Southwest Area Integrated Water Resources Planning and Management Project in Bangladesh

The Southwest Area Integrated Water Resources Planning and Management Project in Bangladesh became the first initiative to successfully incorporate beneficiary participation into all aspects of managing large-scale irrigation systems. This publication describes how applying community-driven development principles to managing the water resource can both expand livelihood opportunities available to beneficiaries at no additional cost to the project, and can bridge what historically has been a gap between project beneficiaries and project implementation agencies. As a result of directly involving project beneficiaries, the project achieved significant gains in the efficiency and sustainability of flood control, drainage, and irrigation infrastructure development initiatives.