Ensuring food security has been one of the major national priorities of Bangladesh since its independence in 1971. Now, this national priority is facing new challenges from the possible impacts of climate change in addition to the already existing threats from rapid population growth, declining availability of cultivable land, and inadequate access to water in the dry season. In this backdrop, this paper has examined the nature and magnitude of these threats for the benchmark years of 2030 and 2050. It has been shown that the overall impact of climate change on the production of food grains in Bangladesh would probably be small in 2030. This is due to the strong positive impact of CO2 fertilization that would compensate for the negative impacts of higher temperature and sea level rise. In 2050, the negative impacts of climate change might become noticeable: production of rice and wheat might drop by 8% and 32%, respectively. However, rice would be less affected by climate change compared to wheat, which is more sensitive to a change in temperature. Based on the population projections and analysis of future agronomic innovations, this study further shows that the availability of cultivable land alone would not be a constraint for achieving food self-sufficiency, provided that the productivity of rice and wheat grows at a rate of 10% or more per decade. However, the situation would be more critical in terms of water availability. If the dry season water availability does not decline from the 1990 level of about 100 Bm3, there would be just enough water in 2030 for meeting both the agricultural and nonagricultural needs. In 2050, the demand for irrigation water to maintain food self-sufficiency would be about 40% to 50% of the dry season water availability. Meeting such a high agricultural water demand might cause significant negative impacts on the domestic and commercial water supply, fisheries, ecosystems, navigation, and salinity management.

This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the gender-water nexus in rural Bangladesh based on extensive field survey, focus group discussion, and interview with key informants, all carried out at seven study locations across Bangladesh. It presents the findings in four key areas: household water management, health and well-being, irrigation water management, and water related vulnerability. It has been observed that water for household use is collected by women and children, who face an array of physical, psychological and social problems. How water is collected depends on income/social class, location of water source, time of the day, and religious/cultural factors. The time spent for water collection imposes significant opportunity costs as loss of income and education opportunities. Tube well water is widely used for drinking, but pond and river water is extensively used for other purposes. This, along with the lack of sanitation, causes frequent outbreak of water-borne diseases. Improper storage of water, poorly maintained tube wells, and arsenic in shallow wells pose additional threats to health. Women in arsenic affected areas face excommunication if detected with arsenicosis; in coastal areas women are forced to fry collection under very unhealthy and unsafe conditions. These difficulties are exacerbated during natural disasters such as floods and droughts. Presently, there is very little participation of women in agricultural water management as 'right to water' is perceived as linked with 'right to land', over which women have little control. These hardships and deprivations are fundamentally caused by the lack of a number of factors: awareness, education, access to resources, empowerment, and institutional support. This article suggests a range of policy interventions to address these issues.

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Transboundary water problems continue to plague Bangladesh and India throughout the Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) region. Through examining the history of the water-related conflicts and analyzing the important issues that are of local or national significance—adverse location problem, waterlogging, information sharing, water sharing, flow augmentation, water quality management, and institutional bottlenecks—avenues of progress available to the parties involved are highlighted.

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