Governance
of ‘long term delta planning’ in Bangladesh, Vietnam and the Netherlands
The
Deltas in Times of Climate Change Conference II, taking place in September
2014, Rotterdam, presented a suitable occasion to discuss both delta challenges
and interesting approaches to how ‘delta dynamics’ are being dealt with
worldwide. Delta dynamics include here both environmental (including climatic) and
socio-economic processes, and since relatively recent ‘long term delta
planning’ is taking shape as an approach addressing these in an integrated
manner. The long term delta planning projects taking shape in, amongst other
deltas, Bangladesh, Vietnam (Mekong) and the Netherlands, bring up highly
relevant (water) governance questions. During the conference’s ‘Bangladesh
Delta Session’, centered around the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 project, two
particular issues were discussed: first, how the BDP2100 works towards
practical implementation of the long term vision, and second, which lessons
learned in the field of institutional coordination and stakeholder
participation can be drawn from delta planning in Vietnam and the Netherlands. Representatives
from the three countries, all heavily involved in long term delta planning
projects in their respective deltas, presented the state of affairs of the
delta plan initiatives and shared their views.
Three long term delta planning cases selected
Noting
that in all three countries long term delta plans have been developed earlier,
in recent history, new initiatives materialized in the form of the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100,
the Mekong Delta Plan and the Dutch Delta Programme. These initiatives have picked up the challenge of grasping delta
developments in the broadest sense, and are trying to come up with both long
term delta visions and pathways towards sustainable futures.
The delta planning projects have now been on-going for
a number of years, and this ‘phasing’, expressed by the number of years of experiences
with long term delta planning, was an important reason to include the three
deltas in the discussion. Besides this, the selection was based on the inherent
dynamics in each of the deltas. Such dynamics, which include environmental processes (erosion,
sedimentation, water flows and flooding, and climate variability), and
socio-economic processes (urbanization, migration, rapid increase in economic
activity), are materializing at different speeds in the three deltas.
Bangladesh
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Vietnam (Mekong)
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The Netherlands
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‘Phasing’ or number of years of experience with long term delta planning
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3 years: 2012 (Feasibility study); 2013 – on-going (Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100)
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5 years: 2010 – 2013 (start up and Mekong Delta Plan), 2014 focus on implementation
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7 years: 2008 (Working together with Water); 2010 – 2014 (Delta Programme)
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Contrasting environmental ‘delta dynamics'
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Highly dynamic system, eg regular and extensive floods
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Moderately dynamic system, eg regular floods
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Relatively stable, eg rarely floods
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Apart from those differences the Asian delta plans have
in common that they are to a large extent inspired by the Dutch Delta Programme.
This is demonstrated by the resemblance in terms of project objective, activities
and supporting ‘tools’: the use of scenarios to outline and compare possible
measures, explicit attention to uncertainty in decision-making and adaptive
delta management as an overarching conceptual model. Some of these ideas are by
hindsight captured in the
framework of a ‘delta approach’ which was also put forward during the
conference. Several renowned Dutch individuals and organizations are involved in
the projects in Bangladesh and Vietnam.
Bangladesh:
moving from visionary plans to reality…
With the launch of each ‘long term delta plan’ project,
the question arises how to ultimately move from a visionary, attractively
illustrated plan on paper, to the reality of programme financing and
implementation on the ground. In the case of the Bangladesh Delta Plan, the
institutional anchorage of the project lies with the same governmental
institute that develops national investment plans: the Planning Commission formulates the
so-called Five Year Plans. In this way, a cross-cutting institute, as opposed to
a project being embedded in one particular ministry, has the ability to reach
out to the numerous involved institutions, stimulate inter-ministerial
collaboration, and to link long term vision development with (initially, five
year) investment plans. Discussions are currently on-going between BDP2100 and
the Planning Commission regarding the integration of BDP2100 activities in the
7th Five Year Plan (2016 – 2020), which will be delivered next year.
This exchange pursues that recommended no-regret measures will link to investment
agendas, and materialize on the ground in the form of concrete projects.
… and synchronizing with on-going initiatives
From another perspective, already existing programmes,
formulated by other actors, are being implemented while the long term vision is
being developed. This became particularly apparent in the reality of hydraulic interventions
in the southwest delta and ‘polder region’ of Bangladesh. The coastal zone is
characterized as a highly vulnerable region, due to low-lying land, the
occurrence of cyclones, floods and erosion, and a high population density. At
the same time it is home to the Sundarbans, the largest mangrove ecosystem in
the world in connection to India, acting as a ‘coastal green belt’ reducing the
impacts of cyclones. Several initiatives have targeted the southwest delta as a
region for continued investments in the water and agricultural production systems
at field level. Besides the BDP2100 (approaching the region as one of the
‘hotspot’ areas), the Dutch Embassy in Dhaka (the
Blue Gold polder development programme) and the World Bank (the
Coastal Embankment Improvement Project) have recently launched large scale
water management programmes. Different ideas
about polders, delta dynamics and long term delta planning all converge here,
and it remains to be seen how to synchronize these parallel initiatives.
Insights Vietnam and the Netherlands: institutional
coordination and stakeholder participation
During the session, questions were raised about who
ultimately ‘governs’ the delta plan – is this a collective task of a wider
project community, or should a Delta Commissioner be appointed to oversee all?
In the Netherlands, the position of a Delta Commissioner was designed as having
no particular ministerial affiliation. This was, however, no easy choice and
debated heavily from the start. In the case of the Mekong Delta Plan, a
regional steering committee was installed to guide the project. It was put
forward that there should be not only a Delta Commissioner that takes the
Mekong Delta Plan further, but also a Red River Delta Commissioner, to pull off
a simultaneous development in the Red River delta, where the Vietnamese central
government is located.
Involving the broader ‘delta societies’, beyond the
project consortium and partners, was brought forward as an important aspect of
long term delta planning. In case of the Mekong Delta Plan, it was raised that public
involvement came rather late in the process, and that more attention should go
to interaction with especially the businesses community, which is growing in
importance in shaping delta activities. This discussion came back in the
challenging question raised by a representative of a Bangladesh NGO about
‘which percentage of BDP2100 focuses on engineering, and which percentage on
social affairs’ – of course, a very difficult question to answer, but the
message was clear: emphasize the need of ownership of the plan with the people
well on time.
Concluding remarks
What became clear from the session is that there is a
huge scope for continued intra-delta comparison and exchange of experiences,
especially because long term delta planning centres around a number of similar
principles, approaches and ‘tools’. Although these could themselves be the
object of closer scrutiny, long term delta planners in the different countries
may be confronted by questions and dilemmas that have been dealt with earlier
by their colleagues. This also concerns some of the (water) governance themes
as discussed above. Being aware, however, that deltas differ enormously in
terms of its environmental and socio-economic dynamics, is important to avoid
that a blueprint approach to long term delta planning is being followed.
