Essay 6: Select a potential impact of climate change on people in Nepal. What are the risks associated with the impact you selected? Who is at risk? Do the risks vary for different people or different places? How and why? What capacities and resources do people have for responding to the risks?
Extreme flooding is a potential impact of climate change that could greatly impact people in Nepal. Flooding is a risk that Nepal will face because of monsoons becoming more extreme as well as sea level rising. Nepal is also home to some of the largest glaciers in the world located in the Himalayas. This melting as well as more extreme weather patterns will have large impacts on the people of Nepal. People who will face the largest issues will be those who are already impoverished. Due to large amounts of geographic variation in Nepal people will also be affected in different ways. People who live in the high mountains will be affected differently than people who live in the Terrai. Many issues also arise because people are trying to deal with current issues of flooding and are not able to think about working on future adaptations to flooding.
The risks that are associated with flooding is that it can take everything away from someone. In Nepal, many groups are used to having some sort of flooding but an increase in amount of water and how often will likely leave more people devastated in the future. Flooding will also have large impacts on the agriculture sector (45). The agricultural sector supports 86% of people in Nepal. In areas that are further from glaciers, disease is predicted to spread quicker. These diseases include malaria and other water borne diseases. These waterborne diseases are spread quickly to newborns and their mothers when these floods happen.
People living in poverty have less capacity to migrate and respond when these issues happen. The majority of the poorest people in Nepal live in highest flood risk areas. The people who are most vulnerable in these situations are elders and young children as they do not have the same access to mobility that others do.
In 2005 Nepal signed the “Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters provides”. This established a plan to help more people respond to risks and build capacity. Nepal also has looked into improving drainage systems, putting homes on stilts and other options to help build social resilience. They have also highlighted people at greater risk which include children, pregnant women, poorer groups and the elderly. Nepal plans to assess the vulnerabilities in different areas to find solutions. They are also working on studying health impacts. They think that sharing stories and experiences will also help people to become more resilient and they are funding training in disaster risk reduction. These floods will become more extreme leaving groups more vulnerable as well as in more distress. While solutions are being worked on floods are getting more extreme and more difficult to combat.
A., & R. (2010). Climate change in Nepal and its impact on Himalayan glaciers. Springer-Verlag .
Dewan, T. (2014, April 9). Societal impacts and vulnerability to floods in Bangladesh and Nepal. Elselvir. Retrieved from https://reader.elsevier.com/reader/sd/A30613DFD39B8C9EB5CB7FABEE9A7D1F2710088F7E720CA7518A8F0499909B8E5FD4E863709103F1DB2C48B64677166D.The floods in Asia – What’s happening and why. (2017, August 25). Retrieved October 23, 2017, from https://reliefweb.int/report/nepal/floods-asia-what-s-happening-and-why