Rural Development Academy, Bogra is a national level Training and Research Institute of Rural Development established in 1974 under the Ministry of Local Government, Rural Development and Co-operatives. The major objectives of the Academy are to (i) offer training to the personnel of different nation building departments and agencies involve in rural development works; (ii) conduct research and action research or pilot experiments in different aspects of rural development; and (iii) offer consultancy services to different national and international agencies as well as NGOs on various rural development issues.
To achieve the objectives, the Academy has been working on a wide range of rural development activities since 1974 with slightly more emphasis on exploring and managing water resources as a means of rural development. Availability of surface water during dry season becomes scarce both for irrigation and human consumption. So the ground water has become increasingly important source of irrigation, human drinking and other uses. Presently over 70% of irrigation and over 90% of potable water needs of the country are met from ground water. In such a backdrop ground water table goes below the suction level of STW and HTW, especially in the dry season due to misuse. This hampers supply of water for irrigation as well as drinking in many places of Bangladesh. Of late the quality of water has been traced to deteriorate with excessive arsenic contamination and iron concentration resulting in health hazard.
Rural Development Academy (RDA), Bogra has successfully carried out experiments in the field of water resources management and development, especially, in respect of optimum utilization of scarce water resources and has developed a model of multi-purpose use of DTW. The model includes: (i) partial buried pipe irrigation system; (ii) low and medium cost lined channel; (iii) compacted earthen channel; (iv) domestic water
Bibliography: http://www.rda.gov.bd. http://www.rdcd.gov.bd http://www.wikipedia.org