Research Project on "Water Security in Peri-Urban South Asia: Adapting to Climate Change and Urbanization" launched at the Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM) of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET) on 12 July 2010.
PROJECT STATEMENT
The process of rapid urbanization and its impact on peri-urban water security is increasingly becoming a matter of concern for Academicians, policy makers as well as civil society groups in South Asia. Urbanization process is being sustained mainly through acquisition of agricultural lands from the peripheral areas. As a consequence, this process is leading to acquisition of diverse water sources and iniquitous water uses by different users. The repercussions of the changing peri-urban landscape for land and water use will be further accentuated by climate change which is expected to alter water availability patterns in future. These trends together create patterns of vulnerability as far as water availability is concerned in terms of uncertainty in water supply, diminishing access, growing water conflicts and the erosion of social capital. The proposed project seeks to understand the implications of urbanization processes for water access and use of peri-urban residents in four locations across three South Asian countries in the overall context of climate change. This action research project located in selected sites in Bangladesh (Khulna), India (Gurgaon and Hyderabad) and Nepal (Kathmandu) will provide a deeper understanding of the changing access to water for peri-urban residents due to development activities and further implications of climate change, especially for the vulnerable social groups differentiated by class, caste and gender. The project will also throw light on how people respond or adapt to these changes. In doing so, it will contribute to the larger discourse on climate change, vulnerability and adaptation.
PARTICIPATING INSTITUTIONS
This Collaborative Action Research has been lunched through four research think-tank institutions of South Asia, South Asia Consortium for Interdisciplinary Water Resources Studies (SaciWATERS), Hyderabad, India; Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM), Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET), Dhaka, Bangladesh; Management Development Institute (MDI), Gurgaon, India and Nepal Engineering College (nec), Kathmandu, Nepal. Formally this three years project has been commenced on 12th July, 2010 and the project is funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), Canada.