Water security: Lessons from Nepal on sustainable management and adapting to climate change

By Dr Hemant R Ojha

The Himalayan mountain range has abundant natural resources. There is plenty of land for agriculture and it supplies water to around 1 billion people downstream. In theory all this natural capital can harvested and then converted into manmade capital and wealth but this only sustainable through conservation and proper management. Despite its location Nepal has not witnessed significant economic development, poverty is increasing and environmental degradation is a growing problem. Hemant Ojha from ESPA’s The Political Economy of Water Security, Ecosystem Services and Livelihoods in the Western Himalayas project which is exploring the water security issues common to many of the small towns in the mountains of Nepal explains why ecosystem management, infrastructure development and economic development need to be one package and how this could help the country tackle its regional issues and adapt to global problems such as climate change.

Securing water for its 15,000 residents has remained a key challenge for Dhulikhel, a town in central Nepal Himalayas. The challenge faced by this ‘satellite city’ of the national capital of Kathmandu has become more severe in the recent years, with escalating demand for water for the growing number of hotels and restaurants, educational institutions, and hospitals in the area.

Like many small towns in the Himalayas, Dhulikhel settlements are clustered around the ridge of a mountain, but unlike many others, the city lacks a higher elevation mountain landscape which could supply spring water through captured snow or rainwater. However, to the south-west of the city, there are two higher mountains that supply water flow in excess of the demand from local rural communities. For the last two decades Dhulikhel has tapping water from these mountains – called Bhumidanda, located 12 kilometers away. But with the recent expansion of tourist services and other development infrastructure, Dhulikhel is once again struggling to achieve water security. The struggle has five key challenges.

1. People at the water source are conscious of the natural resource being tapped away from their locality. Even the previous agreements signed by the Bhumidanda Village and Dhulikhel are now being challenged. A poster in the source village reads ‘beware of water sellers’, clearly expressing dissent to the leaders who agreed to offer water to Dhulikhel. Besides the local political dynamics, there is also a concurrent national level constitutional discourse that favors local and indigenous control of natural resources, prompting local communities to assert claims over water and other natural resources. A fair deal needs to be agreed with the upstream communities for the water Dhulikhel needs to sustain its growth and development.
2. Dhulikhel also needs to ensure fair distribution, but with over 2000 households believing in diverse political ideologies, with differentiated economic status, and living in varied geographic locations (from hill top to valley floor) this is a challenge. People living in the lower elevations and poorer belts – away from the water supply station – complain that they have not been treated fairly in water distribution. Newly settling residents also complain about high installation costs of taps in their houses.
3. Handling the tradeoff between two of the most common competing uses of water – drinking versus commercial use – is also causing conflict. Dhulikhel water leaders have always argued that they needed water for drinking, and the national water law also privileges drinking over other uses such as irrigation. But the distribution issue becomes complicated when it comes to handling the trade off between household consumption use and commercial use. More than a dozen hotels, a University with over 2000 students and the nationally reputed hospitals require significant amount of water for purposes beyond ‘drinking’.
4. The type of water supply governance also raises some issues. Dhulikhel’s water governance is neither state-managed nor private sector provided. It is primarily a community-managed system closely supported by the central and local governments. It has the potential to supply water at a reasonable price, compared to private sector management, and also more efficiently than the government agency. But as one of the officers remark: “we have to recover all costs of the water supply system from the tariffs, revision discussion of which is extremely contested in the annual user assembly”. To what extent users understand the technical and economic subtleties of the supply system and agree to pay for the cost of upgrades remains an issue.
5. Linking science, research, common sense and political reasoning is required to achieve a fair institutional arrangement for water supply management. From water leaders to government planners and international support agencies – all seem to presume that Bhumidanda spring water is the only source of water security for Dhulikhel. Alternatives to this upstream source have not been explored. There are options such as rainwater harvesting and local residents also see hope in the numerous small spring sources at different locations in the township. Commercial water users could also look at ways of recycling water. Kathmandu University has already demonstrated the feasibility of this but it needs to be further explored.

Dhulikhel’s struggle for water security is not unique, the issues highlighted and lessons on water supply governance will apply to many other towns in the Himalayan region. Under an already variable climate with the growing threat of climate change, Dhulikhel and other towns need more robust planning, management and national policy support to achieve water security and to catalyze new development initiatives that can help harvest water from other sources. But moving away from one dominant approach requires broad-based water security planning nurtured by interdisciplinary science, enabling state policies, and politically accountable local leadership.

“Views expressed here are personal and not associated with any affiliated organisations”.

Available at:http://www.espa.ac.uk/news-events/espa-blog/water-security-lessons-nepal-sustainable-management-and-adapting-climate