\u201cDuring Aman [monsoon] season, we usually do not need irrigation. But this year, unusually a heatwave is going on<\/a>. My paddy fields are drying up,\u201d Mia, who speaks publicly about the problems farmers experience as a result of the region\u2019s water system, told The Third Pole on 25 August 2022. Temperatures in this part of Bangladesh have risen over the past 40 years, while rainfall has fallen<\/a>, leading to drought \u2013 likely an impact of climate change.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnless I irrigated the land immediately, the Aman paddy would not fruit. I went to my motorwala <\/em>[shallow tubewell owner] and begged for water,\u201d he said. Mia offered to pay after the harvest, because he needed to use the money for his wife\u2019s treatment, but says the local motorwala<\/em> told him: \u201cNo water without advance payment.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI paid him the whole amount \u2013 otherwise, we would have starved in the coming months,\u201d he said. \u201cI can delay my wife\u2019s treatment, not irrigation.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There is no alternative source of irrigation to the STW in Hangsharaj.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAll of the farmers of my neighbourhood must turn to him for water every season. If he stops selling water, we cannot grow paddy and we will starve,\u201d said Mia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In July, the standard rate for using water from the STW was BDT 180 (nearly USD 2) per bigha (0.13 hectares) per hour. During the heatwave the price rose to BDT 500 (about USD 5), Mia said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe paddy field will need more irrigation in the coming weeks. I am worried how I will manage money,\u201d said Mia. As of late November 2022, he was still struggling to afford his wife\u2019s treatment, and instead was rubbing mustard oil on her chest to ease some of her suffering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Fulu Mia is one of millions of farmers facing an irrigation crisis in Bangladesh\u2019s 16 drought-prone<\/a> but fertile northwestern districts. These sit within the Barind Tract, a geographic region that extends into the neighbouring Indian state of West Bengal. The area produces nearly 40% of Bangladesh\u2019s rice, Wais Kabir, former executive chair of the country\u2019s most important agricultural research institution, the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC), told The Third Pole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Problems with irrigation date back to the 1970s, when the waters of the Ganga<\/a> and Teesta<\/a> rivers were diverted by India before they entered Bangladesh. This, together with the effects of drought, reduced the amount of water<\/a> in rivers, ponds and other bodies of surface water in the region. As this was happening, Bangladesh boosted motor-powered irrigation using groundwater. In the Barind Tract, a new moneyed and influential group has emerged, referred to as motorwalas<\/em> (owners of motors) or paniwalas<\/em> (owners of water), who install shallow tubewells (STWs) that pump out groundwater.<\/p>\n\n\n\n With little oversight from the government, these \u2018water lords\u2019 can charge aggressive prices for water. Government-appointed motor operators set prices in tandem with the water lords, which vary depending on demand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Matia Chowdhury, a former agriculture minister who is currently deputy leader of Parliament, told The Third Pole in November 2022 that she had raised the issue in Parliament in 2014, stating that the new water lords had replaced the British colonial-era landlords. \u201cThe landlords used to exploit the marginal farmers once in a year. But these water dealers exploit poor farmers round the year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the fertility of the land, agricultural output has historically been low<\/a> in Bangladesh. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne of the major causes of crop failure and famines is lack of irrigation facilities. The introduction of a modern irrigation system drastically changed Bangladesh\u2019s agricultural landscape. Irrigation is one of the factors that makes us a food-sufficient country from chronic food deficit,\u201d Hamidur Rahman, a former director-general of the Department of Agriculture Extension, told The Third Pole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the 1960s, motorised irrigation was introduced<\/a> by the government body currently known as the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation (BADC). In the late-1970s, diesel-fuelled shallow tubewells were brought in<\/a>, and in 1985 BADC engineers introduced a locally improvised deep tubewell<\/a> (DTW). As a result, rice production increased steadily<\/a>, from 118,000 metric tonnes in 1969 to 364,000 metric tonnes in 2018-19.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the situation in the 16 dry northwestern districts was different to the rest of the country. In 1992, the government created the Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) under the BADC to provide irrigation services to the farmers of the northwestern districts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The BMDA installed DTWs to provide irrigation using groundwater. But the BMDA could not provide irrigation services everywhere. With the permission of the local administration, the private sector was allowed to install STWs for irrigation. A BADC report (not available online) says that across Bangladesh, smaller-scale irrigation methods such as shallow tubewells covered over 72.5% of the land in the Boro rice (dry) season in 2020-21.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n Ravi Paal* lives in a village in Mohadevepur subdistrict, in the drought-prone northwestern district of Naogaon. The 25-year-old, who is a member of a repressed caste in a Hindu-dominated community, told The Third Pole that the local STW owner had ruined his crops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Paal owns 19 katha (about a tenth of a hectare) of paddy fields on high land and 17 katha of low-lying land. Showing his fields to The Third Pole, he said the low-lying land was waterlogged throughout the year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI told the paniwala<\/em> that I would not buy water for this land because irrigation is not necessary here. When I asked for water for the high land, they attached a condition: unless I bought water for the low-lying land, they would not give me water for the high land,\u201d he told The Third Pole in June last year. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey gave so much water in the low-lying paddy field that the yield dropped by 50%,\u201d said Paal. \u201cI would normally get 20 maund [about 750 kilograms] of paddy on this 17 katha land. But it came down to 10 maund [370 kilograms].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abid Hasnain*, a Muslim resident of same village as Paal, said he had the same experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey will force you to buy water for low-lying land if you ask for water for a high-land paddy field,\u201d the 55 year-old told The Third Pole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIf one motorwala<\/em> enhances the rate, others will immediately set the same rate,\u201d said Hasnain, adding that he has quarrelled with the water lords several times. The farmers of the village said that the motor owners, whether Hindu or Muslim, are united in controlling prices. Likewise regardless of religion, or their marginalised or indigenous status, farmers are overcharged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anil Paal* (no relation to Ravi), from the same area, expressed the helplessness of the farmers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is no rain this rainy season. We cannot cultivate this season due to paucity of water. We have been captives in the hands of the motorwalas<\/em>,\u201d Anil Paal told The Third Pole. \u201cThe water costs at least 20% of our total agricultural expenditure,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The motorwalas <\/em>insist on payment in advance. \u201cBut there are many insolvent farmers unable to make advance payments. What will they do?\u201d Anil Paal said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kishore*, a marginal farmer in another village in Naogaon, told The Third Pole that all the power is with the Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) operators and the STW owners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey set the charges of irrigation at their whims. We are simply captives, helpless,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we do not pay in advance, they would stop irrigation at a time when the paddy matures. In many cases, the farmers pay them by selling their cattle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Investing in an STW is lucrative. A machine costs around BDT 500,000 (USD 5,300), people involved in the business told The Third Pole. The government provides electricity to STW owners at a subsidised rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An agent who works for the STW owner for the village where Paal and Hasnain live told The Third Pole that one STW irrigates up to 100 bigha (14 hectares). He said farmers must pay BDT 1,500 per bigha during the rainy season, but rate rises to BDT 2,000 during the dry season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe have not unilaterally set the rate. We are charging according to the rates set by all other STW owners,\u201d he said, adding that \u201cthe business is good\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe farmers within our scheme have no alternative. People are begging for water,\u201d the agent said. \u201cWe have to pay the electricity bills and go for repairs and maintenance of the machines. Other than that, we have no expenditure because water comes from underground.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Selim Reza, an assistant engineer at the BMDA office in Mohadevpur subdistrict of Naogaon, told The Third Pole that under a rule instituted by the government in May 2019 there is supposed to be 250 metres between two STWs with a capacity of 0.5 cubic feet per second, or cusec. There is meant to be 500 metres between a DTW with a capacity of 2 cusec and an STW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBut this is hardly maintained. Every year we get up to 50 applications to install new STWs,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIn Mohadevpur, there is no further scope for approving installation of STWs. We see a saturation here. But some of the influential people [still] get approval,\u201d said Reza, who as part of his BMDA role worked as the member secretary of the local irrigation committee headed by the local administration chief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRecently we carried out an investigation and detected nine people have installed STWs in close proximity, in violation of the government rule. We are going to take action against them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Abdur Rashid, executive director of the Barind Multipurpose Development Authority, admitted that there have been violations in setting up STWs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe local administration head is the chief of the upzilla [subdistrict] irrigation committee that approves the application of setting up of STWs. The BMDA official is the member secretary of the irrigation committee. But we cannot always apply the law owing to pressure from the local influential people. We are forced to give approval when they put up pressure,\u201d he told The Third Pole on 19 January 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is not just privately run shallow tubewells that are a problem. The deep tubewells (DTWs) installed by the BMDA are operated by resident committees, which employ a supervisor to run the pumps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The operators charge farmers the same amount as the STW owners to irrigate their land, and famers are similarly at the mercy of those who own the resource. Marginalised groups and indigenous communities are particularly vulnerable to exploitation.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIf he stops selling water, we cannot grow paddy and we will starve<\/blockquote>Fulu Mia, farmer in northwest Bangladesh<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
![\"Map](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/20230119_Barind-Tracts-Bangladesh-1.svg\")
<\/div>![\"Paddy](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/20220801_PaddyFieldBarindBangladesh_KamranReza_TTP.jpg\")
<\/div>Farmers \u2018helpless\u2019 in private water system<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/20220801_MarginalFarmerBarindBangladesh_KamranReza_TTP.jpg\")
<\/div>They set the charges of irrigation at their whims. We are simply captives<\/blockquote>Kishore*, marginal farmer in Naogaon district<\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
The rush to become water lords<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"A](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/water-trader-Bogra-Bangladesh_Kamran-Reza-Chowdhury.png\")
<\/div>Committee-operated tubewells are also a problem<\/h2>\n\n\n\n