In Bangladesh’s highly salinized southern coastline, hundreds of freshwater canals should have been a blessing for communities living on the frontline of the climate crisis. However, a large part of the canal networks has been converted and privatized, while the remaining canals are either leased or encroached upon. Only a small portion remains lease-free, though it is also gradually being encroached upon.
Bangladesh is equipped with at least half a dozen pieces of legislation, if not more, to combat the wholesale conversion of freshwater canals. Yet, in practice, so-called social elites have managed to seize some of the last remaining streams by flouting state laws. Communities identify these elites as political thugs and land grabbers.
Due to the encroachment by these elites, communities living in the polder zones of Bangladesh’s coastline are now facing a severe water crisis, threatening their farms and livelihoods. The coastal region of Bangladesh, known as the deltaic food basket, supports around 80 million people whose livelihoods depend heavily on freshwater sources like canals. Climate change and human interventions in this region have exacerbated water-related challenges. Freshwater canals, which serve as drainage outlets for large rivers, are lifelines for water access and availability, supporting crop cultivation, livestock farming, and fish production in southwestern Bangladesh.
Over the years, these canals have largely come under the control of local and external elites who hold long-term leases granting them exclusive rights to use the waterways, even though legislation technically prohibits leasing flowing streams of water.
From the 1960s through the 1990s, approximately 139 polders were constructed, enclosed by embankments spanning nearly 6,000 kilometers. These polders should have safeguarded vulnerable communities from the impacts of climate change. Instead, these communities are now at the mercy of canal grabbers, struggling to gain minimal access to water.
Polders, which are large water catchment areas protected by dikes and gates, were initially built to prevent flooding. Today, they are vital for agriculture in southern Bangladesh, a climate change hotspot that spans over 1.2 million hectares of coastal land.
Telltale example of elite capture
Kultoli and Dhankhali are two villages in the Munshiganj Union, located in Shyamnagar, Bangladesh's largest coastal subdistrict. The River Malonchi separates this union from the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest. Cyclones, heavy rainfall, and tidal waves strike almost every year, affecting the people and damaging their houses and crops. Poverty persists due to recurring natural disasters and low income growth.
A recent study conducted under a multi-country international initiative reveals the shocking reality of how elites have captured freshwater canals, making water inaccessible to the communities of Kultoli and Dhankhali.
A main canal flows through the two villages and branches into five smaller canals. However, access to most parts of these canals has been restricted for the residents of both villages.
According to a local resident, Amal Mondal, two influential outsiders have taken control of the canals under long-term leases and subleased them to a few local elites, who deny the communities any access.
The study, conducted as part of the CGIAR Research Initiative on Securing the Food Systems of Asian Mega-Deltas, highlights how legislation is subverted. Flowing canals are leased out, often to non-local influential individuals, and in some cases, the canals are converted to land or used for other purposes, depriving the entire community of water access.
“Both men and women from our community participated in digging the canal, hoping for a better future. However, it was later leased to an individual with political connections to the local government,” said Amin Sheikh, a local resident. He shared this with the research team comprising Mou Rani Sarker of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), M. Mokhlesur Rahman of the Center for Natural Resource Studies (CNRS), and Fouzia Mannan of East West University.
The authors note that the canals in these two villages have been reclassified as non-flowing water resources and, over the past three decades, officially leased to a few influential individuals. These leases, primarily for aquaculture activities such as fish, shrimp, and crab farming, have excluded the communities from their traditional rights to use the canals.
They further observe that most of these canals in the region are now blocked off, segmented, or subleased as sites for shrimp farming, fishponds, cropland, or even filled to create new plots for housing—activities that are illegal under the official leasing conditions.
The researchers find that 80 percent of the villagers, who are smallholders and marginal farmers, often lack access to these common-pool resources for irrigation, food production, fishing, and livestock-related livelihoods.
From a gender perspective, the researchers highlight the complexity and far-reaching implications of water issues in Bangladesh, noting that women bear the brunt of escalating water insecurity.
The study reveals that nearly two-thirds of women face acute agricultural water insecurity, which increases domestic workloads, economic losses, food scarcity, physical strain, and emotional stress.
However, the study also notes that in a few instances where canals are excavated and made accessible to all, the entire community benefits. This leads to improved irrigation access and increased crop output across multiple seasons in a year.
A threat to food security
While presenting a paper at a recent workshop at the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), the executive director of the Center for Natural Resource Studies (CNRS), M Mokhlesur Rahman, stated that unprotected canals represent a lost opportunity for rainwater storage to support agri-food systems.
He explained that farmers in the region rely on single-crop cultivation (monsoon rice), but they could easily grow winter crops if the community had access to freshwater canals. Instead, canal encroachment has led to a grim scenario of food insecurity, migration, and poverty.
The CNRS executive director noted that only a few wealthy individuals benefit from aquaculture, depriving large numbers of poor people of their traditional rights to fishing and irrigation water. He also expressed concern that aquaculture, focused on a few carp species, could negatively affect local fish varieties in canals and open waters.
M Mokhlesur Rahman further highlighted that social conflicts between leaseholders and local farmers are commonplace, while women in the community face difficulties using canal water for household chores, farming, and small-scale fishing.
Plethora of policies, apathy towards application
Senior officials representing both government and non-government agencies at the workshop stated that the canals in the southwestern polder zone should never have been handed over to lessees in the first place. This could have been avoided if the administrations responsible for safeguarding the ecosystem had fulfilled their duties as mandated by law.
For example, the 2018 Environment Policy requires the government to involve local users and stakeholders in managing water resources and conserving biodiversity. However, this is often disregarded in favor of canal grabbers.
Bangladesh's 2018 Agriculture Policy provides clear directives to enhance irrigation efficiency in areas where water shortages affect farming systems. Yet, elite lessees and encroachers continue to exploit freshwater irrigation sources.
The 1999 Water Policy calls for measures to remove encroachments on watercourses that obstruct water flow and create ecological hazards. It also advocates for facilitating upland river flows to protect the coastal ecosystem from salinity intrusion. However, the reality on the ground is quite the opposite.
The 1998 Fisheries Policy observed that short-term leasing arrangements discourage conservation efforts by leaseholders, resulting in the inadequate protection of critical habitats such as spawning grounds and marine protected areas.
Despite the country's 2014 Shrimp Policy mandating land zoning for shrimp farming and agriculture in the coastal belt, the government has failed to comply over the past decade.
Providing an example, M Mokhlesur Rahman highlighted how an excavated canal, freed from elite control, recently enabled the community to grow multiple crops in more than one season. He strongly recommended freeing all canals from leasing and encroachment while securing financing for canal rehabilitation.
A case study conducted in Munshiganj Union, Satkhira, revealed that nearly 43% of households experience agricultural water insecurity, with freshwater scarcity severely disrupting agri-food systems, particularly during the dry season. However, community-led rehabilitation of two canal sections in the area has restored water access, facilitating rice cultivation on 7,000 bighas of land and demonstrating the potential of inclusive approaches.
M Mokhlesur Rahman emphasized that community leadership should take precedence in local water resource management, rather than leaving it in the hands of outside lessees and grabbers.
