VULNERABILITY OF FLOOD AND LANDSLIDE AND IT'S RISK MANAGEMENT IN NEPALESE AGRICULTURE

Every year monsoon passes in Nepal with monsoon induced disasters such as flood and landslides taking human lives and dismantling the overall socio-economic aspect of people living in disaster hit areas. This year, as whole country was in the midst of battle against the global pandemic, the scenario was not different. We were frequently acquainted with the news of new deaths, people left missing and displaced livelihoods caused by such disasters. As per data from the ministry of home affairs, floods and landslides causes the death of approximately 300 people  and economic damage of about three million dollars annually – adding to an already precarious situation in Nepal, where an estimated 3.5 million people are food insecure.

 Why Nepal is often hit by climate change induced disasters?

Nepal being characterized by rugged topography ,weak geological formations, concentrated monsoon rains and unscientific land  utilization is very prone to hydro-meteorological hazards. Our country is enriched with rivers and rivulets. Frequent and severe rainfall causes those river and rivulets to bulge up and thus accumulated rainwater overflows in lower plains inflicting havoc in the communities. Weak topographies across hilly region become unstable due to continuous rainfall thus triggering devastating landslides. When landslides occurs near the river , it can block the river causing damming effect. Such landslide dam or barrier lake can cause severe flooding if not breached in a controlled manner. Nepal is very liable to such landslides dammed outburst flood(LDOF). Sunkoshi blockage(2014) and kaligandaki  blockage (2015)  clearly shows how deteriorating and baneful such disasters could be. Similarly water melting of glacial lakes due to climate change may lead to outbreak of the lakes called as glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF). One study concludes 51 districts out of 75 districts are likely to be hit by floods or landslides. The other study ranks Nepal the fourth most vulnerable country in terms of climate change induced hazard. In addition various human activities have hastened the occurrence of natural disasters. Rapid degradation of chure-bhavar range and excavation of river bed materials have disturbed the water recharge system, thus making the lower plains highly prone to floods during rainy season.

 

 

                Fig; flood  prone area of Nepal                

 

 

Implications of such disasters on society

Advent of such disasters often embarks serious complications in the socio economic life of people.  The aftermath of these disasters is more frightening as there prevails scarcity of drinking water and food and there is a huge possibility of outbreak of infectious diseases. The short term difficulties might be eased as government and other various agencies implement relief programs in disaster hit areas and carry out rescue and rehabilation programs. Sometimes due to further risk of disasters some settlements needs to be relocated to a relatively safer place. Since the poorest of poor reside in such areas they are not able to migrate to a safer place and it takes several years for them to recover from the long lasting impacts disasters had laid on them. So disasters hit the poor and the disadvantaged people the hardest. Disasters are a serious impediment to societal development and undermine development efforts at poverty alleviation and their gains.

How the loss in agriculture compares among other losses such disasters draw on?

Natural disasters totally bully the agricultural sector and the overall impact such disasters bring about in agriculture sector ,possibly makes the agriculture the hardest hit sector. The findings , released at the UN world conference on disaster  risk reduction , say more than 22% of the damage caused by natural hazards are accounted for by the agriculture sector. Agriculture production is hugely dependent upon weather, climate and water availability and it do suffer huge surge by weather and climate related disasters. Landslides and floods do have a devastating effect on farmers livelihoods as they can prevent access to land for years, destroy seeds and food stocks and will completely result in the loss of livestock and standing crops. Erosion of top soil and continuous flooding also decrease the fertility of soil and can also make the land unarable.

What is being done to cover up the losses in agriculture?

Beside the odd image of toppled trees or cattle wadding through floodwaters , agriculture barely makes headlines when a natural disaster strikes. The effect of such disasters on agriculture is so severe that it becomes national agenda stirring debates from grassroot levels to parliament. But it remains limited only on papers and forums as only little is done to implement sustainable farming which is Far more resilient towards such disasters. Only 5-10% of post disaster humanitarian aid targeted agriculture, the findings point out. In case of our country , the marginalized and disadvantageous who largely rely on agriculture typically live in steep slopes under the constant shadow of landslides or in low lying flood prone areas  and have virtually no resources with which to bounce back after  a weather related community.in some cases the government . In relatively cases assistance has been granted to farmers in the form of immediate cash grants  and subsidies in agricultural inputs but such relief packages have not been in reach to every disaster hit farmers. The government’s response in addressing the havoc in agriculture has been more centered around the post disaster scenario.  The voice that emphasizes building resilient agriculture system based on the principles of agricultural sustainability remains unaddressed.

What should be done? (risk management)

The plans and policies should not be response centric rather it should support disaster risk reduction and preparedness for recovery which might be essential for resilient agriculture system. Disaster information system should be strengthened . Disaster information so far have remained scattered and disintegrated which constrain making timely analysis of loss and damage and building scenarios for future impacts that could have helped in risk informed financing  and planning  for preparedness, response, risk reduction  and ultimately resilience enhancement. Modern farming techniques which  justifies environment conservation should be incorporated.  SALT technology and terrace farming should be done in the mid hills of Nepal. Crops having higher coverage areas should be planted so as to reduce surface run off.  Farming in very steep slopes should be discarded rather such slopes should be covered with trees.  Unplanned developmental activities in such slopes and in the underlying lands of tarai should be checked. The cropping system should be changed in accordance with the changing climatic condition so that there would be minimal loss if disaster hit the particular area such as planting of water resistant crops(deep water rice) in flood prone areas. Department of hydrology and meteorology should disseminate information across the whole country via the proper assessment of climatic conditions so that measures could be applied thus preventing huge losses.

 Fig ;General overview of SALT technology  in agriculture

Natural disasters are a dramatic example of people living in conflict with the environment. Early predictions and warnings are essential for the reduction of property damage and loss of life. Because landslides and floods occur frequently and can represent some of the most destructive forces on earth, it is imperative to have a good understanding as to what causes them and how people can either help prevent them from occurring or simply avoid them when they do occur, as it is famously said” By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”.