## 9 International vs. Bangladesh Development in the Water Sector  
Flood plain management, irrigation, and the supply of drinking water are three important issues in the water sector of Bangladesh. Being a flood-prone country, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB), with the help of international aid agencies, has taken different initiatives for building flood control structures as well as devising policies and strategies for flood plain management [114; 115]. However, when compared to the policies and strategies related to flood control and flood plain management in the Netherlands, which is a similar delta country situated in northwest Europe, Bangladesh was found to be far behind [116]. For example, from 1960-2000 the Bangladesh government invested around USD 4 billion in building embankment and drainage channels, drainage structures, dikes, dams, barages, pump houses, and river closures in different parts of the country compared to USD 444 million that was spent in only one year (1998) for the flood protection in the Netherlands [117; 116]. Moreover, the Dutch Delta Program, which was devised in 2010, was developed based on an adaptive approach to tackle difficulties for flood management, which may occur due to climate change and other social and economic development [118]. Such a delta plan in Bangladesh was only devised recently by the Bangladesh Government, which is called the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100 (BDP 2100) [119]. In its short-term target (i.e., by 2030), the BDP 2100 plans to implement eighty projects at an estimated cost of USD 38 billion, and in the long term (i.e., beyond 2041), it plans to make Bangladesh a prosperous country by implementing six goals mentioned in the BDP 2100 [120]. Another vital water sector in Bangladesh is the drinking water sector. The development of this sector can be measured by indicators including the access to safe drinking water supply and the level of services. According to the WHO (2017), the level of services can be divided into five categories, i.e., \"safely managed\", \"basic\", \"limited\", \"unimproved\", and \"no service or surface water\" [13]. In 2020, on average 62% of the population had access to safely managed drinking water services in central and southern Asia, which is below the world average (74%), Europe and North America (96%), North Africa and Western Asia (79%), and Latin America (75%) but higher than sub-Saharan Africa (30%) [121]. In Bangladesh, 59% of the population had access to safely managed drinking water services in 2021. This access rate is higher than Nepal, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bhutan, and Tajikistan but lower than Kazakhstan, Iran, and Turkmenistan in the central and southern Asia region. Table 2 shows a comparison of the level of services for drinking water in Bangladesh with the rest of the world. In Bangladesh, 83% of the population is served by a non-piped source of improved water, while 15% is piped water [121]. In the metropolitan Dhaka city, piped water is supplied by the Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA). Some of the slum areas are also supplied with piped water by the DWASA [123]. In many areas of Dhaka city, the piped drinking water supply network is contaminated due to leakage and faulty