The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna delta has newly emerged ‘char’ islands resulting
from the deposition of sediment. These mighty rivers flow into the Bay of Bengal, which
is continuously changing. Satellite pictures show that each year about 52 km 2 of newly
formed land accretes, and about 32 km 2 erodes from the coasts. Hence, the result is a
net 20 km 2 /year deposition of sediments carried by the Padma (Ganges), the Meghna
and the Jamuna (Brahmaputra) from the Himalayas to the Bay of Bengal.
By law the newly accreted coastal land belongs to the Ministry of Land, Government of
Bangladesh and is entitled ‘khas’ land. Institutionally the new char lands are virgin
territory where service deliveries of government agencies are rarely present. Living
conditions on the chars are harsh, the land is completely inaccessible and can only be
reached by boat and on foot. The people living there are exposed to nature and the land is flooded on a regular basis. There is no safe drinking water, health services or
sanitation, no agricultural inputs, and no education. As a result, coastal chars are
reigned over by so-called ‘jotdars’ and ‘bahinis’/’mastans’ the local power holders who
provide temporary protection to poor char dwellers in return for illegal money.
The Government of Bangladesh intends to bring coastal chars under productive human
settlement with the goal of a better economic situation for the char dwellers. To reduce
the social, institutional and environmental vulnerability faced in char areas, the
Government initiated the Land Reclamation Project (LRP) which has been implemented
by the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) during 1979-91 with grant
support from the Government of the Netherlands.
The Char Development and Settlement Project (CDSP) was the successor of this
project; CDSP-I was formulated based on the experience of LRP and successfully
implemented during 1994-99. Since then, development of newly accreted chars through
polder development and providing secure land titles to poor landless char dwellers has
become the core development approach of CDSP.
CDSP became a multi-agency integrated project with BWDB as lead agency and the
participation of: Ministry of Land, Local Government Engineering Department,
Department of Agricultural Extension, Forest Department and Department of Public
Health Engineering. The first three phases of CDSP were implemented solely with grant
support from the Government of the Netherlands and the Government of Bangladesh. In the fourth phase of CDSP, the United Nations International Fund for Agriculture
Development (IFAD) came forward with credit support for the Government of
Bangladesh. In July 2019, a new phase as Bridging (Additional Financing) was initiated
and will be completed by June 2022. CDSP B (AF) has these characteristics:
The overall objective of CDSP is to reduce poverty and hunger for poor char dwellers
living on newly accreted coastal chars, which is being achieved via improved and more
secure livelihoods.
A first specific objective of the Project is to consolidate the achievements of the
earlier CDSP phases I-IV. The Project continues support for CDSP I, II, III, & IV areas
with operation and maintenance activities and land settlement. Security for people
and livelihoods has already been provided during these phases via climate resilient
infrastructure and by providing poor households with legal title to land.
A second specific objective of the Project is the preparation of future investments in
char development in the South Eastern delta.
