Nepal, with support from The Asian Development Bank (ADB), is developing a climate change adaptation project in the Karnali and Mahakali Basins in western Nepal. The overall objective is to develop climate resilient landscape and livelihoods in those regions. FutureWater contributes by developing the initial scoping project documents to be used for detailed design of the project.
Nepal’s freshwater availability and timing are under thread by extreme temperature and precipitation variations, changing monsoon patterns, melting of ice caps and glaciers, and reduced snow cover. Some initial estimated economic cost of climate change in agriculture, hydropower and water induced disasters show a number of up to 2-3% of GDP per year by 2050.
The proposed project aims to improve landscape-scale adaptation and disaster risk management through a set of outputs:
- Climate-smart landscape management practices adopted and enhanced
- Climate-resilient rural livelihoods developed
- Integrated disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation approaches
- Capacities of local communities, regional and national decision-makers, and institutions on climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction strengthened
FutureWater developed a so-called “Problem Tree” analysis for the proposed project. A Problem Tree is a helpful tool to understand the relationships between a problem, its causes, and its effects. The trunk of the tree represents the main problem, the roots the causes of the problem, and the branches the direct and indirect effects of the problem.
The project will be further developed as a so-called Climate Change Adaptation Project. More traditional development projects include also climate proofing, but focus is on development investments and adaptation is a secondary objective. Although those development projects contribute to adaptation (by helping the proposed asset or activity being financed to adapt to identified physical climate risks to the asset/activity), the primary objective of such a project is not adaptation. Climate Change Adaptation Projects are intentionally designed to enable climate adaptation of a high-risk topics. This is achieved by supporting outputs and activities that reduce the impacts of current and future expected climate risks and/or address barriers to adaptation, thereby advancing resilience. So this Climate Change Adaptation Project is meant to advance Nepal’s goal on adaptation.
