyclone and storm surge protection, IWM contributed to the 
cyclone shelter preparatory study of the Local Government Engineering 
Department (LGED). The Institute developed a detailed model of the 
entire coastal area down from the northern Bay of Bengal and produced 
the high-risk zone map that has assisted in deciding the shelter 
locations. The model can now be used in real-time surge forecasting 
as done for non-tidal flood forecasting by FFWC.  

IWM models are also widely applied in the coastal areas of Bangladesh 
to study cyclonic surge, sediment transport, salinity, water quality, 
bio-diversity, coastal and offshore hydraulics, marine environment 
and wave dynamics etc. Various projects such as 2nd Coastal 
Embankment Habilitation Project (CERP), Sundarban Biodiversity 
Conservation Project (SBBDP), Cyclone Shelter Project, etc. have been 
implemented by IWM Water Drainage, Irrigation and Agricultural System 
Development IWM provides support for water drainage, irrigation and 
agricultural systems by developing Decision Support System (DSS) for 
Command Area Development (CAD) projects. Using DSS the irrigation 
managers depending on the cropping pattern in the field, make 
decisions on water requirement in the field; optimize the water use 
for efficient water distribution etc. It can also be effectively 
utilized for real-time operation for hydraulic structures; e.g. 
regulators, turn outs, check/drop structures etc. as well as 
ascertaining pumping requirement for irrigation scheduling.  

The projects of this kind are DSS for CAD in Meghna Dhonagoda 
Irrigation Project (MDIP), Teesta Barrage Project, Khulna Jessore 
Drainage Rehabilitation Project Chandpur Irrigation Project, Pabna 
Irrigation and Rural Development Project, Ganges Kobodak irrigation 
Project, South Comilla and north Noakhali Drainage improvement 
Project, Fourth Dhaka Water Supply Project, Taral Pachuria irrigation 
Project, Sureswar Drainage, etc.  


Infrastructure Development 

IWM provides support on infrastructure development such as bridge, 
culvert, dam or embankments, etc. Models are applied to support the 
planning of dredging of river beds, hydraulic design of bridges and 
river training works, cooling water studies for power plants, coastal 
impact assessments from harbors, coastal protection works, 
sedimentation in harbors and navigation channels, flood forecasting 
and warning. 


IT Output Services 

IWM covers a wide range of IT services too. In fact the modeling 
services are done on computers and the output of modeling results are 
also translated through IT tools such as databases, DSS, Geographic 
Information Systems (GIS) etc. IWM developed a very comprehensive 
database covering almost the entire country. The database is updated 
regularly and is kept online. It contains both time series and 
spatial data sets. The spatial database contains various national 
coverage (national boundary, administrative units, rivers, roads, 
railways, water bodies, settlements, Digital Elevation Models and 
Digital Terrain Models, satellite imageries of various resolutions; 
detailed maps of various projects of irrigation, flood control and 
drainage; etc.  

In developing the models, IWM undertakes its own data campaign and 
has earned a good reputation for fast and cost-effective river 
surveys in large rivers using state-of-the-art techniques and 
equipment such as RTK-GPS (Real Time Kinematic-Global Positioning 
System), DGPS, digital echo-sounder, directional current meter and 
turbidity meter. Presently systematic campaigns are undertaken with 
the help of RTK-GPS and Total Stations to produce GIS based 
topographic maps.  


Why IWC is Different 

The uniqueness of the institution rests on its sustainability model. 
Unlike many other donor or government-funded technical institutions, 
IWM has made its way by providing high quality but very essential 
services on one hand and by making it self-reliant in the long run. 
As a highly technical institution this would mean hard work, 
commitment and skill. The source of its revenue is the professional 
fees of its staff resources offered for the cliental projects. The 
government of Bangladesh issued a circular of using services from IWM 
in the state-of-the art hydrographic survey and hydraulic 
mathematical modeling for hydrologic, hydraulic and morphologic 
studies in different project planning and implementation purposes. 
Needless to mention, different government organizations such as the 
Bangladesh Water Development Board, FFWC and RRI are its major 
clients, particularly due its nature of services. Recently, the 
Institute has prepared a hydraulic modeling study for a land 
reclamation project of Johor Bay, Malaysia, which brings a new hope 
of its involvement on international assignments.  

The Board of Trustees is the governing body of IWM and gives policy 
guidelines to the management. Fourteen trustees have been drawn from 
different ministries, departments and organizations of Bangladesh and 
abroad.  


Capacity Building: Training for the Future 

IWM invests in the future and one of its core programs is to run 
training programs to support the process of preparing future skilled 
people in the areas of hydraulic mathematical modeling, water 
resource management and engineering, etc. IWM usually runs three 
types of human resource development programs for three different 
target groups. First: to the clients as project input for technology 
transfer. Second: Independent training programs on hydraulic 
mathematical modeling to the professionals. Third: is for its own 
staff development.  

Through the first one the client is in a position to appreciate the 
state-of-the-art mathematical modeling technology and continues to 
maintain the product/services without external assistance. And the 
second type is dedicated toward awareness generation and 
dissemination of IWM knowledge to the water engineers and scientists 
to inform them about the various aspects of water resource management 
using mathematical modeling. The third type also indirectly 
contributes toward national HR development -- in a way that some of 
these trained people have joined government organizations where they 
have demonstrated better performance and some have opened their own 
organizations contributing in the national development.  

Moreover, IWM provides supervision and full logistic data and 
software and computer support for Masters and PhD dissertation works 
of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Delft IHE, 
AIT, Roorkee University and several other national and international 
institutes. There is also a fellowship program for Bangladeshi 
students doing Masters of Science programs and preparing 
dissertations on hydraulic mathematical modeling related topics in 
any technical institute in Bangladesh.