Water poverty in upper Bagmati River Basin in Nepal

Abstract

Water Poverty Index (WPI) is a simple and transparent tool to measure water stress at the household and village levels so that local an'd national water agencies can manage problem of access to water, quality and variability; water uses and capacity for water management considering environmental aspects. The research aims to calculate WPI in the upper Bagmati river Basin of Nepal in order to analyse the real water situation in the project area. WPI was estimated using five key components through the consultation with wide range of stake holders, policy makers and scientists for resource, access, capacity, use and environment. The WPI was calculated for the upper Bagmati river Basin together with High-Medium-Low category scale and interpretations. WPI intensity scale depicts Sundarijal and Lubhu are in a range of very low water poverty, which means the water situation is better in these two areas. Daman region has a medium level, meaning this region is located into poor-accessible water zone. Kathmandu, Sankhu and Thankot have a low to medium low WPI, what characterize them as neutral. WPI can be used as an effective tool in integrated water resources management and water use master plan for meeting sustainable development goals. Based on the observation, the water agencies required to focus over water-poverty interface, water for sanitation, hygiene and health, water for production and employment generation, sustainable environmental management, gender equality, and water rights.

Developing GIS-based water poverty and rainwater harvesting suitability maps for domestic use in the Dead Sea region (West Bank, Palestine)

“…The DWPI can be attributed to several factors associated with water availability, socioeconomic conditions, environmental implications and the political situation (Coppin and Richards, 1990;Sullivan et al, 2003). DWP mapping is a simple and efficient approach to identify the spatial extent of water-poor/rich areas at different levels of jurisdiction areas (Thakur et al, 2017). This approach has been applied in the analysis of water stresses in many countries all over the world such as the US (James et al, 2007), Nepal (Thakur et al, 2017) and Palestine (West Bank) (Isaac et al, 2008).…”

“…DWP mapping is a simple and efficient approach to identify the spatial extent of water-poor/rich areas at different levels of jurisdiction areas (Thakur et al, 2017). This approach has been applied in the analysis of water stresses in many countries all over the world such as the US (James et al, 2007), Nepal (Thakur et al, 2017) and Palestine (West Bank) (Isaac et al, 2008).…”

“…An integrated approach using GIS-based multicriteria decision analysis (MCDA) was adopted. The MCDA approach is widely used in DWP (van der Vyver and Jordaan, 2011; Thakur et al, 2017;Sullivan et al, 2003;Isaac et al, 2008) and RWH suitability studies (Shadeed, 2011;Galarza-Molina et al, 2015;Hussein and Shariff, 2015;Singh et al, 2016;Singhai et al, 2017;Jha et al, 2014).…”

The Influence of Rainfall and Land Use/Land Cover Changes on River Discharge Variability in the Mountainous Catchment of the Bagmati River

“…This area is within the Shivapuri-Nagarjun national park and has been protected since 1976 [27] with human activities being limited. The 605 km 2 catchment, upstream of Khokana station (1250 m) mostly comprising the urbanized area of the Kathmandu valley is referred to as the upper catchment [43,49,50]. The 2215 km 2 catchment downstream of Khokana yet upstream of Pandheradovan station (180 m), mostly representing lower/mid mountain region, is referred to as the middle catchment [43,49].…”

“…For example, many of the headwater streams in Kathmandu valley, especially during the dry season, are exploited for the purpose of drinking water. Further, the water table in the Kathmandu valley is reported to be lowering substantially due to low recharge and increased extraction of ground water driven by scarcity and low quality of surface water [29,50,57]. Some studies have also reported increasing temperatures in most parts of the catchment [45] which suggests higher rates of evaporation.…”