Towards interactive flood management in Dhaka, Bangladesh

Water governance in urban areas is inherently complex and challenging. During recent decades, water management has increasingly been focusing on integration of the different economic demands regarding water resources. Modern water governance takes the whole water system into account in its aim to optimise the different values of the water system, in close interaction with stakeholders. This paper applies the modern, interactive approach to the management of floods in a country considered to be one of the world’s most flood-prone and vulnerable: Bangladesh. Are the pillars of modern water governance practiced in its metropolitan capital Dhaka? The current institutional setting of flood management is analysed following the main pillars of the interactive water management framework: integration, river basin approach, sustainability and interaction. Based on the analysis, general recommendations are formulated to bring further innovation to water and flood management in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and other great deltas in the world.