A definite trend toward increasing rainfall is expected to accompany climate change in Bangladesh, an ominous development in a country with such large areas of low elevation. Considering the possibility of greater variability in precipitation, water management is a key adaptation issue, with improved irrigation facilities to stabilize food grain production.
High priority is suggested for a national system of tradable water rights.
Since many of Bangladesh's rivers arise in the Himalayas of Nepal and India, regional cooperation in water management and water sharing is accorded front rank. With a one meter rise in sea level, one fifth of the nation's land and nearly 15 percent of the population would be threatened by inundation. The Sundarbans, one of the world's richest mangrove forests, would disappear, leading to a major loss in biodiversity, loss of a natural sink for greenhouse gases, and loss of biomass which is a major energy source in the country. These recommendations have already been approved and are under active consideration. In third place come water management during monsoons, strengthening coastal embankments, reducing methane emissions from rice fields and livestock, and more emphasis on future forestry development to replace the biomass that may be lost in the Sundarbans.