Local responses to too much and too little water in the greater Himalayan region
embankments, protected by the embankments, The perennial flooding has affected the availability of
unprotected, or a distance from the embankments. clean drinking water, and other aspects of human well-
being including livelihoods, education, and health. Prior
In areas trapped between the Koshi embankments, to the embankment construction, animal husbandry and
erosion and sand deposition on fields is intense. Nearly pisciculture (fish farming and aquaculture) supported
a million people live in the 380 villages in this zone, large sections of the population. The construction
including Dhamara, one of the study sites. Villagers of embankments, barrages, and other infrastructure
of the area still hope that the floodwaters will bring has diminished vast open grassland areas causing
silt, rather than sand, to fertilise their land. Agriculture a significant reduction in the cattle population. The
within the embankments did improve considerably and livelihoods of the Mallah fishing community declined as
Dhamara has experienced agricultural growth. the obstruction of the river’s flow and neglect of ponds
and reservoirs reduced the fish stock and variety.
In protected countryside close to the embankment,
a significant portion of agricultural land remains
waterlogged most of the year making agriculture virtually
Adapting to Water Stress and Hazard
impossible in villages such as Chandrain and Tilathi. The
People have adapted to changes brought by floods and
villagers live in constant fear of embankment breach,
droughts in different ways. Many parts of North Bihar
as the Koshi embankments have breached eight times
have witnessed the development of alternate land-use
(Mishra 2008). They keep vigil at night during the rainy
and cropping systems to adjust to water-related stresses.
season as they would have very little time to move to
Most adaptations in agriculture aimed to cultivate land
higher ground in case of a breach. This problem is
intensively during the short period land can be cultivated.
particularly acute in a strip of land about five km wide
Some of these strategies are analysed in the next section.
along the embankment.
Areas that have been in the direct path of the Koshi
Non-structural responses
flood after an embankment breach take years to recover
Communities have adapted to water-related stress and
and return to normalcy. For example, Chandrain was in
hazards by making small changes and adjustments in
the direct path of the waters during the 1984 breach
livelihood practices, institutional arrangements, and
and has yet to recover fully 25 years later.
social relations. Most non-structural measures and
strategies adopted by the communities require little or no
Large populations living along unprotected stretches of
investment except adjustments in cropping season and
the river experience the adverse impacts of upstream
practices.
embankments. Beyond Ghonghepur, the Koshi is free to
wander on its western side where rivers, like the Kamala
Adjustments in the cropping cycle – In the villages of
and the Bagmati, join it. However, the combined waters
Dhamara and Sarsauwa, which suffer river floods almost
make life difficult for unprotected villages like Sarsauwa.
every year, farmers still take the risk of planting monsoon
season (June-July) paddy, even though the fields get
Communities further away from the embankment and the
flooded during these months. Farmers living between
river have benefited from the Koshi project and have not
the embankment and the river or in unprotected areas
had to deal with the river’s swelling or changing course.
broadcast paddy in the field hoping that the crop might
Many came under the command of the Koshi irrigation
survive if the floods are low. This risk-taking becomes
canals. Despite government promises, the canals
worth their while once every three years, when the fields
created irrigation potential that has been massively
actually produce a bumper harvest.
underutilised (GoI 1973) in villages such as Rahuamani.
The experience of the floods of 2008 also shows that
The same categories of land support a good crop
even this zone is not safe from the devastation caused
harvest in the dry, winter season (November-March)
by embankment failures.
depending on where the river is flowing. If the river
deposits thick layers of sand, there will be low crop
In the first three zones – between the embankments,
yields or no crops at all; but if the floods deposit a good
protected by the embankments, and in unprotected
layer of silt, as has happened in Dhamara village in
areas – agriculture is impossible from June to October
1990, the fields will produce good harvests of wheat,
or December, depending on village location and the
maize, and pulse.
duration of waterlogging.
36
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