In Search of Justice in Food-Energy-Water Nexus in the Great Bengal Delta

Bangladesh, located in the great Bengal Delta, is one of the highest groundwater-extracting countries. Large-scale irrigation to produce dry-season rice is the responsible factor behind groundwater abstraction. This made Bangladesh food self-sufficient but at a high price. The country lost significant terrestrial water storage. The Barind Tract Region, the agroecological-rich breadbasket of the country, located in the Northwestern semi-arid region has the highest depletion rate. Since the early 1990s, under the Green Revolution program, the Bangladesh government has been implementing a large-scale irrigation project called the Barind Multipurpose Development Authority (BMDA) to enhance dry season rice production. Groundwater extraction through thousands of deep and shallow tube wells under BMDA depleted the region’s groundwater tremendously. This water crisis brought disproportionate negative consequences on the natural resource-based Santal – the most ancient and second largest indigenous community in Bangladesh living in the region for centuries. Shamsudduha et al. (2022), in their seminal research highlighted on the front page of the Science Magazine, proposed a nature-based solution to the groundwater depletion problem. Quantifying the magnitude of freshwater captured by what they called The Bengal Water Machine (BWM) through the operation of shallow tube wells by ~16 million smallholder farmers, they argued that groundwater depletion resulting from intensive irrigation practices created conditions for recharge from monsoon rains which then replenishes it. Using environmental justice lens, this study presents a critique of this nature-based solution arguing that the benefits of the BWM are not equally distributed among different ethnic groups. The preliminary data analysis indicates that BWM is controlled by the local political elites who are predominantly mainstream Bengalis and indigenous communities are often deprived of groundwater to irrigate their rice fields. This groundwater deprivation generates food insecurity among the indigenous community. The study also focuses on the energy implications of the BWM as the tube wells are run by either diesel or electricity produced by fossil fuels contributing to the global warming process through atmospheric carbon emission. Indigenous communities are disproportionately affected by global warming.