Climate change, out-migration and agrarian stress: the potential for upscaling small-scale water storage in Nepal

Abstract

Prabin Ghimire (former consultant with IWMI-Nepal), Pratibha Sapkota (former consultant with IWMI-Nepal) and Ramesh Tamang (IWMI-Nepal). The authors are grateful for the field support provided by local contacts in the study districts including Amrit Magar, Tika Rai and Saroj Bomjan, and would like to thank Rajendra Shrestha, Rajendra Uprety, the field office staff at the Water and Energy Commission Secretariat (WECS) in Chautara, and the Department of Irrigation in Kathmandu, all of whom provided logistical advice and local expertise. The valuable feedback and comments provided by Brady MacCarl (former intern with IWMI-Nepal) and Vladimir Smakhtin (Theme Leader-Water Availability and Access, IWMI) are greatly appreciated. The CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS) provided future climate projections, which were used in the analysis of climate change. CCAFS also supported the latter part of the study, which involved collecting case study information on existing water storage infrastructure. Project This research study was initiated as part of the Preparing for an uncertain water future in Nepal through sustainable storage development project.

Freshwater Scarcity and Sustainable Water Management in the Hindu Kush-Himalayan (HKH) Region

“…The water can be stored either in surface or in the sub-surface by natural or artificial infrastructures. However, focus should be on small scale watershed interventions and to improve irrigation systems (Sugden et al 2013(Sugden et al , 2014. The amount of irrigation water must be based on the requirement of crop characteristics.…”

“…The problem of water scarcity has increased disputes among the water users and raised many questions about water rights. In a lesser developed country like Nepal, one of the persisting challenge to water scarcity is unequal land ownership structure and class inequalities (Sugden et al 2013(Sugden et al , 2014. Disputes on the issues of water rights, requirements, and water use are becoming more critical due to increasing demands for economic development, a better environment, health and hygiene, and societal and cultural values.…”

“…However, decreases in water availability will seriously impact food production and Asian cereal productions will draw down by 10% to 30% more than projected for future (Nellemann and Kaltenborn 2009). Lack of access to markets, high prices for fertilizer and seeds, lack of infrastructure and investment, and unreliable institutions are also major challenges in the agricultural sector (Sugden et al 2013;2014).…”

“…And knowledge of the hydrological processes in the basin is required to overcome water scarcity problems and improve water allocation practices. However, river basin development will depend on the understanding of local residents and local bodies, and the policies of government (Mc Cormick et al 2013;Sugden et al 2013Sugden et al , 2014. Therefore, the idea of storing excess water to use in water scarce periods to increase crop productivity has been pitched as the "Blue revolution" (Mac Cartney and Smakhtin 2010).…”

“…Water storage will be effective option to better manage water to fulfill demand in an era of climate change (Hua 2009; Mac Cartney and Smakhtin 2010). A critical challenge in developing countries is how to deal with the increased variability and uncertainty of rainfall pattern that affect farming systems of the region (Sugden et al 2013(Sugden et al , 2014. Changes in rainfall will impact variability of ground water recharge and river flow.…”