In 1987 and 1988, Bangladesh was hit with catastrophic flooding. The first flood in 1987 affected more than 18 million people, with flooding the following year affecting significantly more. The capital of Dhaka was heavily flooded, airports were closed, and economic activity was paralyzed. Due to the sheer scale of the damage, the flooding of 1988 was called both a once-in-a-century flood and the worst flood in history. In the G7 Summit in Paris in 1989, flooding issues in Bangladesh were raised as part of discussions on environmental conservation, and the world took notice.

The Pabna Irrigation and Rural Development Project was a project drafted at the end of the 1960s that aimed to implement flood countermeasures. The project sought to mitigate flooding in the north of Bangladesh—around 125 km northwest of Dhaka—in low-lying areas surrounded by the Ganges, Yamuna, and Baral rivers, which were home to around 1.5 million people. Up until then, flooding in the rainy season and droughts in the dry season were a matter of course. As a result, much of the land was not being used, and crop yields were low. The project aimed to promote flood control in the rainy season and irrigation in the dry season, and at the same time boost agricultural productivity. It was a huge challenge.

Playing a key role in the project were waju, traditional Japanese embankments that surrounded old villages, and pumping stations. Embankments around the entire area would prevent flooding from overflowing rivers in the rainy season, and ensure efficient drainage of rainfall within the embankment. In the dry season, this system would enable water to be drawn from rivers for irrigation. Ultimately, it was to be a Bangladeshi-style waju system. The major difference between this system and Japanese waju was the water control pumps used for drainage and irrigation. The high-performance vertical pumps installed in the pumping stations could mitigate flooding and enable drainage and irrigation. The system fertilized farmland, prevented droughts, and greatly increased production efficiency.

Large rivers and heavy rain were previously seen as threats. This project transformed them into blessings, ensuring two harvests per year, facilitating vegetable production, and enabling the creation of fish farms. Through ODA and other economic cooperation programs, Kubota’s pumps were used in the creation of irrigation systems in other Southeast Asian countries from an early stage. From the 1990s onward, Kubota developed pumps for use in social infrastructure to transport water, offering them predominantly to countries in the Middle East. With ever-improving performance and value, the scope of Kubota’s products continued to increase.