NWO-UDW Proposal Development Workshop: Living Polders in Bangladesh
Blog Post
Blog entry by Ariane Laporte-Bisquit - Junior Researcher
Background on the Living Polders Research Project
Bangladesh is home to one of the biggest and most densely populated deltas of the world, formed by sediments carried by the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna River system. The construction of polders in the 1960s in order to decrease flood risk and salinity intrusion, resulted in high agricultural productivity on the coastal lands for 10-15 years. However since the 1980s, the polders have become a source of major environmental concern due to salinisation, land subsidence, and water logging problems caused by sedimentation in the channel beds. Within this context, the Living Polders research project aims to develop sustainable solutions to these increasing pressures through integrated polder management, based on building with nature principles, working with rather than against the forces of nature (e.g. temporarily opening up polders to benefit from natural sediment accretion to elevate polder surfaces, and deposit fertile nutrients), and taking into account the natural and social dynamics in the area.