Local responses to too much and too little water in the greater Himalayan region
to adaptation to water stresses and hazards in order to livelihoods more resilient to change. At its heart, the
compare the case studies, including the role of poverty, study assumes that people’s livelihood strategies already
indigenous knowledge, risk trade-offs, and social include intentions and actions to ward off risk wherever
networks. possible. These actions, however, are often insufficient
to manage the additional difficulties posed by extreme
The teams worked with policy consultants who events, major changes, and variability in climate.
conducted a parallel inventory of existing policies and
their impact (or lack of impact) on adaptation strategies People in mountain environments and downstream
in the selected cases. A guideline developed in areas are commonly confronted with too much water
consultation with the policy study consultants provided a (riverine floods, flash floods, waterlogging) or too little
common framework and methodology for all the studies. water (droughts and water stress). They deal with these
hazards through approaches ranging from accepting
The four objectives of the policy studies were to: losses to diversifying their livelihood activities. In other
• Identify policies relevant to adaptation to water
words, for generations people have taken action as
stresses and hazards in the selected sites and for
part of livelihood strategies to survive in environmentally
those selected policies;
marginal areas.
• Explore the objectives of policy making relevant to
People also have a range of coping mechanisms to
adaptation;
limit the negative impacts of extremes on their lives
• Analyse the factors and processes that affect policy
and assets, which may have long-term implications for
implementation; and
their well-being. The purpose of these mechanisms is to
• Assess the extent to which policy implementation maximise well-being; and this includes dealing with a
affects the ability of different groups of people to range of factors besides the risks posed by water stress
adapt effectively to water-related stress and hazards and hazards.
in the context of climate change.
It is important to remember that not all responses
The key preliminary findings on the linkages between to change, stress, and extremes are a process
planned adaptation (state) and autonomous adaptation of adaptation (see Box 1). Some responses are
(people) are included in this synthesis report. maladaptive as they inadvertently increase sensitivity
or exposure to water shortages or floods. Coping
A ‘writeshop’ was organised in 2009 for the country mechanisms such as using expensive pumping systems
teams, policy teams, and resource group to jointly to irrigate agricultural fields or selling off livestock when
develop a draft synthesis report which provided the base water is scarce usually provide only short-term relief.
for the current document.
Coping strategies may also hinder options for alternative
income sources in times of need, sometimes by
Conceptual Framework
damaging vital lifelines found in social networks. When
From coping to adapting: Responding to ‘too much’
people use these coping mechanisms to respond to new
and ‘too little’ water
situations, there is no certainty that they will work at all.
Indeed, the mechanisms may no longer be sufficient to
In order to suggest possibilities for adapting to changes
respond to the changes taking place, and new thinking
in water availability and hazards, it is important
is required to reduce vulnerability to the new change.
first to understand how people avoid the negative
impacts of ‘too much’ or ‘too little’ water in present
The key to shifting from short-term coping towards
practice. Therefore, the conceptual thinking of this
adapting lies in reducing people’s vulnerability and
study considered the relationship between development
requires addressing the underlying root causes that make
processes, ways to cope with daily risk, and
people sensitive and exposed to water-related stress and
adaptations to climate change. This section describes
hazards. Typically, these hazards are not related to the
this conceptual framework and clarifies the main
climate alone (Figure 2).
assumptions of the study.
People are affected differently by change due to
The study drew on several different conceptual
differential access to and ability to benefit from assets
frameworks that have been developed to make rural
such as natural resources, information, or education. The
6
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