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Story of Climate Change in Nepal |
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Nepal is a small landlocked country full of natural beauties.It is also called a mountainous country as there are more than 250 mountains including the highest peak in the wold, Mt. Everest. Most of the people here are farmers and their major occupation is agriculture. 34.7 percentage of the total national GDP depends on agriculture.
Nepal contributes to 0.025 % of the global greenhouse gas emissions which is still some amount but negligible as compared to other global emitters and its neighboring countries: India and China. Despite ranking lowest in the emission rate, Nepal has been severely hit by the impacts of climate change.The people in Nepal have been facing extreme weather events, erratic rainfall, glacial lake outburst floods which has resulted to the loss of lives and property.The people here have been facing serious health hazards such as skin cancers, respiratory and other infectious diseases. Nepal accounts for 2.1 % of the share of biodiversity in the world. Biodiversity differs here with every change in the geographical distance of 150 Kilometers. Various kinds of climate are experienced in Nepal from the distance of 70 meters to 8848 meters from the sea level.This variation of biodiversity with the geographical variation might have contributed to high impact of climate change here. Forest fires,deforestation,extinction of tree species are the dangers of biodiversity. Forest act as carbon sink as they intake Carbon dioxide during photosynthesis thus contributing in reduction of climate change impacts to some extent. There are more than 3252 glaciers and 2323 glacial lakes in Nepal which are the fresh water resources for more than 1.3 billion population across South Asia. They are also considered as water towers of Asia. But due to global warming,more than 20 glacial lakes of Nepal are in real danger of outbursts. 5 glacial lakes of Sagarmatha National park have outburst. A hydro power station was washed away by Dig Tsho Glacial lake outburst flood back in 1985 AD. Climate change is challenging our development activities too. More than 60 % of the climate change impacts are reflected in water. The people in rural villages of Nepal walk miles to fetch a single gallon of water. The people in urban areas have to wait for 3 to 4 hours a day just to fill their empty water vessels.The sad part is that the sources of water are not clean and many people die every year due to water-borne diseases. Poor, women and children of the marginalized communities are affected the most. Women have been facing health issues such as back ache, uterine prolapse and miscarriages as they carry heavy loads even during the pregnancy period. The children miss their schools queuing up for water and many social conflicts arise too. Agriculture sector is hardest hit by the impacts of climate change in Nepal. The temperature rise, variation in rainfall and increasing intensity and frequency of extreme climate events has been affecting the agricultural production of the country. The people here depend on the rainfall to irrigate the fields and paddy production has tremendously decreased this year due to the change in precipitation pattern. Other than these, wind events, hailstorm have also affected our traditional mode of agricultural system. Floods and droughts that we face every year decrease the soil fertility and decline the moisture content and Nepalese are going to face severe food scarcity if this continues for longer period. Nepal has also taken some steps to deal with the impacts of climate change through different kinds of adaptation practices.National Adaptation Plan for Action(NAPA), Local Adaptation Plan for Action(LAPA), NAPs etc are adopted and these practices have been helping to some extent.Many civil society organizations, youth networks and the government have been carrying out awareness campaigns, researches and projects to combat the effects of climate change. Nepal will face less impact of climate change or it can adapt to changing climate provided that the organizations working on climate change transfer the skills and technology along with the awareness programs. Nepal is a country full of natural resources being one of the most potential country for hydro power. Nepal alone has the capacity of generating hydroelectricity of 83000 MW . However, it has been able to produce only 818 MW. Nepal also has enormous potentials for wind and solar energy which are the clean energy sources and also renewable. But, it has not been to utilize its resources properly. The reasons behind this are the geographical barriers, lack of modern technology, lack of skilled human resource and others. |
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4 Comments
Thank you prabhati for sharing about your beautiful nation and your concern.
Posted 09-11-2015 21:09
Fondly recall my trip to Nepal in 2013. The place is so beautiful an full of natural beauty. We had traveled all across Nepal including the boat ride to the Varahi temple. On the way we could see at a distance the lovely nature and early morning fog covering the scenery a bit but these images still remain fresh in our minds. Hope to make another trip to Nepal. Great place....
Posted 24-10-2015 14:54
Thank you Bindu for your concern :) Yes, we can definitely fight climate change together although we cannot avoid it completely. Also I am highly inspired by the work you are doing from your level :)
Posted 13-10-2015 14:09
Dear Parbati, you presented the scenario of Nepal and context of climate change so well. Our glaciers and agriculture are major sectors that are vulnerable to the effects of climate change. I hope youths and government will work hand in hand to address this issue. Together we can fight climate change :)
Posted 13-10-2015 13:34