| Summary: | Key messages
Despite progressive water governance policies, there is a thriving practice of appropriation of common pool water resources by powerful elites in coastal Bangladesh, which adversely impacts small farmers and poor fishers for whom these water resources are vital to livelihood security.
Inequities in water access, use, and decision-making are shaped by policy incoherence, top-down governance approaches, a lack of coordination and capacities in key institutions, local socio-political hierarchies, and patriarchal cultures and practices locally.
Processes of elite capture of common pool water resources undo policy emphasis and commitment to participatory, community-based water management.
|
|---|