A Delta Preparatory Team worked from July 2011 until January 2012 on a Delta Plan for Bangladesh. Wednesday 22nd May 2012 a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed in Dhaka between the Government of Bangladesh and the Government of the Netherlands.
Through this MoU the Government of Bangladesh has embarked on preparing a fifty to hundred years’ long “Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100” to deal with issues like climate change, water resources management, river dredging and construction of embankment in a coordinated manner.
Deltares was one of the key partners in the Delta Preparatory Team which was leaded by the Centre for the Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS) from Bangladesh. Alterra was lead partner of the project.
The signing of the MoU marks the end of the preparatory phase for the development of the Delta Plan. The preparatory phase was funded by the Dutch programme Partners for Water as part of the Water Mondiaal programme. Next steps will comprise the preparation of the Terms of References for the topic studies during the coming months.
It is expected that Deltares will remain an active key player in the development and implementation of the Delta Plan. This could be realized trhrough expert advice on the topic studies as well as project management.
After tendering several intensive topic studies will be conducted in a period of approximately 2 years to assess opportunities for sustainable management of the Bangladesh Delta. From 2014 onwards the actual Delta Plan shall be implemented. The Plan will consist of institutional, technical and financial arrangements involving various private sector parties, knowledge institutes, NGO’s and government organizations.
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Dredging Today Staff, May 29, 2012;