Enhancing Watershed Management: Integrated Water Resources Management in Nepal

By Nilu Basnyat, Chief of Party, USAID/Nepal Paani Program  • 

IMPLEMENTING PARTNERS

DAI

Nepal

USAID’s Program for Aquatic Natural Resources Improvement, known as Paani (Nepali for water), aims to enhance Nepal’s ability to manage water resources through an integrated approach in 12 priority watersheds.

Funding Approach: Single Funded with Co-benefits. Geographic Approach: Co-located. Sectors Integrated: Biodiversity and Water.

Paani recognizes that watershed health is fundamentally cross-sectoral and requires both conserving freshwater biodiversity and improving the sustainability of Nepal’s infrastructure development and road construction.

Nepal’s citizens are increasingly demanding rural access to markets, services, and urban centers. In response, the Government of Nepal is rapidly building roads, many of which are poorly constructed and contribute to erosion, which poses a significant hazard to human and watershed health throughout the country. In addition, gravel and sand mining and extraction for the construction industry are changing the morphology of Nepal’s streams and damaging aquatic ecosystems and habitats. While investing in infrastructure is critical for Nepal’s growth, if not pursued in a sustainable manner and with strong environmental and social safeguards, poorly planned infrastructure can exacerbate disaster risk and degrade the natural resource base that underpins Nepal’s future prosperity.

To respond to these challenges, Paani coordinates with local government, community groups, and other stakeholders to identify threats to watershed and river system health, including unplanned infrastructure development and destructive fishing practices. The activity is partnering with stakeholders in the Middle Karnali Watershed to establish and strengthen conservation groups, and to identify livelihood alternatives to overfishing. Paani is also developing tailored conservation policies and laws and supporting conservation groups and their respective local government bodies to implement the laws. These efforts are collectively enhancing local communities’ ability to efficiently manage their natural resource management and improve governance of Nepal’s vital river basins and watersheds.

Lessons Learned

Identify how to best communicate with and support the interests and priorities of various stakeholders. Determine what approach will work best.

For instance, Paani learned that communicating the negative impact of poorly planned road construction on aquatic biodiversity was not an effective strategy for engaging with communities advocating for rural road development. These groups were more receptive when staff pointed out that poorly constructed roads wash out after a single monsoon season, pose a safety hazard for families when traveling, and may reduce water volume from or eliminate spring sources.

Identify the best entry point for communicating with communities. Connecting road improvement issues to watershed improvement helped Paani to engage communities in advocating for both improved infrastructure and watershed planning and development. This process included regulation of local road construction and maintenance and development of an Aquatic Animals and Biodiversity Conservation Bill, which six municipalities in the Middle Karnali watershed endorsed. Understand how proposed activities impact outcomes in multiple sectors, especially when pursuing an integrated water resources management approach.

Identify the appropriate governance level at which to promote integration.

Target the level of government that is most likely to support your approach. Paani found that local government officials were more engaged than national government officials in integrated water resources management approaches that address both infrastructure challenges and improve watershed governance; consequently, the activity targeted local officials in capacity building efforts related to environmentally friendly road construction guidelines for procurement and construction processes.

Engaging with local government and citizens is improving watershed management and basin-level planning in Nepal.

This case study is made possible by the support of the American People through USAID. The contents of this case study are the sole responsibility of DAI Global and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government.

Learn More

Explore more case studies on the USAID Biodiversity Integration Case Competition website.

Learn more about biodiversity integration with other USAID technical sectors on BRIDGE.

For more information on USAID/Nepal and DAI’s work on watershed conservation, please visit USAID/PAANI and USAID Global Waters.

Contact

Christopher Dege, Team Lead, Environment and Energy Team, USAID/Nepal

Cdege (at) usaid (dot) gov

Nilu Basnyat, Chief of Party, Paani

Nilu_Basnyat@dai.com

Kashmira Kakati, Environment Specialist, USAID/Nepal

kkakati@usaid.gov