Coping with climate change: water availability and adaptive strategies in irrigation waters in a trans-himalayan basin

Abstract

Trends and changes in temperature, precipitation and water sources, their implication on water availability, how households are perceiving the impact of climate change and, how effectively irrigation water is managed is explored in two selected communities of Trans-Himalayan region of Nepal. The paradigm of mixed research is followed. Quantitative and qualitative approaches are used to explore trends and irrigation waters deficit. Social data visualization included observations, peoples' perception surveys, key informant interviews and focused group discussions. Numerous pertinent literatures in climate changes and farmers' managed irrigation practices and other relevant subjects are reviewed. The research findings showed that snow melts and its contribution in maintaining soil moistures and crop water requirements have been playing a major role in peoples' livelihoods. The effects of climate change on waters for irrigation have been adversely affecting and is compelling people in adopting strategies locally to sustain livelihoods threatened by climate changes.

Climate Change and New Markets: Multi-Factorial Drivers of Recent Land-Use Change in The Semi-Arid Trans-Himalaya, Nepal

“…One additional adaption possibility to reduce water wastage due to irrigation is to subdivide larger fields into multiple ones [103]. However, such an approach was not detectable for Marpha and Kagbeni by our remapping.…”

“…Even late winter and early spring snow events melt at an accelerated rate and shortly increase surface runoff, while a prolonged increase in soil moisture is absent. The diminished replenishing of the water resources during the dry season is causing springs to dry up in some regions within the study area [54,76,[102][103][104][105]. This implies that the peak water supply due to reduced snow cover, deglaciation, or melting permafrost bodies has already been exceeded.…”

“…This implies that the peak water supply due to reduced snow cover, deglaciation, or melting permafrost bodies has already been exceeded. For a tributary watershed of the Kali Gandaki between Kagbeni and Jomsom, one-fourth of the arable land is left barren due to water scarcity, which further causes tensions among the settlements regarding water allocation [103]. This is also reflected in the increasing proportion of barren and abandoned land within the south-north transect between Marpha and Kagbeni, which increased from less than 1% to 10%.…”

“…High amounts of irrigation water are wasted applying traditional irrigation systems (e.g., flood irrigation [110]) and to high losses in transportation [75]), making the maintenance and upgrading of water reservoirs or irrigation channels mandatory [103]. Nevertheless, the irrigation channels and water reservoirs within the three investigated settlements lack adequate construction technologies (cemented or polyethylene pipes), so the seepage rate remains high.…”

“…Nevertheless, the irrigation channels and water reservoirs within the three investigated settlements lack adequate construction technologies (cemented or polyethylene pipes), so the seepage rate remains high. For several regions of the Annapurna-and Dhaulagiri-Trans-Himalaya, water scarcity and accompanying conflicts are attributable to insufficient runoff in general but also to inefficient irrigation techniques [53,103,110,115]. This is further exacerbated by the steady increase within the tourism sector and the excessive demand for freshwater resources.…”