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Water for a food-secure world

www.iwmi.org

Building Climate

Resilience of Watersheds

in Mountain Eco-

Regions, Nepal

Luna Bharati and Pabitra Gurung

International Water Management Institute

Jhamsikhel, Lalitpur

Nepal

IWMI-Nepal@CGIAR.ORG

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

The physical context

• Nepal is one of the most water abundant countries in the world with total mean annual runoff of 224 billion cubic meters (BCM)

• There is large temporal and spatial variabilityin water availability

• All this water then rushes through the landscape, very often creating floodingproblems in the wet season and water scarcityin the dry season.

• Climate change impacts are still very uncertain

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Core Issues in upland-landscape

management• Rain-fed systems are vulnerable to climate

variability

• Due to various social, economic and

environmental reasons, out migration from

rural to urban centers is very high

• Few of the effects of abandonment of farms in

this region are:

• land degradation/ erosion

• women, the elderly and remittance income

has become the backbone of livelihoods

• loss of agricultural labor is making it

difficult to sustain traditional farming

practices

• Breakdown of traditional community

organizations

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Water for a food-secure world

Old Paradigm

• Existing watershed management programs in Nepal focus primarily on land degradation and forest management.

• Despite significant success, they have not been able to fully address the livelihood and environment issues in these challenging areas.

• Most water management interventions, on the other hand, do not benefit upland communities

• Surface and Groundwater systems are managed separately

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Water for a food-secure world

New Approach

• Integrate management of all natural

resources, including land, trees, water and

people

• Slowing down and storing water in the upland

systems will allow communities to have access

to water all year –by storage we mean the whole

storage continuum.

• Reducing peak discharge will reduce floods

downstream

• Management of both surface and groundwater is

also important especially in the management of

spring systems.

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

SPCR Component 1: Building Climate Resilienceof Watersheds in Mountain Eco-Regions

Nepal’s Strategic Program for Climate Resilience (SPCR)

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Water for a food-secure world

Combined/Multiple Vulnerability Map of Watershed in Middle and High

Mountain Regions

Vulnerability = f (Sensitivity, Adaptive Capacity, Exposure/Risk)

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Water for a food-secure world

Model the impact of watershed management interventions on the hydrology in two vulnerable watersheds

• Assess and demonstrate the effectiveness of various water management interventions against future climate uncertainties

• Assess and demonstrate downstream impacts of watershed interventions

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Water for a food-secure world

Seasonal Precipitation (1981-2010) % Change in Seasonal Precipitation (2031-2060)

Result: Distribution of Precipitation

(14mm–304mm) (27mm–647mm)

(684mm–2438mm) (12mm–193mm)

(-13% to+40%)

(+6% to+44.6%)

(-36% to 0%)(-19% to+25%)

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Water for a food-secure world

Adopted Interventions in the Study

a. Afforestation of degraded lands

b. On-farm Conservation

c. Infiltration Ponds

d. Water Storages-small reservoirs

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Water for a food-secure world

Combined Impact of All the Interventions on

Seasonal Hydrological Parameters in Watershed 124

-8.000%

-7.000%

-6.000%

-5.000%

-4.000%

-3.000%

-2.000%

-1.000%

0.000%

1.000%

Annual Winter Pre-monsoon Monsoon Post-monsoon

Perc

en

tag

e C

ha

ng

e

WYLD GW_Q SURQ PERC SW

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

How can we ensure that investments in

landscape are sustainable?

• A more integrated

approach to upland

landscape management

• Moving away from

sectorial resource

management

• Expanding the

management unit to

include the whole

landscape

www.iwmi.org

Water for a food-secure world

Thank you

Read the book: Tackling Change

For more information:Contact Luna Bharati at l.bharati(at)cgiar.org