Local responses to too much and too little water in the greater Himalayan region
Life in the Shadow of Embankments
– Turning Lost Lands into Assets in the
Koshi Basin of Bihar, India
Winrock International India
Key messages
• Past flood control measures have changed the agro-ecology of the Koshi basin and increased the intensity and
frequency of floods, droughts, and other water-related stresses and hazards.
• The communities have mainly responded by adjusting the cropping cycle; introducing new and improved varieties of
crops, such as sunflower, wheat, and maize; using water-logged land for makhana (foxnut or water lily) cultivation
and sand-covered land for vegetable cultivation; using cheap, local technologies, such as bamboo tube-wells and
movable pumping sets for irrigation; and applying better cultivation methods.
• Off-farm seasonal migration has become an important adaptation strategy. Temporary migration in search of jobs
has increased with the increasing scale of water hazards and has helped offset losses incurred from floods, droughts
and water-related hazards, facilitated by improvements in transport and communication and better access to credit
and banking facilities.
• The state machinery’s limited reach, corruption, and an inefficient bureaucracy have led to poor delivery of
government programmes, which otherwise hold potentials to improve communities’ capacity to adapt to water-related
hazards and stress.
• Non-state actors such as markets and NGOs, to some extent bridge the ‘knowledge gap’ created by poor
government extension and information delivery services. Bridging this gap could enhance the adaptive capacity of
the people to respond to floods, droughts, and other water-related hazards.
• Autonomous ‘adaptive’ strategies in the region have at best helped community groups cope. These strategies provide
a blueprint of what needs to be done.
Introduction
limited the area of flooding, those areas inside the
structures get longer and more intense flooding and
This study in the Koshi River basin in India examines
sediment deposition while areas beyond the structures
the relatively long history and ramifications of human
are waterlogged as water cannot drain. The areas
intervention to manage and control the river in this
prone to flooding or waterlogging have increased 2.5
region. The extensive flooding on the flat terrain of
times over the years (GoB 2009).
northern Bihar results from huge variations in water
volume and the deposition of large amounts of sediment
The impact of climate change now frequently affects
during the monsoon.
large areas of the basin with droughts as well, creating
an urgent need to identify and encourage measures
As the Koshi River loses momentum on the plains, it
to address it. Communities living in or along the basin
deposits sediment and shifts course, causing devastation
have developed their own strategies to deal with both
along its path. In the past, the government constructed
floods and droughts. The Koshi basin supports a huge
structural measures, particularly embankments, to deal
population that both benefits from its waters and suffers
with floods. These measures have had significant
from its hazards.
impacts, both positive and negative. Although they
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