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REVIEW article

Front. Water
Sec. Water and Human Systems
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/frwa.2024.1405601

Navigating Water Discord: A review of water conflicts in the Common Resource Management System in Coastal Bangladesh

Provisionally accepted
  • 1 School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, United States
  • 2 School of Social Transformation, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Water disputes are a prevalent global concern because of the scarcity of freshwater supplies and intricate interplay between hydrology, environment, and society. Water disputes can arise due to a variety of factors, including interests of stakeholders, allocation of resources, process of decision-making, power dynamics, and governance system. If left unresolved, these confrontations have the potential to escalate into acts of violence. This review focuses on the evolution and dynamics of local-level water conflicts that received limited attention but has significant impact on Community-Based Natural Resource Management, with a deep-dive focus on coastal Bangladesh. We examined the history of water management and causes and impacts of water conflicts in coastal polders from macro to micro scale along with identifying the strategies and approaches to eliminate water conflicts at local-level. The findings emphasize the need for stakeholder engagement, collaborative approaches, and improved water management strategies to mitigate conflicts and promote sustainable water resource management. The findings emphasize on the redistribution and decentralization of power and interest-based resource management system, collaborative approach and stakeholder engagement, a mix method approach presence of Irrigation Management Transfer, participatory irrigation management, transformative analysis, and improved water management strategies to mitigate conflicts and promote sustainable water resource management.

    Keywords: water conflicts, Water Management, Local level water conflicts, community-based natural resource management, Coastal Bangladesh

    Received: 23 Mar 2024; Accepted: 06 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Hasan, Hossain and Nipa. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Md Hasibul Hasan, School of Human Evolution and Social Change, Arizona State University, Tempe, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.