The “water machine” of Bengal: a data-driven and policy-supported strategic use of aquifers for irrigation is needed to maximize their benefits

cg.contributor.affiliationInternational Water Management Instituteen
cg.contributor.donorSwiss Agency for Development and Cooperationen
cg.contributor.donorCGIAR Trust Funden
cg.contributor.initiativeLow-Emission Food Systems
cg.contributor.initiativeTransforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia
cg.coverage.countryBangladesh
cg.coverage.iso3166-alpha2BD
cg.coverage.regionSouthern Asia
cg.creator.identifierAditi Mukherji: 0000-0002-8061-4349
cg.howPublishedFormally Publisheden
cg.identifier.doihttps://doi.org/10.1126/science.ade0393en
cg.identifier.iwmilibraryH051429
cg.isijournalISI Journalen
cg.issn1095-9203en
cg.issue6612en
cg.journalScienceen
cg.reviewStatusPeer Reviewen
cg.subject.actionAreaSystems Transformation
cg.volume377en
dc.contributor.authorMukherji, Aditien
dc.date.accessioned2022-09-21T02:41:35Zen
dc.date.available2022-09-21T02:41:35Zen
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10568/121912
dc.titleThe “water machine” of Bengal: a data-driven and policy-supported strategic use of aquifers for irrigation is needed to maximize their benefitsen
dcterms.abstractFor decades, millions of farmers in Bangladesh have been capturing more water than even the world’s largest dams. They did so simply by irrigating intensively in the summer dry season using water from shallow wells. The ability to use groundwater to irrigate rice paddies during the dry seasons (January to May) helped Bangladesh become food self-sufficient by the 1990s, which was no small feat for one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Researchers proposed that lowering of the groundwater table as a result of intensive irrigation practices in the dry season created conditions for recharge from monsoon rains (June to September), which then replenishes the groundwater (1). On page 1315 of this issue, Shamsudduha et al. (2) present a quantitative analysis of this depletion-replenish process and show that this recharge has indeed been happening at a large scale, in a process they call the Bengal Water Machine (BWM).en
dcterms.accessRightsLimited Access
dcterms.bibliographicCitationMukherji, Aditi. 2022. The “water machine” of Bengal: a data-driven and policy-supported strategic use of aquifers for irrigation is needed to maximize their benefits. Science, 377(6612):1258-1259. [doi: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.ade0393]en
dcterms.extent1258-1259en
dcterms.issued2022-09-16
dcterms.languageen
dcterms.licenseCopyrighted; all rights reserved
dcterms.publisherAmerican Association for the Advancement of Scienceen
dcterms.subjectgroundwater irrigationen
dcterms.subjectwater useen
dcterms.subjectaquifersen
dcterms.subjectgroundwater rechargeen
dcterms.subjectgroundwater tableen
dcterms.subjectshallow wateren
dcterms.subjectirrigated farmingen
dcterms.subjectpumpsen
dcterms.subjectpoliciesen
dcterms.subjectfarmersen
dcterms.typeJournal Article

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