Fighting floods in Asia's water tower
2 January 2009
The Greater Himalaya region is the water tower of Asia, the continent's nine largest rivers emerging from its ice-capped mountains to provide 1.5 billion people with water and 3 billion with food and power.
With more ice stored here than anywhere outside the Arctic and Antarctic, the region has even been called the earth's third pole. But the ice fields of the Himalayas are melting, and at a faster pace than anywhere else on the planet. For the many people living in the mountains' shadows - many of whom live in extreme poverty - the future looks dangerously uncertain.
Facing up to climate change
At particular risk is Nepal, situated as it is in the headwaters of the Ganges basin. Around 500 million people inhabit this basin, which is one of the most flood-prone in the world.
Over the last 20 years, temperatures have increased in Nepal at double the global average, rising even faster in the mountains. As glaciers melt, lakes are formed, and in Nepal 20 lakes are currently at risk of bursting their banks, potentially leading to floods that would endanger lives, land and livelihoods.
The people of Nepal must also brace themselves for major changes to rainfall patterns. Global warming is expected to result in fewer days of rainfall as a whole, but it is probable that rains will be more intense and that extreme climate-related events will become more frequent.
Building on evidence
Unfortunately, a lack of data on Nepal's weather means that it is hard to make detailed predictions about how exactly it will change in the future. What is clear, though, is that Nepal is especially vulnerable to climate change and that the impacts of climate change will imperil the work being carried out to fight poverty in the country (with an estimated 50-60% of donor investment at risk).
Now DFID is helping to improve Nepal's ability to cope with future weather shocks. Working with the national government, civil society organisations and other development partners, a strategy is being put together that will allow for a more coordinated and effective response to climate change.
The strategy, which will be based on a solid body of evidence, will look closely at how efforts to encourage economic growth and drive down poverty in Nepal can withstand the challenges presented by rising temperatures. One of its priorities will be to foster negotiations, within the region and internationally, to ensure that the response to climate change makes use of a broad spread of knowledge and expertise.
Although Nepal's geography puts it at major risk from extreme weather, that same geography offers some exciting opportunities. Possessing huge
resources of water, the country has great potential for increasing its use of
hydropower - a type of power that, if it were to be exported, could earn Nepal
financing from the
global carbon market (see the UN's
Clean
Development Mechanism website for more information about the global carbon
market).
In addition, there is real scope for Nepal to use its resources to play a strategic role in the region. If Nepal reduces flooding in India and Bangladesh (currently around 30% of flood waters in the Ganges are supplied by Nepal's Himalayan rivers), it would no longer be just their poor neighbour. DFID will continue to support Nepal to manage its water in a way that, ultimately, benefits the country's most vulnerable and impoverished people.
Facts and stats
- DFID Nepal will work with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and others to develop a strategic climate change framework, committing £660,000 over 18 months.
- With the World Bank, DFID is also supporting the South Asia Water Initiative to improve water resource management and manage the impacts of climate change in the region. DFID is committing £2.6 million over three years as co-funding with AusAid.
- Nepal’s Himalayan Rivers supply 70% of the dry season water in the River Ganges and 30% of the flood waters. It is only as low as 30% because so much of the flood water actually falls directly into the basin.
- In 2007, 100,000 hectares of rice paddy were lost to flooding in Nepal.
