Local responses to too much and too little water in the greater Himalayan region
and studying to spend 3-4 hours per day collecting has ceased to function in winter when there is no water
water. The hindrances to education will affect future available to make concrete mixes. Construction work
capacity to adapt. Smaller or affluent families and those usually takes place in market areas where increasing
living near the bazaar areas hire porters to fetch water. demands for water have already put stress on the
existing supplies.
Health and sanitation – The lack of adequate water has
worsened sanitation. Many toilets, built with support
from external agencies, have become redundant due to
Response to Water Stresses and
the lack of water. Occasionally people flush the toilets
Hazards
using grey water left over from washing clothes. Personal
Himalayan herders and farmers have a long history
hygiene is affected visibly as people cannot wash
of responding to environmental uncertainties, whether
their clothes, hands, and feet frequently or take regular
through seasonal migration, shifting land use patterns,
showers. The lack of water makes it hard for women to
or livelihood diversification. They have lived with and
wash dishes. At all three sites, villagers worry that the
survived hazards, such as flash floods, and droughts for
condition is ripe for occurrence of epidemics.
centuries. Today, farming is still a main livelihood, so
Agriculture – Continuing drought conditions have
people must find alternatives when floods, droughts, or
caused rainfed agriculture to fail in some villages,
pests destroy the crops.
while in others the effect is moderate. In Dhankuta,
the maize yield has decreased and the topography
Generally, people who were not dependent on
limits expansion of the area under maize cultivation.
ecosystem services, such as wage earners or service
Discharges from sources have declined, so even farms
providers, were affected less by the immediate impacts
with irrigation facilities are producing lower yields.
of droughts, hailstorms, and heavy downpours.
Disputes about sharing water have increased, affecting
the social relations already under stress in the aftermath
Temporary migration – Following each crop-destroying
of the decade-long insurgency and political turmoil.
disaster, people would historically borrow from local
Since agriculture is the main source of income for
moneylenders so they could travel to seek temporary
about half the population, the loss of crops is gradually
work as migrant wage labourers in other places.
weakening the economy.
Being able to borrow money from local moneylenders
provided a safety net during hard times, but the interest
Livestock raising – Although livestock is the major source
was very high.
of income of a quarter of the population, families are
increasingly unable to maintain the same number of
Today, during the agricultural slack season (November
animals as before. The local dairy enterprise, developed
to February), people continue to take loans to travel to
over the past two to three decades, has suffered as a
work as wage labourers in cities, India, or abroad and
result.
return after earning some money.
House construction – The shortage of water has also
People now migrate to wage-labour sites, such as urban
affected the construction sector. A few families engaged
centres and construction areas. They might stay for a
in building construction for contractors, but the work
year or two or just a season. If the migrants succeed in
landing a relatively permanent job, they normally visit
In Danda bazaar in Nepal’s mid hills, households may only collect
two pots of water per day. their families and villages once every two to three years.
If they do not secure such a job, they may return to the
village in a few months. Unlike permanent migration, it
is both internal (within the country) and external (outside
the country).
Permanent resettlement – Relocation and permanent
resettlement began in the late 19th century, and has
mostly occurred within Nepal from the highlands to the
Terai. Uncertainty and difficulties associated with hill
farming motivated a majority of hill dwellers to move to
the foothills and the Terai. In the 1960s, the Nepali state
28