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Dancing With The River
The Ghaghara flows into the Ganga downstream in Bihar in one of the most flood-prone regions and most densely-populated regions of the world. Floods in the Ganga basin between 2000 and 2014 affected about 93 million people. According to a 2018 report from the International Water Management Institute, there were 326 extreme flood events in the Ganga basin between 1980 to 2015 resulting in 67,000 casualties. Of these 212 floods were in India, 74 in Bangladesh and 40 in Nepal. China accounts for 4% of the basin, but there is almost no information about floods there.
Restore Our Earth
In the 12 watersheds, conservation champions from indigenous communities have emerged, each taking action to protect the aquatic life, habitats, and livelihoods around them. Seema Gharti (pictured at right), from the Magar community, is one of those champions. She lives in the scenic Airawati village in the Jhimruk Watershed in mid-western Nepal, where water levels are decreasing and fish quantity and diversity is dwindling.
Collaboration For Watershed Conservation In Nepal
Paani is helping fishing communities conserve freshwater biodiversity and implement sustainable water management practices in the 12 priority watersheds. To do this, Paani is partnering with local NGOs such as the Human Welfare and Environment Protection Center (HWEPC) in Dang District. The organization works with rural municipalities in the Middle Rapti watershed to form community fishing groups that empower local stakeholders to protect their aquatic resources. In Rapti Rural Municipality, HWEPC helped form the 21-member Baikha fishing group, with Pateshwori Chaudhary as chairperson.
The Koshi Sorrow And Scope
Three decades after it was first proposed, a 26.5km tunnel starts supplying water from Melamchi to Kathmandu. A deadly flood on the Melamchi-Indrawati in Sindhupalchok on 16 June kills at least 27 people, and destroys infrastructure. The much-delayed 465MW Upper Tama Kosi hydropower plant starts feeding electricity to the national grid. SJVN says it has completed half the work on the 900MW Arun III project and the Investment Board awarded it another contract to develop the 679MW Lower Arun as well. Work has begun on the Sunkosi-Marin Diversion, to channel water to the Bagmati Basin and irrigate much of Province 2.
