River management in Bangladesh: a people's initiative to solve water-logging

This article looks at the phenomenon of water-logging, its causes and effects, of the government projects in the south-west coastal region of Bangladesh, and the peopleÆs initiatives to solve the problems. The article begins by looking at the historical background of water-logging and river management, the effects of water-logging, and then peopleÆs initiatives to address the issue. The author describes practical examples and lessons learnt from some of these approaches, such as Tidal River Management (TRM). The article concludes by looking at ways forward, and suggests that there is still a long way to go in advocacy for and development of a sustainable drainage plan of the Khulna-Jessore Drainage Rehabilitation Project (KJDRP). The two overall conclusions are that the widespread application of the objective, technological knowledge of æthe WestÆ has not been fruitful in all cases and that development processes must ensure the involvement of the people.