Adapting to Water Stresses
There are also important adaptation mechanisms at system of water monitoring and maintenance of irrigation
the intermediate scale, at district or national level. channels. To adapt to the regular shortage of water and
Examples include infrastructure such as embankments for unequal water rights, people also ’borrow‘ water from
fl ood mitigation, or larger irrigation canals to support relatives or neighbouring communities. Since the early
agricultural production in seasonally dry environments. 1990s, with growing population pressure and more
Such macro-level installations require the mobilisation of frequent and/or severe drought, water is increasingly
larger resources and have to be addressed by district being traded for in-kind products (fodder, fuelwood,
or national governments, although households and poultry) or services (harvesting, weeding, irrigating)
communities govern the actual use of water at the level or for cash. The success of this traditional resource
of the agricultural fi eld. Top-down structural adaptation management system is based on strong social capital.
strategies commonly show limits, however, e.g., In this case as elsewhere, informal institutions provide
problems of maintenance. Here, it is likely that increased an important vehicle for fostering innovative adaptation
funding mechanisms from the international community practices. Any external intervention should build upon
to address climate change adaptation can make a such traditional mechanisms when adapting to rapid
difference. changes.
Adaptation to climate change needs to be addressed
simultaneously at different scales for the strategies to be
Culture
successful. Some aspects can be better addressed at Socio-cultural aspects (like age, gender, caste, political
the local scale, while others can be better addressed affi liation, beliefs, traditions) can have a positive or
at regional and national levels (e.g., regional data negative infl uence on adaptation strategies to fl oods and
sharing for fl ood mitigation, large infrastructures for fl ood droughts. In Assam in North East India, different ethnic
prevention). In either case, there is a need to understand groups have adapted to fl oods in different ways. The
better the linkages or (mis)matches between top-down Mishing communities, a tribal ethnic group, live along
adaptation strategies and local adaptation strategies. the rivers in stilt houses (chang-ghar) made mainly of
bamboo. These traditional houses are well-adapted to
Indigenous knowledge and institutional
the annual fl oods that these communities face; people
arrangements
can continue their daily lives relatively unaffected.
The Mishing have been adapting their chang-ghar to
There are many examples of successful adaptation
changes in the frequency and intensity of fl oods by
strategies at the community level. For example, in the
progressively raising the house stilts according to the
Mulkhow Valley in Chitral, northern Pakistan, people
level of the last highest fl ood. Those who can afford
have always faced water shortages during parts of the
it now make cement stilts, which are stronger than
year. In this dry and vertical environment, very little land
bamboo and resist fl oods better.
is available for settlement and agriculture. There are
no perennial sources of water and people depend on People of other ethnic groups living nearby have
rain feeding the streams. They have managed to adapt adapted to the fl oods in a different way by building
to recurrent drought through sophisticated traditional their houses on platforms in traditional Assamese style.
systems of water distribution for irrigation, including a Since these platforms are often not high enough to keep
out high fl oods, they have created ‘living platforms‘
A traditional water distribution and control structure or ‘nirwalu’
inside the houses to stay on during the fl oods. They also
in Mulkhow, a drought prone area of Chitral, Pakistan. take refuge in the granaries which are built on stilts and
separate from the house. Although these houses are
less well-adapted to the recurrent fl oods, they are often
seen as symbols of modernity and affl uence, and these
groups do not wish to live in stilt houses which they
associate with a ’lower’ culture.
Cultural factors also infl uence access to livelihood
diversifi cation strategies. The Mishing communities have
develop new adaptation strategies and diversifi ed their
livelihoods to meet the challenges of increasingly severe
fl ooding. Although against their traditional lifestyle, the
most vulnerable households have started to sell fi sh,
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