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Water has become a challenge for the cities in the world. An urban water crisis is looming globally due to rapid population growth and changing climate. Nepal is one of the fastest urbanizing countries in South Asia. The rapidly urbanizing cities of Nepal Himalayas are undergoing severe challenges of water scarcity due to climate change and increasing demand of water, leading to water crisis—including conflicts between urban and rural demands, households and industrial demands. Ensuring equitable access to water while financing the mega water infrastructures and maintaining the water ecosystem wellbeing are serious challenges for sustainable water security. However, cities in Nepal are often slow to respond to water crises due to political, economic, institutional and governance issues.
Amidst this melancholy picture of water insecurity, Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS), a think tank research organization based in Kathmandu primarily working in the areas environment, water and ecosystem services strives to investigate urban water insecurity to contribute for climate adaptive and equitable management of urban water systems in the cities of Nepal and India. SIAS is currently leading a research project on ‘Climate Adaptive Water Management Plans for Cities in South Asia’ to understand and assess the water related challenges and develop piloting to address water insecurity in four cities of Nepal (Dhulikhel & Dharan) and India (Haldwani and Dehradun) in collaboration with International Development Research Centre (IDRC) Canada, Center for Ecology and Development Research (CEDAR) and Tata Institute of Social Science (TISS) in India, University of New South Wales (UNSW) and University of Sydney (USYD) in Australia.
The team of researchers from the institutions above realized that scientific study is required to understand the changing dimensions of water insecurity and opportunities for sustainable urban water management and resilience building in the rapidly urbanizing cities. To materialize it, SIAS kick started the city-level inception meeting in Dharan today for Dharan’s sustainable water security. The stakeholder consultation meeting was held at Sunsari Association for Industry and Commerce from 8 AM to 5 PM Wednesday 3 of August. The stakeholders include Dharan Sub metropolitan, Purvanchal Engineering Campus, Integrated Urban Development Project, Nepal Water Supply Association, Dharan, Sunsari Association for Industry and Commerce, Upstream Downstream Water User Groups, Community Forestry Groups, Dharan Sarokar Manch, Media and other institutions related with water security and resource management. Over 50 stakeholders representing various organizations participated the whole day programme, which particularly focused on group discussions for prioritizing research and piloting options.
The participants expressed that Dharan is undergoing acute water deficits and the SIAS led initiative under ‘Climate Adaptive Water Management Plans for Cities in South Asia’ strives to conduct critical cutting edge research for developing pilotings to address the issues of water insecurity. The Principal Investigator, Prof. Roshan Maharjan presented the overview of the three years project. The Research Project Coordinator Dr. Chandra Lal Pandey highlighted the objectives and outcomes of the project and moderated the group discussion throughout the whole day. He also highlighted the role of private sector in water security of Dharan. Ngamindra Dahal, Nani Raut , Kuber Shreshtha, among others presented technical papers on climate change, gender, urban planning and integrated urban development project.
The overall objectives of the SIAS led collaboration is to generate lasting local water solutions, bringing choice and change by investing in knowledge and innovation, supporting the water champions of the future, and by being a partner of choice for the public and private sectors for up-scaling the impacts on city, national and regional levels. The research team noted that SIAS strives to develop collaborative partnership with Dharan sub-metro-polity, public agencies, water user groups, and all private and civil society institutions working in the areas of water for producing cutting-edge research to address water issues through lasting solutions at Dharan.
