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7th International Conference on Water and Flood Management

02 to 04 March, 2019 - CIRDAP International Conference Center (CICC), Bangladesh

Shifting Grounds team members will share findings at the International Conference on Water and Flood Management (ICWFM2019) in Dhaka, 2-4 March 2019. Shifting Grounds is organizing a session on “Transdisciplinary research in urbanizing deltas”, with contributions from Shifting Grounds and other projects in the Urbanizing Deltas of the World research programme. Shifting Grounds team leader Leon Hermans will chair the session, and professor Vishal Narain will share our team’s experiences, where we combined a community empowerment approach, called the Negotiated Approach, with scientific research into groundwater dynamics, livelihoods and institutional change in periurban areas. More information http://iwfm.buet.ac.bd/iwfm_conf/icwfm2019

Final Stakeholder Workshops

September 2018 in Kolkata(India) and Khulna(Bangladesh)

We have held two final stakeholder workshops in September 2018 in Kolkata and Khulna. Our international team of researchers and NGOs met with local experts and stakeholders in India and Bangladesh to present, discuss and reflect on the results of our year project on groundwater management in peri-urban areas. Funded under the first round of Urbanizing Deltas of the World programme, we are now entering our final stage. In these last large stakeholder workshops, researchers presented their findings on the sustainability of groundwater management in the peri-urban areas, specifically focusing on institutional dynamics, groundwater modelling, and socio-economic aspects. A unique aspect of the Shifting Grounds project has been to closely link scientific research and community empowerment through the “Negotiated Approach”, working with local NGOs and Both ENDS in the Netherlands. Community stakeholders therefore had an important voice and role in the initial scoping of the research. In the presence of international experts and different local government officials, the participating members of peri-urban village communities expressed their appreciation for the project team, which, as they learned, had not come with a predefined agenda, but proved to be genuinely interested in supporting the local stakeholders to address their groundwater management problems. The community in the peri-urban areas close to Kolkata valued the information and results they had received about their groundwater quality status for their domestic and drinking water sources. In Khulna, villagers appreciated the support for self-organization and participatory water management planning. They valued the game-based workshop developed in the project, through which they learned with which government officials they should engage with, to address specific groundwater related concerns. With this knowledge, dialogues with government agencies have already been initiated, and are set to continue.



Reports


Policy Engagement for Promoting Negotiated Approach in Water Management

23rd March 2017, Khulna, Bangladesh

On World Water Day, District Administration Khulna organized a meeting at District Administration Conference Hall where Higher Level Government authorities engaged in water resource management were present. Deputy Commissioner Md. Nazmul Ahsan, Shariful Islam, Executive Engineer, Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), Md. Zahid Parvez, Executive Engineer, Department of Public Health and Engineering (DPHE), Md. Kamal Uddin Ahmed, Deputy Managing Director, Khulna Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (KWASA) and around hundreds of participants like civil society organizations-NGOs were participated this meeting and provide their opinions on water resource management and impact of climate change. In this meeting ATM Zakir Hossain, Executive Director, JJS presented a key presentation on the water accessibility scenarios in rural and peri-urban khulna. He highlighted water related issues both in rural and peri-urban areas and impact of climate change. He also mentioned negotiated approach could be a solution for sustainable underground and surface water management both in rural and peri-urban areas. Everyone praised the negotiated approach for sustainable peri-urban water security issues. Md. Zahid Parvez, Executive Engineer, DPHE Khulna highlighted Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 6.1 and 6.2 and urging overall support for proper implementation of water and sanitation related SDG goals in Bangladesh. Kamal Uddin Ahmed, Deputy Managing Director, KWASA introduced their large scale ongoing project for ensuring safe drinking water at all the 31 Wards of Khulna City. He also added that ground water level is declining day by day that’s why Ward No 01 to 09 faces an acute crisis of safe drinking water. Chief Guest Md. Nazmul Ahsan, Deputy Commissioner, Khulna welcomed everyone for celebrating this World Water Day. He also added that we have problems for saline in water in Khulna Region. He said that awareness is important and infrastructural development (desalination plant, pond sand filter and safe drinking water options) is also essential for sustainable water management. Not only government should have the responsibility for infrastructural development but also NGOs should come forward. He also committed for taking immediate actions of canal re-excavation and illegal canal land grabbing. Newspaper Clip



Mango Tree Meeting Series


World Water Day 2015, The Netherlands under Shifting Grounds Project

20th March 2015, The Netherlands
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Following the inception meeting in Kolkata, a pre-scoping visit was conducted by Sharlene Gomes and Poulomi Banerjee with the help of Parthasarathi Banerjee from The Researcher, during the last two weeks of October. The purpose of this visit was mainly to become familiar with the overall groundwater situation in peri-urban Kolkata and meet with local stakeholders. Part of the visit was spent connecting with government agencies in Kolkata, whilethe remainder involved site visits to several panchayats in Sonarpur and Barrackpur II, including their Block Development Offices (BDOs).


Negotiated Approach Workshop

7th October 2015, Kolkata India  &  10th October 2015, Khulna Bangladesh
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Annual Project Meeting

11th & 12th October 2015, Khulna Bangladesh

Project Inception Workshop

16th October 2014, Hotel Lindsay, Kolkata, India
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