-Aastha Poudel

The melting of glaciers, glacier outbursts, declining monsoon, increasing incidence of floods, and flash rains are making headlines across the world. But at Dadigurashee, the villagers relate the increasing change in weather pattern is due to deforestation.

The community members expressed, “earlier there were plenty of forests, with the increasing population, the forest area declined, rainfall decreased and the periods of dry summer increased”. The villagers seemed clueless about the rapid pace of industrialization and declining ozone layer. 

In this context, the National Adaptation Plan of Action (NAPA)^[1] mentioned Sindhuli district as a moderately affected district by climate change but the interactions with community members indicate a different story. Villagers have experienced extreme and longer summers and short and intense winters in the past two decades. In summers, the community water supply system is threatened due to extreme drought. The villagers are forced to walk for almost an hour to fetch water from far-away wells or the Marin River (village river). The impacts of climate change have resulted to increased hardships as women to fetch water from long distances and walk longer in search of firewood and fodder.

Villagers have experienced rise in incidents of conflicts over water for irrigation. One of the respondents reported, “As scarcity increases conflict also increases. 20 years ago water was abundant, there were no water conflicts for irrigation but now with increasing water scarcity, people fight”.

At Dadigurashee, agriculture is posed with serious climatic threat. The declining trend of monsoon has brought severe challenges to farmers. Reduced monsoon rainfall and the high cost of irrigation, has reduced the enthusiasm for agriculture. The rich farmers during dry seasons use water pumps for irrigation, while the majority practice rain-fed agriculture.

The irregular rainfall and frequent droughts have reduced agricultural productivity affecting food consumption for most poor families in the village. The poor families reported more days of food shortage in a year than compared to a decade ago. Farmers are increasingly borrowing money to meet their basic needs and fertilizers to enhance agriculture productivity. On the other hand, the increasing warm temperature has led to introduction of invasive weeds, pests (laii kira in local language) and fungi in the crops. Farmers reported higher agricultural expenses to control weeds and pests. Such climatic impacts have increased debts among the poor and the marginalized farmers.

Some villagers, finding difficulty to sustain livelihood, migrate to Golf countries, and small towns and cities of Nepal (such as Sindhuli town and Kathmandu). The increasing impacts of climatic conditions indicate people within communities are disproportionately affected. People in different capacities are adapting and changing livelihoods with changing environment. Community members from different caste and class groups have developed their own adaptation processes.

Although, NAPA has listed Sindhuli district to have a moderate impact of climate change, the degree of impacts at the village level are differential and incomparable. Authorities working for long to address issues of climate change in the region should prioritize adaptation as a process not only to achieve mitigation goals but should also ensure sustenance of basic livelihood and should develop departmental linkages for strong multi-dimensional approach. Else climate change impacts will reverse development goals achieved so far (DFID, 2007). Therefore Climate Change Adaptation interventions are required to be holistic for successful adaptation programs.