A team from IWMI visited farmers on Friday to collect more information from ground zero after the floods receded — and to assure farmers that they would get their insurance money.
If we utilize our water better upstream, what will happen downstream? Will water availability decrease? Is watershed improvement a zero-sum game with the gains upstream deducted from the situation downstream, or is it an overall system improvement? Or if we take a broader view of water-related ecosystems services, how does more intense upstream water use have an impact on all relevant ecosystem services in the entire area? Who are the winners and who are the losers? Frank van Steenbergen, Tesfa-alem Gebreegziabher Embaye and Eyasu Hagos take a crack at answering these questions.
While pollution of the Ganges appears to be an insoluble problem, demand for water – driven mainly by farming – is actually drying out certain sections of the river. Solutions exist but they require a complete rethink of current institutional frameworks and business models.
Hydropower development in Uttarakhand, India has been stalled due to disagreements with local communities. A research project recommends new policies on fair and structured benefits-sharing to ensure mutually beneficial and sustainable hydropower development.
"At least 73% of the land of Bihar is flood-prone. If we take those areas which were flooded due to Kosi bund breach in 2008 into account, it goes to over 80%."
Collective action is the key to reviving drying springs in the mid-hills of Nepal, which act as a lifeline for local households. The Dailekh community is leading the way.
In response to problems that have come about related to water resources and ecosystem services in the Red River basin, one project has combined high level technical approaches, including remote sensing data, with citizen science in order to pilot more holistic solutions.
A study in Nepal’s Tarai-Madhesh region highlights that, despite changes in the roles women are playing in agriculture, many of them are having trouble accessing water resources for irrigation. Recommendations have been developed in a new technical brief.
International Water Management Institute (IWMI), a non-profit scientific research organization focusing on the sustainable use of water and land resources in developing countries has encouraged women in the Upper East region of Ghana to go into agriculture by providing them with small water reservoirs.
The Upper East Regional Women in Agriculture Development Officer, Mary Kogana Paula has called on traditional rulers, family heads and society to give women the opportunity to have access to land for agricultural purposes in Ghana.
