—Dr Shahrina Akhtar—

Bangladesh, the world’s largest delta, owes its identity, fertile soils, and agricultural vitality to the complex network of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna rivers. For centuries, this intricate water system has supported livelihoods, nourished ecosystems, and anchored the nation’s food security. Yet today, the threads of this network are coming apart. Groundwater levels are dropping, salinity is creeping into coastal lands, rainfall is increasingly unpredictable, and soil quality is declining. These changes are no longer distant warnings; they now shape the everyday realities of farmers, urban dwellers, and rural families alike. Fields that once flourished are showing stress, and declining water availability threatens both crop production and community resilience.

At the same time, diets across the country remain heavily skewed. Rice dominates meals, while fruits, vegetables, pulses, and protein-rich foods remain beyond reach for many, especially low-income households. Limited dietary diversity, coupled with rising consumption of processed foods in urban areas, undermines nutrition, health, and human development.

Confronting these twin challenges demands more than incremental fixes. Bangladesh must adopt bold, integrated strategies that restore ecological balance, enhance agricultural productivity, and ensure equitable access to nutritious food. The nation faces a pivotal choice: continue managing scarcity reactively or pursue systemic transformation that secures a resilient future for both people and the delta.

Growing Strain on the Delta: Bangladesh’s success in closing the food gap over recent decades is remarkable. Irrigation-led intensification and high-yielding varieties shifted the country from chronic deficit to reliable surplus, especially in staples like rice. But this achievement masks a growing ecological debt. Agriculture expanded by tapping deep groundwater, relying heavily on fertilisers, and narrowing crop diversity. Fields once fertile now show stress: aquifers drop rapidly, coastal lands turn saline, soils degrade, and water quality deteriorates. What once ensured food security is now a system under pressure, pushed beyond safe operating bounds by climate change and resource overuse.

In the southwest, salinity intrusion already affects millions of hectares, reducing yields and forcing farmers to abandon traditional rice in favour of brackish livelihoods such as shrimp cultivation, often at the cost of agriculture and ecosystems. By 2050, salinity levels in key coastal districts are projected to rise further, potentially displacing millions and shrinking viable farmland.

Meanwhile, over-extraction of groundwater, especially for irrigation, drives water tables deeper, making safe drinking water scarcer. In parts of Dhaka and the northwest, water levels have plunged by tens of metres over decades, requiring households and farmers to drill ever deeper. This isn’t just a rural issue: water scarcity affects poultry producers, fishers, urban families, and small enterprises, threatening nutrition and incomes across the food system.

Beyond Calories: As ecological risks mount, a parallel challenge looms for diets and nutrition. Bangladesh’s diet remains heavily rice-centric, providing calories but limited diversity. Dark green leafy vegetables, fruits, legumes, dairy, and safe protein are often unaffordable or inaccessible for low-income families, particularly in urban slums and coastal villages. At the same time, urban lifestyles are introducing more processed and unhealthy foods, driving obesity and non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension.

Transforming food systems means more than producing rice. It requires ensuring access to nutritious diets that are affordable, culturally acceptable, and environmentally sustainable, while reducing waste and improving food safety from farm to fork. Policies that encourage diversification and nutrition awareness must complement improvements in production systems.

Integrated Action: Recognising these intertwined challenges, the Government of Bangladesh adopted the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 (BDP2100), a long-term, integrated strategy aiming for water security, food security, climate resilience, and sustainable development. The vision is a safe, climate-resilient delta where water, land, ecosystems, and human systems are managed together.

BDP2100 strategies cut across water supply, sanitation, flood and drought management, agriculture, ecosystem conservation, sustainable land use, and infrastructure for water storage and navigation. Adaptive management is central, recognising that fixed solutions cannot address a dynamic climate and hydrological reality. The plan also emphasises institutional coordination, local engagement, and equitable governance to ensure beneficiaries, especially vulnerable communities, are part of decision-making.

Integrating Water and Agriculture: Transforming food systems begins with rethinking water’s role. Water is not just an irrigation input but a shared resource sustaining ecosystems, livelihoods, and human settlements. Systemic integration linking soils, crops, groundwater, surface water, and ecological functions is essential for resilience.

Smarter water and soil management, alternate wetting and drying, precision irrigation, soil moisture mapping, and crop diversification optimise water use while boosting productivity. Introducing pulses, oilseeds, and salt-tolerant crops in saline-prone areas provides both nutrition and income, reducing dependence on rice and strengthening local resilience.

Nature-based solutions further enhance adaptive capacity. Rainwater harvesting, wetland restoration, and groundwater recharge buffer seasonal extremes. Ecosystem-based approaches such as mangrove reforestation, river restoration, and floodplain reconnection maintain ecological functions, limit salinity intrusion, and support fisheries, contributing directly to food security and nutrition.

Empowering Communities: Local water governance through Water User Associations and participatory management ensures decisions reflect community priorities. Integrating traditional knowledge with modern practices fosters ownership and sustainable water management. Beyond production, transforming food systems requires dietary diversification, value chain improvements, and inclusive enterprise development. Supporting women farmers, smallholders, and cooperatives strengthens local markets, reduces losses, and improves access to nutritious foods. Bangladesh’s National Pathway to the UN Food Systems Summit aligns these efforts with global commitments on healthy diets, equity, and climate-smart agriculture.

Inclusion and Equity: Transformation cannot be top-down. Those most affected – women farmers, coastal communities, landless labourers, and marginalised groups – must be empowered. Women’s participation in water governance committees, access to credit and land rights, and targeted nutrition education can shift food systems toward equity. Likewise, extension services that reach smallholders with climate-smart practices and affordable credit help level the playing field, improving resilience for both people and ecosystems.

A Delta Worth Saving: Bangladesh stands at a crossroads. The old equation – more irrigation, more fertilisers, expanding cropland – is no longer sustainable. Short-term gains in food production risk long-term resilience and ignore ecological limits.

The Delta Plan 2100 offers a roadmap for integration, where water and food systems are not separate domains but part of a shared socio-ecological future. Realising this vision requires courage: rethinking entrenched practices, expanding diets beyond rice, centring communities in decision-making, and investing in ecosystem health as the foundation of food systems.

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The writer is a Research Coordinator/Assistant Professor at the Institute of Development Studies and Sustainability (IDSS), United International University