A Critical Appraisal of the Sustainability of Bangladesh’s Water Governance from Nexus Perspectives

Demographic change, coupled with industrialization, urbanization, and economic activities, has vastly increased the demand for water in Bangladesh in different sectors. This has resulted in the over-exploitation of water resources, leading to cross-sectoral competition among water, energy, food, and the environment. Since water is a crucial element for the national developmental activities, a vital necessity for its citizens’ life and livelihood, and a lifeline for its ecosystem and biodiversity, water governance remains a top priority for the government, the sustainability of which largely depends on the integrated nexus perspective with multi-sectoral priorities. Based on a comprehensive literature review and expert interviews, this paper critically analyzes Bangladesh’s water governance sustainability from a nexus perspective. The findings suggest that the nexus perspective is partially integrated into the regulatory and policy framework as well as the institutional mechanism of Bangladesh’s water governance. To increase the sustainability of the system, it is vital to integrate the nexus perspective into every aspect of the country’s water governance and harmonize the water policies with other sectors, bearing in mind their interdependency, in order to abate cross-sectoral conflict and align each sector through defining shared objectives based on the exploitation of their complementarities.