KATHMANDU — Until a few years ago, villagers in Siraha in Nepal’s Madhesh province accessed water by digging a few meters into the ground, as this method was easier than laying pipes. Water gushed readily from the ground. However, residents like Sunil Yadav from Siraha district now must dig at least 30 meters (100 feet) to find water. Even deep wells run dry during peak summer as heat waves increase demand. Ironically, during the monsoon season from July to September, the region appears water-abundant due to heavy rainfall, which at times washes away entire settlements and agricultural fields. “When we don’t need water, there’s too much of it, but when we need it, there’s not enough,” Yadav said at an event in Kathmandu. Activists such as Yadav argue that policymakers in Kathmandu conveniently attribute this crisis to global climate change to attract international attention and deflect local accountability. Although climate change plays a role, the primary causes lie in the government’s failure over the past decade to regulate extractive industries in the fragile Chure range, also known as the water reservoir of the plans, critics say. The Chure range, the youngest and southernmost chain of the Himalayas, stretches from the banks of the Indus River in Pakistan in the west to that of the Brahmaputra in the east. This “fragile” range, formed by river deposits, plays a crucial role in groundwater retention and recharge in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, one of the world’s most densely populated areas. It also serves as…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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