Trans-boundary Processes: Interfacing micro and the macro
Ajaya DixitInstitutional Social and Environmental Transition-Nepal
River Waters: Perspectives and Challenges for Asia
New Delhi 20th September 2011
Combined basic properties of water (p, µ, v) with the physical factor (d, k) establishing an analytical tool to estimate friction factor and consequently head loss in pipe flows.
• Technology guided;
• Construction focused: Sectoral
• Political scientists and legal professionals negotiate civil engineers design:
• Bureaucratic arm of the nation-state can and will allocate and distribute benefits
But
considered ecosystem, quality, social, political, institutional and human
behaviour issues peripheral.
lacked inter-disciplinarity
• No conclusive understanding of what is going on or will happen: • Practice of science • Technology has distributive impacts• Benefits but also risks• Emerging stresses lead to resilience depletion • Governance and power balance in society • Scale question • Fast paced changes
The context
Ganga basin and Nepal
Tinau is tributary of the West Rapti, a tributary of Ghagra which is a tributary of the Ganga
3,200 km2
3,250 Km2 in Nepal 850 km2 in India
Source : Gyawali and Dixit 1999
Issues
• Drinking water supply: municipal, rural: quality, quantity • Health, hygiene• Sanitation (latrines, pollution, wastewater and solid waste)• Irrigation: surface: farmers built, agency built: competition and conflict • Groundwater: deep shallow manual, mechanised; overdraft • Flood disaster: inundation, sand casting, and bank cutting and river shifting• Drought: Forest fires• Poverty, livelihoods, gender and other types of social differential
Rising competition and disputes
Administrative Regions (Regional scales)
Ecological Region Total Population in 2001
Average coverage in %
Drinking Water Sanitation
Eastern Mountain
Hill
Tarai 54
Central Mountain 82
Hill 58
Tarai
Western Mountain
Hill
Tarai
Midwestern
Mountain
Hill
Tarai
Farwestern
Mountain 15
Hill
Tarai
Drinking water access (Nepal)
National scale
Population 106
Population (%) with access to
Latrines Electricity for lighting
BankingServices
Improved drinking water
30 40 82
Local scale
Source: District Profile DWSS/ADB Phase 3 (2000)
Region VDCs Drinking water supply coverage (%) Data unavailable (%)
>85 51-84 31-50 10-30 <10
East (9) 427 11 42 25 15 4 4 (48)
Mid West(7) 325 18 34 12 18 10 9 (49)
Far West (5) 194 10 47 17 13 5 7 (42)
• High levels of uncertainty in both local and regional climate changes, complex and poorly understood (IPCC AR4 “white” spot)
• Limited data stations (placement, lack of resources: finances and human) AR5?
• Adaptation to climate change embedded in dynamic socio- economic contexts with multiple change drivers: demographic,
land-use, informational, etc
• People also respond, autonomously but differently
• Political incentives and governance mechanism vary greatly, and with them the ability to develop and strategies (adaptation)
Climate Change Adaptation Lenses
Re-thinking Responses
• Systemic perspective; within and between systems issues
• Constraint Analysis
• Adaptive response
Adaptation is capacity to switch strategy as condition change (flexibility and incremental)
• If we define adaptation as planned responses to specific projected impacts, then specific climate-targeted responses are required.
If we conceive adaptation as an ongoing, process within complex evolving systems, then approaches that address points of vulnerability within systems are needed
To the conceptual
Not only
m3/s
Head
MW
Kwh
Ha irrigated etc
per capita lit/person etc.
But alsoEquity
Efficiency
Sustainability (flexibility and resilience)
Transparency
Participatory decision-making: gender and social inclusion
Social differentials, ecosystems and the requirement of the mute
For rivers and waters
Responses to all water problems need to be founded on principles of democratic
governance.
Thank you for your time