Kathmandu, Apr. 23: Experts
have urged for a trans-boundary collaboration, including sharing of knowledge
and fostering practices that address the trans-boundary scale of disaster, for
the reduction of disaster risk in the Koshi Basin.
Upstream-downstream
linkages in the Koshi Basin can be a basis for shared disasters and provide opportunities for disaster risk
reduction and livelihood improvement, they said while deliberating at the
International Conference on 'Mountain development in a context of global change
with special focus on the Himalayas'.
Noting that although
efforts have been made to improve disaster risk reduction in the basin, the DRR
policies lack a multi-hazard risk assessment, they also suggest the
institutions and stakeholders in the region collaborating for and adopting a
standardised, multi-hazard risk assessment approach.
Wei Deng, Professor at
the Institute of Mountain Hazards and Environment (IMHE), China, said that a
robust network should be created among China, Nepal and India in order to study
the disaster risks and remedies, livelihoods and environment in the Koshi
Basin.
He was speaking at a
special session on 'Climate change adaptation and disaster risk management in
the Koshi River Basin' and Workshop on National Natural Science Foundation
China (NSFC) – International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
(ICIMOD) joint projects.
The region, which is
home to about 40 million people, has multi-hazard environment such as floods,
landslides and draught.
Disasters in the region
often have cascading trans-boundary impact with upstream and downstream
linkages. In addition, an increase in the incidence of extreme weather events
due to climate change and environmental degradation is expected to magnify the
frequency and impact of such disasters, said a note on the topic published by
ICIMOD.
Nilhari Neupane of
ICIMOD said that women, poor people and marginalised communities are more
vulnerable to disasters due to their poor or no access to reliable information
of disaster risks and knowledge on coping with the natural hazards.
"Mountainous
districts in the Koshi Basin are the most vulnerable followed by the mid-hills
and plains. The mountainous and mid-hill districts are more vulnerable in terms
of resource stress and ecological security while the plain is more vulnerable
in terms of development pressure," he said.
He also said that the
whole basin lacked management capacity, and suggested that adaptation
strategies should focus at local and sub-basin characteristics rather than a blanked
approach.
Yiping Fang, an expert
from IMHE, said that lives, livelihoods and properties were affected by the
disasters which might push people into poverty.
Recent studies have concluded
that the rural livelihood, which is closely related to the environmental
changes, is the key point for the sustainability research of the basin. But
rural livelihood in the Koshi River Basin faces the dual challenges from water
resources and water disasters.
The local communities
are unable to use the water in their benefits such as drinking and irrigation
while the out of 21 potentially critical glacial lakes, 18 are in the Koshi
basin.
The six-day conference began
on Friday will conclude on 26 April.
It is being organised
by the Central Department of Geography, Tribhuvan University, NSFC, ICIMOD,
Nepal Academy of Science and Technology, Nepal Geographical Society, Sichuan
Geographical Society China, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
France, and Deparrtment of Land Science and Biogeography at Chinese Academy of
Sciences.
No comments:
Post a Comment