Frequently Asked Questions

Welcome to Blue Gold wiki's FAQ. We hope this helps you to have a better experience of the wiki.

General Questions

What is a wiki?

A wiki is a website or online resource to which multiple users have contributed. Some wikis - such as the online encyclopaedia, Wikipedia - are publicly accessible. Others are used by organizations to manage information in-house, enabling teams to easily share knowledge and work together more effectively. A wiki typically collates knowledge from various sources in a descriptive manner, with links to source documents, and in that respect is not unlike a report presented for easy accessibility in an on-line format.

What is the Blue Gold wiki?

This wiki presents lessons learnt over the 8+ years of Blue Gold program. The Blue Gold Program is a development project implemented by the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) over the eight+ year period from March 2013 to December 2021. Blue Gold has rehabilitated and improved the main water infrastructure in 22 coastal polders in south-west Bangladesh and built the capacity of Water Management Groups (WMGs) and Water Management Associations (WMAs) to be the drivers of economic development in the polders – through organisational management, adoption of modern crop technologies, the planning of an annual cropping pattern to maximise cropping intensities, and the collective purchase of inputs and sales of produce for highest profitability.

The wiki lessons learnt report (LLR) has been prepared to complement the BWDB and DAE project completion reports (PCRs), with the aim of recording lessons learnt for use in the design and implementation of future interventions in the coastal zone.  The aim of this report is to review and analyse approaches and methodologies used in the delivery of Blue Gold, how and why they evolved over the lifetime of Blue Gold with reasons for the adaptations and adjustments that were introduced and an explanation for the timing of the intervention.

Much of the lessons learnt report has been completed before the end of the project while resources within the technical assistance (TA) team were available. At the time of preparing a working version of the report (around May 2021), DAE’s involvement as a stakeholder partner had finished at end-December 2020, and BWDB’s involvement continued to end-December 2021. During the last six month period of Blue Gold from June to December 2021, a skeleton TA team concentrated on assisting with quality control and payment certification for construction contracts, with supervising fieldwork for a final socio-economic survey of WMGs and analysing and reporting on the results, and with amending the lessons learnt report with this information.

Although the wiki report is in English, many documents were prepared in Bangla for use in communicating with, and building the capacity of, Blue Gold communities and are available in the File Library.

Why use wiki to distribute information?

One of the main aims of the wiki report is to pass on the knowledge and experience gained during the 8+ years of the project to the planners and policy makers working towards the realisation of the Delta Plan, and to those responsible for the design and implementation of future projects in the coastal zone.  We hope that students, researchers and others concerned with development will also benefit from the experiences recorded here. In particular, the wiki provides digital versions of documents prepared by the project team, by other organisations through the Innovation Fund and the many valuable references (policy documents, legislation etc) that have provided direction to Blue Gold. The documents have been organised in categories (see “File Library”) to aid searches.

Can I obtain a printable version of the wiki?

A mirror version of the wiki has been developed as a digital document (.pdf) which is also available as a printable publication.

A print copy of the report has been distributed to all key stakeholders of Blue Gold by the end of the Blue Gold Program. In addition, a limited number of print copies of the report are available from early 2022 onwards on a first-come first-served basis via the Euroconsult Mott MacDonald office in Dhaka (with postage/delivery costs payable by the requestee).

Browsing the wiki

How is the wiki organised?

The wiki mainly follows a 'report' format, divided over eight (8) sections. Each section comprises a summary and a number of chapters. The layout of the sections and chapters is provided in the Table of Contents on the homepage. To see the contents of a specific chapter, a more detailed table of contents is also provided in the homepage.

How do I browse the pages?

A summary for each section provides an overview, and the table of contents helps navigation through the section.

Do I need to go back to the homepage every time I need to access the table of contents?

No. For better navigation experience, every page in a section incorporates a table of contents for the particular section and another table of contents for the entire wiki at the bottom of the page. Look for 'See more' at the bottom of the page to find it.

How do I find a page with particular topic?

Start with the table of contents on the homepage. If you don’t find the topic in this list, a search bar is provided in the upper right corner of the page: type the topic in the search bar and press enter.

Files and downloads

Where do I find files that have been referenced on a page?

In general, a hyperlink will be provided to the reference.

How can I see a list of the files?

A File Library provides all digital documents used in preparing the Blue Gold wiki, categorised by keywords, sections, language, and authors.

How do I search for a file?

The list of files available in Blue Gold wiki has a search functionality.

How do I export a particular page?

All major internet browsers such as Google Chrome, Apple Safari, Mozilla Firefox etc. already have the ability to export PDFs, and will likely be available from your browser's toolbar across the top of the screen. On Apple Safari, for instance, you need to select File >> Export as PDF in order to download the page you are currently on.

Copyright and permissions

General copyright information

The work presented in Blue Gold wiki has been funded by the Governments of the Netherlands and Bangladesh. The Blue Gold wiki has been prepared by the technical assistance team grant-funded by the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation of the Government of the Netherlands, represented locally by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands in Dhaka. The technical assistance team was led by Euroconsult Mott MacDonald.

Can I download and use, or redistribute the documents, images, charts, general files, graphs and maps etc. found on the Blue Gold wiki?

All materials used in preparing the Blue Gold wiki can be downloaded and redistributed, on condition that an acknowledgement is provided (such as ‘This information was obtained from a report on the Blue Gold Program prepared by a technical assistance team financed by the Netherlands Government.’) accompanied by a disclaimer (such as ‘The information is not necessarily endorsed by the Government of the Netherlands, or the implementing agencies of the Government of Bangladesh which are the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) and the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE)’.

Who should I contact for further information?

Bangladesh Water Development Board	dp3.bwdb@gmail.com
Department of Agricultural Extension	info@dae.gov.bd
Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands	DHA@minbuza.nl
Euroconsult Mott MacDonald	euroconsult@mottmac.com

How long will this wiki site be available?

The site will be available until end-December 2026.

Bangladesh Water Development Board, government agency which is responsible for surface water and groundwater management in Bangladesh, and lead implementing agency for the Blue Gold Program

Department of Agricultural Extension, a department of the Ministry of Agriculture responsible for disseminating scientific research and new knowledge on agricultural practices through communication and learning activities for farmers in agriculture, agricultural marketing, nutrition and business studies.

Water Management Group - The basic organizational unit in Blue Gold representing local stakeholders from a hydrological or social unit (para/village). Through Blue Gold, 511 WMGs have been formed and registered. The average WMG covers an area of around 230 ha has 365 households or a population of just over 1,500.

Water Management Group - The basic organizational unit in Blue Gold representing local stakeholders from a hydrological or social unit (para/village). Through Blue Gold, 511 WMGs have been formed and registered. The average WMG covers an area of around 230 ha has 365 households or a population of just over 1,500.

Water Management Association - In Blue Gold, the polder-level representative of WMGs, and signatory to an O&M Agreement with BWDB

Water Management Association - In Blue Gold, the polder-level representative of WMGs, and signatory to an O&M Agreement with BWDB

A defined set of temporary activities through which facilitators seek to effect change

Technical Assistance