Training Report

TRAINING WORKSHOP ON CLIMATE CHANGE AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION

(8-9 April, 2013)

  

Organized by

Peri-urban Water Security Project,

Nepal Engineering College 

Schools in our community play a critical role not only in shaping minds of the children, the knock on effect of which contributes in creating society capable to deal with challenges. Considering the role schools can play in fostering awareness about environmental issues and preparing the students at individual level, followed by family and the entire community for conserving and maintaining healthy environment, environmental education was incorporated into school curriculum. This has also been included as a requirement of the new National School Curriculum, but unfortunately most educators receive no training to enable them to do so. Recognizing the contribution that teachers can make to create awareness at the community level, peri-urban research team at nec organized two days long training workshop on Climate change and environmental education for the secondary level teachers from all schools across the four study sites.  The purpose of this training was to inform school teachers about general concept of climate change including tips and techniques on communicating it clearly into their classroom teaching and at community levels thereby ultimately contributing to reduce its adverse impacts. Simultaneously, the training also aimed to contribute in initiating a culture of environmental awareness and activism within the school community. The training programme was organized, at nec-CPS premises in Balkhu and targeted teachers from schools across all four peri-urban study sites teaching science and environmental science subjects to secondary level students.

The programme was scheduled for two days on 8th and 9th April 2013. Professional environmental education facilitators were outsourced from Clean Energy Nepal (CEN), a non-profit organization focusing on research based education and advocacy campaigns on issues related to climate change, sustainable energy use and environmental conservation. The aim of outsourcing facilitators from CEN was to ensure the training for effective conveying of basics of climate change science, its impacts, responses towards changing climate at different levels and awareness on climate change and effectively propagating significances of environmental awareness. This also aimed to motivating teachers to include action-oriented approaches to environmental education that use participatory methodologies and encourage students towards practical application of environmental education.

Thirteen participants (9 male and 4 female) from different schools across the site participated in the training. The first day of the training focused on widening the horizon of understanding on the basics of climate change science, impacts of climate change, concepts of adaptation, coping, and resilience in responding to climate change through deliberations and discourses aiming to convey the issue of climate change more effectively within and beyond class rooms thereby ultimately contributing to reduce its adverse impacts. The second day focused primarily in upgrading the teachers skill in integrating climate change education in school, in making assessment of eco-friendly environment within school premises and involving students in such activities at both school and community levels by means of group discussions and exercises on these.

Day 1

The welcome speech was delivered by Mr. Rajesh Sada, Research Co-ordinator. With short note on the research project, project partners, supporting institution, the research objectives and the objectives of the training, he handed over the floor to the facilitators from Clean Energy Nepal to formally begin the training sessions.

Introducing herself, Ms. Amita Thapa Magar from CEN gave a brief introduction of CEN, including its prioritized working areas and publications in various environmental issues. She then collected a brief note on the expectation of the participants from the training so as to frame the training sessions effectively achieving the targets. The main expectations of the participating teachers focused on improving the individual knowledge on basics of climate change and learning new skills of teaching students on climate change and engaging students in environmental friendly activities.

Fig 1: Science of Climate Change

The technical session began with a comprehensive presentation by Mr. Sunil Acharya from CEN on the Science of Climate change. Explaining that the global climate system is a consequence of the earth’s energy budget and influenced by The Atmosphere, The ice sheets (Cryosphere), Living organisms (Biosphere), The soils, sediments and rocks (Geosphere), he discussed more details of climate system, energy budget, carbon cycle, climate models and climate forecast. His presentation also included note on green house gases, emission scenario by developed countries, emerging economies and the least developed countries relating it to the negligible emission scenario of Nepal. During the presentation, the participants clarified their doubts on the green house gases and the facilitator also introduced the concept of carbon foot print including the need to reduce it. He also introduced the international treaties and protocols on reducing carbon emission and the blame game that has been going on at the international level for accepting the role in carbon emission and how has that ultimately hampering the motive of reducing carbon emission. Explaining the global climate change scenario, he also explained the temperature increase rate being above the global average, increase its vulnerability to the likely negative impacts of changing climate.

Following this was the presentation by Mr. Manjeet Dhakal from CEN highlighting on the potential impacts of climate change on different regions of the world and impact of climate change specifically in Nepal especially in Agriculture, Natural Disaster, Water Resources, Biodiversity and Health. Sharing the instances of various incidences that have occurred over Nepal, he also shed light on those aspects that can be aggravated with increasing climatic uncertainty through the evidences which have started to be gradually manifested. Simultaneously, remaining circumspect on the misinterpretation of the impacts of climate change, he stressed on the risk of growing trend of heedlessly attributing every incidence to climate change and emphasized on the need of detailed study and investigations. Furthermore, he also briefly discussed on the positive approaches that have been initiated in Nepal reducing emission of green house gases and mitigation to climate change. Appreciating the activities such as promotion of alternative source of energy and community forests, he briefly explained the contribution of these practices as the clean development mechanism and the contribution made by these technologies as source of revenue through carbon trading.

Proceeding forward was Ms. Anushiya Shrestha, Research assistant, peri-urban research team at nec, shared the findings on the study of climatic variability in Kathmandu wherein she briefly shared on the findings from climatic data analysis with major focus on the impression of changing climate and the impacts of climate change as perceived and experienced by the local people along with the adaptive and coping strategies practiced by the local people across four peri-urban VDC. Sharing the findings contributed the teachers to be aware about the field based realities and thus capacitate them in effectively communicating the findings with the larger mass including students, their colleagues at the school and the community itself of which they are well appreciated as  intellectual groups. Thus could be an effective mediator for disseminating the findings to the community. Following this Mr. Sada added upon the major issues across each of the study sites and how these have been affecting the livelihood of local people and provoking dissatisfaction among the local people and instigating conflicts of different natures.

Following this was the a documentary show explaining the context of changing climate in Nepal, the impacts of changing climate and the activities undertaken and the challenges Nepal has been facing through in addressing the issues of climate change. Next was the deliberation on different ways of responding to climate change by Mr. Acharya and Mr. Dhakal. During the presentations, they described the concept of mitigation, resilience, coping and adaptation. Mitigation is related with the human intervention to reduce the sources or enhance the sinks of greenhouse gases while adaptation at local, community, national were described as stage having resilience over the climatic variability. The presentation also explained about the concept of loss and damage as the concept that has come up to address the vulnerability of the climatic impacts and include actions to compensate the irreversible impacts of climate change despite the action to mitigate climate change. As per the presenters, damage can be those economic or non-economic negative impacts that can be repaired or restored while loss can be characterized as those negative impacts that cannot be repaired or restored. Loss and Damage represents the actual and / or potential manifestation of climate impacts that negatively affect human and natural systems. These concepts being new and the participating teachers were confused to some extent. The confusion was cleared up through the instances from different countries, national practices and local practices including the coping and adaptive practices documented by the peri-urban research team through the study.

Mr. Dhakal shared his experiences and the analysis on the context of global conferences on climate change, the mechanism of participating by different nations including delegates from Nepal and the efforts and complications in developing the strategies, conventions and frameworks that can be accepted by developed, emerging economies and the least developed countries. Alongside, he also highlighted the current status of national adaptation plan of action (NAPA) and local adaptation plan of action (LAPA) in Nepal where both have been prepared but the implementation at the field have not yet been commenced.

Closing the day, Mr. Sada suggested the participants for more active participation in the following day for which the participants considered the climate change had been a very important issue for them as the environment and science teachers but were lacking knowledge thus the first day had been highly informative and useful in expanding them understanding on the conceptual and contextual scenario of climate change.

Day 2

The second day of the training dealt with the importance of climate change education in school education and the need of including climate change within curriculum and expanding the umbrella of curriculum to provide the information on the climate and create next generation aware, concerned and prepared to tackle the climatic uncertainties. During the presentation, Mr. Sunil Acharya shared local, global and future dimensions to climate change education and suggested on the use of local learning and real life experiences as means of motivating the young people and their communities in climate friendly behavior and preparing them to respond to the threat of changing climate. He also stressed on the need of expanding the on-going role played by teachers beyond the academic drilling for stimulating and reinforcing understanding of and attentiveness to the realities of climate change where reducing the consumptive behavior, shifting to non-polluting renewable energy sources and environmental conservation through reforestation and afforestation were presented as some of the areas where the teachers can be self- involved and inspire the students to be involved. He introduced 4C framework to climate change learning which included curriculum, campus, community and culture as the four pillars of climate change education. Furthermore, his presentation also explained how developing action addressing climate change and implementing educational and training programs beyond the class room course and science on climate change can contribute as the main vehicle in addressing a societal responsibility in reducing the scope and severity of climate change.

Fig 2: 4C Framework to Climate Change Learning

Following this was a presentation by Ms. Amita Thapa Magar where she reflected on ways and shared practices of initiating climate friendly behavior in school. Introducing the concept of green audit, she explained it as a self assessment of the school environment lead by the students on different themes viz. water, waste and land (open space).  She explained how the exercise on green audit will help students to understand the existing environmental condition of the schools. Sharing her experiences of working with various public and private schools, she explained how have the “Save My School” (SMS) ambassadors have been facilitating the Green Audit in the schools and also conducting trainings and orientation programs in the school in coordination with the school management even at the schools with resource constraint.

She also presented the overview of school program conducted at different schools through students which included the formation of Students’ Committee and their active participation in Green Audit, Action Plan, Local Day of Action. The participating teachers shared different natures and scales of environment friendly practices exercised at their school. Some of those mentioned included rainwater harvesting, plantation of a tree within the school premises by each batch of students passing the school leaving certificate and involving students group in caring for the planted tree. Among others, involving students in environmental campaigns, rally, maintaining cleanliness of school and community, declaring the area as open toilet free zone and polythene free zone were some already practiced at different participating schools. An interesting case was from Jhaukhel where the students from different houses or teams were involved in maintaining organic garden within the school premise under the monitoring and guidance of the teacher of individual house and the produced vegetables were exhibited and marketed among the teachers. The collected fund were maintained by students through house wise account and used for the maintenance of the garden.

Considering the growing urbanization and pollution in Kathmandu, Ms. Magar suggested engaging students in assessing and analyzing the consumption pattern and pollution level within the school premises and involved the participants in the demonstration through questionnaires developed for water audit, land audit and waste audit. She further suggested on forming the Green-Schools Committee which should be as representative of the whole school or capacitating the existing nature-club/ eco-club of the school to act as a Green School Committee. For this, her strong recommendation was on managing an active involvement of students, teachers including the principal and non-teaching Staff for the effective continuation of the initiatives. She also pointed out on the need of appreciation and encouragement for students's activities on wall magazine, notice board and other school program. Additionally, she also collected some activities that the participants thought could be imparted from them as teachers to their students in promoting environment and climate friendly behavior. Some of those stated by teachers include turning off appliances when not in use, encourage the parents and relatives to change the light bulbs to energy efficient ones, planting trees, to walk, cycle or use bus, carry a cloth bag when going shopping instead of plastic bags etc.

The teachers from private school accepted themselves to be in more resourceful situation can conduct extracurricular activities including the environmental friendly behavior, while the teachers representing the public school shared the pathetic situation where the students and the parents are unable and/or unwilling to make any investment and thus expanding the working area beyond academic arena was extremely challenging and thus requested CEN for the possible help and support. Addressing the request, the resource persons from CEN accepted to continue interactions to support some schools and also provided the name of organizations potential to provide the support.

The last session involved furthermore group works where the participants in five different groups discussed on climate change. This session helped the participants to reconfirm their understanding on two days session on climate change and integrating environmental education in school. Furthermore, the performance by the team was instrumental in evaluating the understanding of individual participants for the facilitators and the nec-peri-urban research team as the organizer. The resource materials were provided to all the participants. As all the schools were on the verge of entering into the new academic session, the participants showed enthusiasm to initiate and expand the education on environment and promote awareness on climate change among the students, co-workers, school administration and furthermore expand at the community level.

The session was closed with the speech from Prof. Ashutosh Shukla on environment, water and climate change and closing remarks by Mr. Sada.

Preparing a Platform for Sharing Problems to Concerned organization

     With the facilitation of peri-urban water security project, an informal discussion programme was organized at Lubhu VDC on 23^rd December, 2012. The main aim of the programme was to share the problem related to protection of Upper Dovan water source at Dovan River of Lubhu which is a source of domestic water for more than 400 households of the VDC, to the official from Department of Water Induced Disaster Prevention (DWIDP). Prem Lasiwa, an engineer of planning division of DWIDP was participated for discussion with representative from Upper Dovan Drinking Water Supply Committee. After the discussion with the representatives from the committee, Mr. Lasiwa asked the committee members to submit an application to DWIDP for protecting their water source intake and committed for the selection of the committee’s application for this year budget. The representatives from the water supply committee were happy with the programme and requested for organizing similar kind of interaction programme in future.

Training on Preparation of Organic Fertilizer and Soil Management

Date: 13th-14th November, 2012

The analysis of household survey showed that more than 90 percent of the farmers are not getting sufficient food from agriculture to meet the needs of the family throughout the year. It also found that the agricultural productivity has decreased tremendously in comparision to productivity of thirty years back. The farmers pointed out the water scarcity, insect/pest attack, use of low quality fertilizer, use of extensive chemical fertilizer, soil degradation as the major causes of decrease in crop productivity. They have been adapting to water scarcity through various adaptation strategies but for rest of the causes, farmers are still shrugging off their owes with “what to do”. The farmers in Lubhu were therefore increasingly getting attracted towards organic fertilizers and though in small number, the practice of making compost fertilizer at household level had already been started at the farmers own initiatives. However lack of proper knowledge on the process of preparation of compost and its application techniques was hindering the farmers in expansion of its use. While doing need assessment with the farmers and conversation with the official from agriculture service center in Lubhu, it was found that they are in urgent need of capacity building programme on Preparation, Use and Application of Compost and Vermicompost Fertilizer for Better Soil Management. Though, this type of training was already conducted by Department of Cooperatives, it was limited to only few farmers of Lubhu. It is in this context, Peri-urban Water Security Project underway at Nepal Engineering College considered that organizing a training on preparing organic fertilizer for farmers of Lubhu is timely and important.

The basic objective of organizing this training is to provide the theoretical as well as practical knowledge on preparing organic fertilizer to the farmers of Lubhu VDC and capacitate them in preparing and applying the prepared fertilizer to improve the soil and enhance the agricultural productivity.

A resource person for the training was Dr. Janardhan Khadka, the Senior Soil Scientist from Central Horticulture Center, Kirtipur, Kathmandu and a total of 28 farmers from various Farmer's Committee in Lubhu participated in the training. The 1^st day of the training involved imparting basic theoretical knowledge on soil, water and plant and importance of organic fertilizers whereas second day was exclusively allocated for demonstration of the use of compost fertilizer and preparation of organic fertilizer and vermin-composting practically.

Day 1

Session 1

The first day of the training began with a brief description of the peri-urban project and the activities conducted in Lubhu as the pilot intervention site. Following this was the theory classes on the organic fertilizer which started with the presentation on the soil and soil management techniques wherein the role of soil in plant growth was focused in simple terms so as to make the training effective and interesting to the participant farmers. The participatory approach of training helped to bring forward the problems being faced by the farmers, the causes and the knowledge gaps. The interaction also helped to identify possible solutions to the existing and emerging problems of soil degradation through sharing of the field based experiences and experiences from research and practices in different parts of the country and the world. While doing so, the facilitator highlighted on the need of identification of soil type and state of soil such as its pH prior to the soil treatment process. Additionally the farmers also understood the proper technique and appropriate time for the application of Calcium carbonate (Chun), commonly used by farmers to neutralize acidic soil.

Session 2

The second session began with short note on the types of solid waste and need of proper management of solid waste wherein the 3R principle was introduced (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle). Resource person introduced about different techniques of preparation of compost fertilizer on a domestic scale such as bin compost, pile compost, pit compost, chamber compost and vermi-compost. Similarly he elaborated the need of segregation of bio-degradable and non-biodegradable solid waste as primary need of compost preparation and how increasing solid waste with increasing urbanization can be a source of fertilizer through proper composting techniques. He also discussed the aerobic and anaerobic composting techniques and provided a detailed explanation on Size of waste, C:N ratio, Air, Moisture, Temperature, Micro-organisms and  pH range.

During the session, the problems commonly faced by farmer during composting were discussed. The most common problems faced by the farmers were unpleasant odors from piled compost and cowshed for which resource person made multiple suggestions like

• Do not to put bones or meat scraps into the compost;
• Cover the compost pile with dry grasses, hay, dry leaves or saw dust and
• Add lime or calcium to neutralize odors.

The other commonly faced challenge for small-scale backyard composting was finding enough carbon-rich materials to balance the regular input of nitrogen-rich materials to maintain C: N ratio in compost. Resource person explained about green material such as kitchen wastes, fruit and vegetable peelings, grass clippings and other fresh materials as the common sources of Nitrogen and brown material such as straw, branches, stems, dried leaves, peels, bits of wood, bark dust or sawdust as a source of Carbon. He also explained about the role of carbon in providing energy and the fluffy nature of compost and nitrogen in providing protein needed for making enzymes and also emphasized the need of balance between carbon and nitrogen. A healthy compost pile should have much more carbon than nitrogen. A simple rule of thumb is to use one-third green and two-thirds brown materials. This allows oxygen to penetrate and nourish the microorganisms that reside there.

The training focused on aerated composting and explained about the significance of turning over the pile to provide aeration. Similarly the new techniques of no-turn composting techniques through management of aeration mechanisms were also introduced. The aeration is to maintain the appropriate temperature for the proliferation of microbes responsible for the decay of organic wastes. The trainers advised the farmers to cover the compost pits to reduce the loss of moisture and the nutrients and protect from rain to maintain the moisture content in the compost as the excess of water could result into decay of compost.

The training was focused on the use of locally available material for the successful and sustainable use of compost as an alternative to chemical fertilizers. The trainer explained the role of ash in regulating moisture and quantity of its use. The excess use of ash could result into increased pH due to its alkaline nature thus deactivating the microbial activity in compost. Similarly, he described three simple tips to improve the cow-shed quality and the quality of compost from animal dung by managing the base for the animal bed, a canal for urine discharge and collection and a roof for protection of cow-shed from direct sunlight and rain.

The resource person also described about the Effective Micro-organisms (EM) to be used in preparing compost fertilizer. He elaborated the role of EM in proliferation of micro-organisms responsible for composting. Further, he focused on the need of checking the manufacture and expiry date prior to the purchase of EM and advised to collect fresh EM for its effective action. Towards the end of the session, he described about the proper technique of application of compost including complete information on the application time, distance from the plant, techniques to apply different types of plants and season and timing for reapplication. In addition, he also explained about the technique of application of human urine in agricultural crops.

Session 3

The session started with introduction of Vermincompost. Vermicompost is the product of composting using various earthworms to create a heterogeneous mixture of decomposing vegetable or food waste, bedding materials, and vermicast. Vermicast, also called worm castings, worm humus or worm manure, is the end-product of the breakdown of organic matter by an earthworm. These castings have been shown to contain reduced levels of contaminants and a higher saturation of nutrients than organic materials contain before vermicomposting. Containing water-soluble nutrients, vermicompost is an excellent, nutrient-rich organic fertilizer and soil conditioner. This process of producing vermicompost is called vermicomposting.

The facilitator further classified two major types of earthworms. Epigeic types live on the surface in freshly decayed plants and animal residues whereas Endogeic types live underground and eat soil to extract nutrient from decayed organic residues. Earthworms of epigeic category are commonly used in vermicomposting and Eisenia foetida is the species most commonly used. It is a voracious eater, each worm eating 1-7 gram/day and cast 0.8- 6 gram/day.

Following the introduction of vermicomposting was the presentation on the process of vermicomposting, beginning with the process of preparing bed for the vermicompost. Bedding is the living medium and also a source of food for the worms. The bedding should be moist and loose enough to enable the worms to breath and to facilitate aerobic decomposition of the food that is buried in it. He further explained the possibility of vermicomposting in both indoors and outdoors with proper care and management of the appropriate environment keeping away from the direct sunlight and rain. The environment management involved the management of bedding material, organic materials needed to supply necessary nutrients, need of management of moisture and temperature range for the survival of earthworm and the microbial activities in vermicomposting. Eisenia foetida, the most common worms used in composting systems, feed most rapidly at temperatures of 10–32 °C and the temperatures above the range may harm them.

During the training the facilitator explained the possibility of vermicomposting on both small and commercial scale and explained about it increasing popularity at both national and international scale. He suggested to add the fresh organic material based on how rapidly those were being consumed by earthworm and let the material to decompose outside the bed for about two weeks so that the leachate drains out, thus maintain moisture content in vericompost. Further, he requested to not to leave the vermicompost unattended for too long time as there can be excess or deficiency of moisture or any other imbalances in layering of bedding materials. Vermicompost is ready for harvest when it contains few to no scraps of uneaten food or bedding and can be collected when contents look like dark black soil and most worms have migrated to the second and third working lower layers. It takes 3-4 months to get first collection of vermicompost after starting. While collecting vermicompost, he recommended to consider the value of earthworm and suggested to pick out as many worms, eggs and cocoons as possible from prepared fertilizer and returning them to the compost bin. The training also included a session on troubleshooting the possible problems and instructing the points to be considered in selecting the bedding materials, composting material and explained the possible risks and pests, along with the ways to avoid them.

He explained that the vermicompost  is richer in many nutrients than compost fertilizer produced by other composting methods. The value of vermicompost as soil conditioner and plant growth stimulant is due to the concentrated nutrient in worm cast. Unlike other compost, worm castings also contain worm mucus which helps prevent nutrients from washing away with the first watering and holds moisture better than plain soil from the decomposition of organic material. Further, it is rich in microbial life which converts nutrients already present in the soil into plant-available forms. Its recognition with a wide range of applications in homes and commercial gardens was growing.

He also shared about the ongoing research on the process of collection and application of human urine as fertilizer and other hormones such as Rotex and Trichoderma fungus to upgrade the quality of compost. Upon the discussion about the perceived cause of declining application of organic manure, the participating farmers felt the growing deviation from the indigenous farming practice and lack of knowledge transfer from the expert to the farming communities are the major causes of not applying of chemical fertilizers.

Day 2

The second day was for demonstration visit and doing practical in preparing compost fertilizer and vermicompost at Bagbani, Central Horticulture Center, Kirtipur. It was intended to provide the participants an exposure to the activities involved in composting and vermicomposting and providing them hands-on skill in preparing these fertilizers so that the farmers themselves can prepare the fertilizers independently.

The farmers had a short visit in the center premise where they got chance to see all the process of preparing and applying organic fertilizer and arrangement of collection of human urine and its application after disinfection along with several fruit varieties under research. Further, they also visited the waste water treatment plant being constructed to supplement the irrigation water need for the horticultural crops and various other researches undertaken in the centre.

During the practical session for the prepation of compost and vermicompost, the total participants were divided into two groups. The trainer reminded the first days theoretical session to both the groups and asked to prepare compost and vermicompost themselves. With close observation and facilitation of the trainer, all the participants themselves prepared compost fertilizer and vermicompost.

Post lunch, the resource person trained the participants on the use of bone powder and Trichoderma for upgrading the prepared vermicompost. Following this, he explained the process of application of the disinfected human urine for irrigation purpose.

The training ended with a evaluation of the training from the participants perspectives and a short note from the research team and the facilitator encouraging participants to take advantage of the capacity building activities and to consult experts in case of any problem.

Figure: Evaluation of Overall Training by the Participants

Poster Presentation at World Water Week 2012, Stockholm

This poster is an output of action research project entitled "Water Security in Peri-urban South Asia: Adapting to Climate Change and Urbanization" and was presented at World Water Week 2012, Stockholm in a theme called "Securing Water and Food in an Urbanizing World". 

River Source Conservation Awareness Campaign

The peri-urban project team of Kathmandu, Nepal organized a “River Source Conservation Awareness Campaign” in coordination with Lubhu Drinking Water and Sanitation Users Committee on 5th May, 2012. The main objective of the programme was to aware the local people of upstream reach i.e., Lamatar VDC residing along the Dovan river to not to pollute the river as the river is the source of drinking water to the downstream Lubhu residents.

The primary source of drinking water to the Lubhu residents has been Chapakharka source. The water demand in the village has been increasing while the water supply from this source has been decreasing, thus people of Lubhu developed Dovan Water Supply Scheme as an alternative source of water. But due to the poor quality of this water, people have been using this water for domestic uses other than drinking purposes. Considering the decreasing water availability from Chapakharka scheme and poor quality of water  of Dovan River, Lubhu Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Committee has envisioned the construction of filtration tank to make it drinkable. Recently, they organized the formal laying down of the foundation stone for the construction of filtration tank in the presence of Finance Minister as the Chief Guest of the function. Considering the circumstances, the awareness campaign programme was organized to aware the upstream Lamatar VDC residents as well as dwellers of Lubhu VDC nearby river to not to dump the household garbage and waste in the river. 

Around 400 people from different organizations, youth groups, religious groups, sports club, students, intellectual persons, political leaders, social workers and local people came together in the rally for the common concern: Dovan river source conservation. The procession started from Lubhu VDC office premises and made its way along the main road of Lubhu-Lamatar VDC reaching upto Shuvatara School of Lamatar VDC and returned back following another road alongside of the river. The main motive behind following both the tracks along the river was to draw attention of the Lamatar residents to the immediate need of Dovan source conservation and circulate its linkage to the daily water needs of Lubhu residents in the downstream.  The participants in the rally holded placards with different slogans for alerting on river and water conservation and the participating organizations displayed the banners of concerned organization expressing their commitments towards the social movement. The slogans were generated by the local people raising their views and values for the need and means of river conservation. Few slogans raised during the rally were:

•          Let the river flow naturally,
•          Let’s keep the river flowing,
•          Keep the river clean,
•          Manage the households waste at household level,
•          Don’t throw the garbage and waste in the river,
•          Keep the river clean, you will get healthy water,
•          Water, Forest and Air is as important as eye for living beings. 

Reciting the slogans and awaring the people, the participants in the rally also removed and disposed the massive garbage dumped in the river at two intake points. After cleaning the intake points, the procession assembled for mass meeting at public open space nearby the intake point in Lamatar VDC. Addressing the mass, the chairperson of the Lubhu Water Supply and Sanitation Committee appealed Lamatar residents for not polluting the river and threw light on water supply and sanitation programme that has been recently launched. He further concentrated on negative impacts of river degradation and committed to oversee the river health regularly to maintain the river ecology.

Proceeding on "Policy Dialogue on Groundwater Security"

Policy Dialogue on Groundwater Security in Kathmandu Valley

(The Everest Hotel, New Baneshwor, Kathmandu, Nepal)

Jointly Organized by

Water Security in Peri-urban South Asia Project

Nepal Engineering College- Center for Postgraduate Studies

and

Jalshrot Vikas Sanstha (JVS), Nepal/Global Water Partnership-Nepal

Date: 20^th March 2012

Exposure visit to Filtration plants at Sidhipur and Sainbu Panipokhari

After a daylong visit to water treatment plant at Dhulikhel, Lubhu team participated in exposure visits to water treatment plants at Sidhipur and Sainbu Panipokhari, Sainbu as a continuity to the capacity building on different techniques on water treatment on December 25, 2011under the facilitation of peri-urban research team at Nepal Engineering College. A total of 22 participants (6 females and 16 males) participated in the visit. 

The water source for Sidhipur is also a river and has boulder filled intake constructed 3km away from the filtration tank. Mr. Krishna Kumar Maharjan and the technician Mr. Rabi Kumar Maharjan from Sidhipur Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Committee (SDWSSC) facilitated the participants briefing them both the management and the technical parts. The Sidhipur DWSSC was initiated in 2028 B.S (1971 A.D) and 52 public taps were operated under the local initiation through ground water supply. It was in 2051/52 B.S (1994/1995 A.D), when epidemics of water borne disease out broke in the area and the need of filtration plant was seriously considered. Along with the practice of SODIS and Chlorination under the promotion of ENPHO- an NGO, the socially active local people simultaneously started getting self-mobilized for the arrangement of funding organization. The INGOs including Water AID, Rotary club and UN-Habitat showed interest in supporting the water management project in Sidhipur and ultimately the project initiated under the support of UN-Habitat at an financial support of around 20 millions however the clause laid was the area and labour has to be managed by local. Filtration tank was constructed in 2062 B.S (2005 A.D) and completed in almost 2 and half years due to the political turmoil of then. Currently, Sidhipur DWSSC been supplying water through 1088 private taps and 270 new taps are under demand. The water treatment plant has been constructed with 20 years design period and stands on premises of 2 ropani 4 aanas (12320 Sq. ft). Two reservoir tanks of 2.5 lakh litres and 50,000 litres have been constructed but have not yet been under function. 

It has been administratively managed through 35 member broad committee and 11 member management committee and 3 technicians (1plumber and 2 assistant plumbers). The facilitator Mr. Krishna Kumar Maharjan explained the involvement of local labor and monitoring though joint involvement of funding organization, local committee and involved engineers have been means in maintaining the cost effectiveness and transparency to gain trust and support from local inhabitants and political bodies. He further recalled the perseverant efforts made by the water resource committee to arrange for the funding and then meeting the clauses laid by them; suggesting the participants from Lubhu to be self mobilized for solving their water woes. Sidhipur DWSSC has been currently serving only the private taps and Rs.9000/- tap is being collected as installation cost for the local people while Rs.20,000/- tap for immigrants. It has been following a strict graded tariff system and charging Rs.50/- for 7 units as minimum charge (1unit=1000 litres), at the rate of Rs. 12/unit for 8-10 units, Rs. 15 per unit for 11-15 units and Rs.20 per unit for consumption above 15 units. 

Regarding the technical designing of Sidhipur water treatment plant, water has been passed from intake to 3 filtration tanks, starting from tube settler to slow sand filter and chlorinated through dropping method at the rate of 350ml/min prior to the distribution of water to public. The slow sand filter consists of vertical layering of gravels of 30cm, overlaid by chips of 40 cm and washed sand of 1m height and using electric pump of 7.5 Hp. The tube settler consisted of frame of GI-pipes of 30cm height inclined at 60 degrees to the base. As per the resource persons, the daily report of residual chlorine in chlorinated water prior to distribution and at the last household has been showing good results to confirm water free from bacterial contamination. The treatment plant has to be technically cleaned in every 2 years but due to high turbidity condition of their source, this rate has been much higher as much as 3-4 times per year in their case. 

Extractable water yield currently in this source is 6-6.5 l/sec and has been supplying 24 hours water service daily. This water supply has been jointly supported by Department of Water Supply and Sewerage and ENPHO in daily monitoring the water quality and the supply has been facilitated with all laboratory services and offered the Lubhu team to provide the necessary help in testing their water quality. As per the facilitators the consumer's satisfaction rate has been good except during rainy seasons. As this scheme has been lacking of the sedimentation tanks, very limited water is supplied during rainy season or even ceased for almost a week until the intake be cleaned manually. The facilitators shared this as a weak point of the system and considered the limited knowledge among the local people and the application of the theoretical knowledge with less consideration to the practical situation by the engineers as a cause of the current problem. The Sidhipur teams have been working for managing the resources for the construction of sedimentation tank to provide uninterruptable year round water supply in the area. 

Mr. Krishna Kumar Maharjan shared about their visits prior to operation of their project and considered the visit of Lubhu as a need based visit and encouraged them to take advantage of the opportunity in solving their problem. He also showed willingness in sharing the details designs and cost breakdown in constructing different infrastructures which the Lubhu team will definitely have to adopt as per the current market situation and their resource strengths. 

In the second half of the day, the exhibition team headed towards Sainbu Panipokhari water treatment plant at Bhaisepati. Engineers Mr. Ram Krishna Karki and Mr. Ram Mani Bogati shared the historical background of the water supply. This was a large scale project monitored from Government of Nepal. It has been tapping water from spring source, feeding water to Pharping Hydropower of 450kW, as a major water supplier serving Lalitpur district after the mentioned power supply got closed in 2037 B.S. (1980 A.D) and from a holy pond Seshnarayan in Pharping. Both sources being spring source, water has been highly preferred by the consumers and water treatment plant was installed only after 2045 B.S. (1988 A.D). This treatment plant included roughing filter to remove the suspended particles and chlorination for bacterial disinfection. This is a part of Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL), the water utility of Kathmandu valley and with reservoirs of 5.4 million litres, it has been supplying water to the major section of Lalitpur district since 2037 B.S., treated water from 2045 B.S. 

The participants from Lubhu considered Sidhipur water supply as a common to their need and vision and consulted the facilitators from the second site to suggest for additional water treatment plants that is comparable to Lubhu. Mr. Ram Krishna Karki with his familiarity to the situations at Lubhu suggested on considering the feasibility study of the Deep boring (265m ) done by Kathmandu Valley Town Development committee as an alternative. This was discarded by Town Development Committee about 15 years back due to high sand concentration. He proposed using the modern technique of compressor filter to test the feasibility of water and suggested in case of positive result could serve as long term water source. However, as per him the cost involved would be around o.1 million, therefore the willingness among the participants to undertake the test was considerably low. Mr. Ram Bahadur Shrestha, Chairperson of Lubhu water resource committee has shown interest in making the necessary follow up for the alternative source and the final decisions is yet to come. 

With good understanding of the past and present situations of the neighboring Sidhipur VDC, understanding the consumer's perspectives and challenges incurred can be expected to be practically helpful for the Lubhu people. Having rapport built with the facilitators from Sidhipur and Sainbu Water Treatment plants, the Lubhu team will be consulting the resource persons for further information.

Peer Group Interaction

Exposure Visit to Water Treatment Plant of Dhulikhel Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Committee, Dhulilkhel 

(December 17, 2011)

A day long exhibition to Water Treatment Plant at Dhulikhel was conducted to expose the people to the necessary arrangements, technical expertise and the management approaches to strengthen the community based water management initiative led by the Lubhu Drinking Water and Sanitation Committee of Lubhu. The members from Committee enthusiastically participated in the programme since the programme was demanded and scheduled by themselves. The facilitator was the Chief Executive officer of the Dhulikhel Drinking Water Supply and Sanitation Committee (DWSSC) Mr. Rameshwor Parajuli.

Dhulikhel DWSSC was established as a joint venture of Nepal Government, the Federal Republic of Germany and local people of Dhulikhel on December 5, 1997. It has been diverting water from spring source of Khar Khola River, about 14 kms far away in the Kalanti Bhumi Danda VDC. The water from the spring source has been diverted through the intake into the reservation tank from where it has been further passed for the treatments (primary, secondary and ultimately for chlorination prior to the distribution through pipe lines. This Dhulikhel water supply service can be considered as an example not only in terms of the technical arrangements but also in terms of establishment of institutional set up for its sustainability. Despite financial security from a joint venture, its institutional growth has involved various ups and downs, the understandings and unity has succeeded in overcoming the challenges to gain the current image of success story. This phase has included various incidents that have been a lesson learning phase for the people of Dhulikhel. These were briefly shared to the participants from Lubhu to enhance their management skills. 

The installation of filtration tank for water diverted from Dovan khola has been considered as the only practical long term solution for water woes at Lubhu. The case of Dhulikhel Water Supply is similar to the project envisioned by Lubhu therefore has been expected to be fruitful to them. The major objective of the visit was to expose the people of Lubhu to water treatment plant, improve their understanding on the basics behind the system and stimulate their activities to replicate such a system with necessary modifications. 

The facilitator from the Dhulikhel DWSSC provided the consultation in two different thematic sections, one being in the technical arrangements and the second on the institutional and administrative arrangements. The major point highlighted by the facilitator was the need of preplanning of the management set ups, both the technical and the administrative section prior to the actual operation of the project and team work for the successful continuation of project.

The technical designing in Dhilikhel scheme was supported by international expert teams in addition to local effort including German Aid and Japanese expertise. The knowledge gained during the operation of the technical part and the problems that appeared and approaches made for solution were shared with the participants to enable them to avoid repeating mistakes of Dhulikhel schemes and escape the avoidable loss. This one day visit was obviously not enough to get into all the technical details but as expected has generated the enthusiasm and interest in working towards their project which could be interpreted through the local interest in exploring for donors and funding organizations for possible supports. This visit has further been fruitful in building rapport between the two parties for the further consultations. The technicians of the Local water resource committee will be revisiting the sites for further consultation in near future. 

The intangible arrangement for the institutional set up can be considered no less complicated. However, after the resolution of the water induced conflict few years back, Dhulikhel DWSSC has been currently functioned through 15 member committee. The committee members have been elected by the consumers on the "One tap one Vote" basis where each of the consumer household cast one Vote per household and are functional for consecutive 4 years. Among the members elected, 9 members have to be from the core settlement which was the initial target group of the project, 5 members from the recently expanding settlements and one technician who has been officially engaged on a full time service basis. The water service has been following a graded tariff system (minimum charge is Rs. 125/-per month, 10-25 units cost Rs. 14 /- per unit, 26 – 50 units cost Rs 22/- per unit and >50 units cost Rs 57/- per unit; 1 unit=1000 litres of water). Mr. Parajulee stressed on the value of water as an economic goods and the need of charging water to avoid the water wastage wherein he emphasized the need of graded tariff to maintain the equity on the service provided and currently has reached 1752 households and has further 21 community taps.

He further stressed on the need of strict monitoring of the tariff to overcome the free riding of water service, a customarily acknowledged problem in water supply. As that suggested during Godawari site visit, Mr. Parajulee criticized the practice of public taps as a cause of water wastage and suggested in the direction of replacing the public and community taps through private taps. Additionally he shared the pathway for the mentioned replacement by creating a provision of making payment of the household water network extension in installment basis as a support for underprivileged households.

As the Lubhu inhabitants are in the process of entering into a new phase of water management, Mr. Parajulee suggested to set up a properly planned and monitored code of conduct from the initial phase to make it well established in the long run and further shade light on the need of renovating the technical structures on a timely basis for its effective durability. The participants from Lubhu showed greater inclination towards estimating the cost approximate involved thereby understanding their status in financial arrangements, addressing which the resource person, Mr. Parajulee showed interest in providing technical help in understanding the cost involved further suggesting to adopt cost efficient and more effective innovative techniques. He also elaborated the need of understanding the site specific geology and the environmental conditions giving the examples of modifications in the engineering designs performed by various community based drinking water schemes operating in different areas of the nation and suggested to understand the conditions of Lubhu and generously offered help in case of any need of revisiting the designs which has been complete by the technical team of Lubhu. These experiences shared have been counted valuable guidance by the participants and a copy of annual report of Dhulikhel Water Supply with details about the water supply provided to each of the participants which has been expected to provide further information about the project.

With the opportunity of observing different processes of the water treatment plant, getting to interact with the veteran technician of Dhulikhel water supply and with assurance of providing the possible technical help for the most prioritized problem of Lubhu, the participants considered the visit highly productive.

Analyzing Climate change perception at Dadhikot

Among the four peri-urban sites selected for the project, Dadhikot is a site which till day holds the position as traditional food supplier to the urban dwellers. Upon discussion on the local perception of climate change, local opinions were interestingly expressed.

“This year has been a good rain year” has been a general observation among major respondents of middle age. But Mr. Ramji Prasad Neupane's stance on this is quite contrasting. He is a farmer and social activist of age 64 and stated that the rain this year is just a proportion of the rainfall during his young days. He remembered his grandmother recalling her days telling "Hamro jamana ma ghum (traditional umbrella) ma likha  parthyo" meaning- "During our days, we used to get likha (pest) in our ghum due to persistent rain."

During his days he never experienced such persistence in rainfall but still recalled a simple incident of lightning was sufficient for the rainfall to begin. There used to be hardly any night with clear sky during Shrawan (July-August) and says “Shrawan mahina ma aakash ma euta tara dekhyo vane ek lakh muri anna ghatcha"-meaning "If a single star could be seen at the sky during the month of July- August, the crop yield gets reduced by a hundred thousand times." He further added the locally established analysis of climate "Magh ma jati gate pani paryo, Ashad ma teti nai gate pani parcha" meaning  “The date on which it rains during January-February, on the same date it rains during June-July in the next year.”

This old man with loads of experiences and a generosity to share them among youths lamented “2040/2042 saal dekhi prakriti le sath dinai chodyo” meaning- “The nature has started being unfriendly since 2040/42  (1983/85A.D)”, He blamed the rapid population growth as the causative factor. His words gave lucid picture of the change and were amazingly expressive. He explained “Sab ulta pulta vai sakyo” meaning “Everything has been opposite or drastically different.”

His experience as a farmer created a picture of traditional farming system. Traditionally major crops in this VDC have been paddy-wheat, potato as staple crops while maize, soyabean, legumes, millet-radish and vegetable farming was considered to be a subordinate farming. During early 2020s B.S (1963 A.D), planting paddy used to get started by Jestha 20/22 (June 1^st week) where irrigation was accessible and in the other fields after monsoon started which then used to start by the first week of Ashad (Mid June). The indigenous paddy crops such as Thapachini, Yelanpu, Bapu, Guntetauli, Chakhuncha and Marsi were cultivated till 2024-2025 B.S. Thapchini was among the ones harvested first during Ashoj 12/15 (September last week) followed by Yelanpu, Bapu  and the last was Marsi which was harvested during Kartik 20/25 (November 2^nd week). During 2025 B.S (1968 A.D), major agricultural intervention started in this VDC. This was the year of introduction of the chemical fertilizers. In the same year, a new variety of paddy was introduced in the VDC termed Taichin. In his 5-6 Ropanis of land, Mr. Ramji Neupane remembers harvesting in average 15/17 muris of indigenous variety but the new variety gave him 42 muris of yield. In the consecutive years, he increasingly replaced the indigenous variety with the new one and by 2028 B.S (1971 A.D), he completely replaced the old varieties of rice with the new variety. This has been the main paddy variety cultivated in the VDC till days. It was during the same period 2021-2022 B.S (1964-1965 A.D), new variety of wheat Chausathi Gahun, Baunna Gahun got introduced in the VDC. These new varieties of paddy and wheat initially introduced in 2021-22 B.S (1964-1965 A.D) in Tithali, Gundu- a neighbouring VDC and then transformed to Dadhikot after 2-3 years only.

The farmers in the VDC shared of experiencing three phase of transformation in their crop yield. During 2012/13 B.S (1955/56 A.D), crop production was hardly sustainable, 2 muris per ropani of rice which after the aforementioned agricultural intervention increased to 7/8 muri per ropani from 2025/26 B.S to 2040 B.S (1968-1983A.D) but after 2040/42 B.S (1983/85 A.D), the production has again followed a consistent declining trend now being 5/6 muri rice (1 ropani rice= Approx 50 Kg) per ropani (1ropani= 5476 hectares). This has been the trajectory also for wheat, 10/12 pathi per ropani (1 muri=20 pathi= 65 kg wheat) earlier to 4 muri per ropani from 2025/26 B.S (1968/69 A.D) to 2040 B.S (1983 A.D) and then plummeted to 2 muri per ropani.  It was during the same year, Banmara, a new species of weed invaded this VDC.

During 2046/47 B.S (1989/90 A.D), vegetable farming got started in the VDC and has been gradually growing on a commercial scale since then. With growing shift from traditional or organic compost to chemical fertilizers based agriculture, and simultaneously increasing urbanization and economic benefits of cash crops by 2052/53B.S (1996/97A.D) indigenous legumes (masyang, gahat, rato mas) disappeared from the VDC.

In the recent 4/5 years, commercial farming has been increasing as a lucrative option against hardship involved with harvest of traditional crops, of which wheat has been increasingly replaced by cash crops like Pumpkin, Cucumber cultivated in Baisakh (April/May) are ready for market in a month to be sold in Jestha (May/June).

The change in agricultural practices in the VDC has been appearing distinctly but the reasons behind cannot be attributed to a single cause and the farmers have not attributed this to the climate change.

On trying to get the local perception about the change, the elderly respondent strongly denied to relate the changes to climate change. He shared examples supporting the increase in temperature such as no more formation of Thato (Icy film on the water surface). Similarly till 2055/56 B.S (1998/99 A.D), frost formation getting started from Kartik (Oct/Nov) and remaining till Falgun (Feb/March) and Kalo tusaro (Invisible frost) from Falgun ( Feb/March) to Jestha (April/May), while in the recent years, frost is appearing only during Push- Magh (Jan/Feb) in the VDC. Similarly till 2040 B.S (1983 A.D), mosquito used to appear only during monsoon basically around cow-shed while now it starts by Falgun (February) and remains till Ashoj (Sept/Oct) second week.

Though a clear retrospective instances could be constructed as an evident of change in temperature, framing such cases were not very clear regarding rainfall. Mr. Ramji Neupane opined the intensive rainfall and extended dry spells used to occur now and again even during his youth days, but the forest and land cover used to preserve the soil moisture during the dry spells while the roots of the vegetation existed to absorb and transmit as sub-surface flow. He further stressed the decline in the production has by no way been impacted by climate change. Rather believed the unscientific use of the chemical fertilizers (use of Urea only instead of using it in combination with other chemical fertilizers)  that the farmers including him used for higher yield has caused the increase in acidity and soil degradation, of which the ultimate negative spillover effect has been visible as declining quantity and quality of crop yield.

Executive officer of Uttisghari Drinking Water Scheme who is also a local farmer shared his observation regarding the changes in the rainfall over time. According to him, 15 years back the pre-monsoon rain during Jestha (April/May) used to create a real havoc during wheat harvest, then it used to remain dry for almost two weeks, this being followed by the monsoon getting started by 1^st week of Ashad (June) but in the recent 7/8 years, the onset of monsoon has been delayed to Shrawan 10/11((July end). He opined "Monsoon which used to extend from Jestha mid (June 1^st week) or Ashad 1^st week to Ashoj Last week (Sept half) has been completely unpredictable in the recent 5 years".  

He wondered “Industries have been shifted out of the area but still temperature has been going up”. By this time in Mangsir (Nov), temperature must have gone really down but it is still not yet chilling during mornings and evenings. The observation pointed by him about the invasion of an unidentified weed in paddy field which grows as tall as paddy plant is indeed remarkable. Local farmers also emphasized the increasing pest occurrence in crops mostly wheat and vegetables such that spraying pesticide has been a symbol of prestige and self- respect among farmers.

He added "There has been no persistency in rain rather it rains profusely or it remains dry for an extended period. With exception in this year, it has been a decade with very poor winter rain which has been a major problem for the winter crops. The Mahadev khola Rajkulo supplying clean water till a decade earlier has no more remained a reliable irrigation source since a decade”. He elaborated the declining water level in the dug wells which 10/15 years back yielded sufficient water at 30 to 40 feet depth now gives scarce water at 60-70 feet depth. The well that used to fill during 2 days, now does not provide same amount even during 5-7 days. The water reservoir of 0.2 million litres constructed in 2057 B.S (2000 A.D) for water supply under Uttisghari Drinking Water Scheme used to get filled within 10 hours through 3" pipe supply from the source but now requires 17/18 hours to get filled. He pointed the decrease in the rainfall as the cause of this declining water level.

Among other local people consulted, the views expressed were compatible among each other.  They further added, the wind storms and thunder showers which are locally considered characteristic features of months Falgun- Chaitra (March/April) has been reducing in the recent years. Information from Dadhikot that contradicted to the observation made by locals in Jhaukel VDC- the other project site of Bhaktapur district was in this area in the last recent years the paddy cropping has been delayed. Locals of Dadhikot with their familiarity to the conditions of Jhaukhel explained the reason behind was the difference in soil quality in the two sites. Jhaukhel with sub-soil of water holding capacity, the initial monsoon shower remains sufficient for paddy plantation while soil in Dadhikot requires consistent rain for the soil to remain saturated for preparing the fields for transplanting the paddy seedlings.

During discussion, a customary irrigation rule of this VDC was pointed out. This rule allowed the upstream farmer to divert or block the canal for their irrigation use disrespect of time and the need of downstream farmers. As an adaptive strategy, downstream farmers have been hiring drunkards, arranging drinks for them and making them to water their field during nights while among farmers where the irrigation is not possible, boring and dug wells have been a new irrigation water source. The occupational shift towards non-farm based agriculture and from traditional subsistence based agriculture towards commercial farming, poultry, dairy farming, organic farming and horticulture has been widely increasing since early 2060s B.S.(2003 A.D) has also come an adaptive strategy towards developing resilience towards water availability, changing climate, market demand and changing livelihood.

Labor shortage has been a growing problem in this VDC which could be either due to the opportunity towards more lucrative labor on one hand and occupational shift on other has created shortage of labor for agriculture. The changing lifestyle and fragmentation of family towards nuclear family was pointed by the local people as a cause of increasing dependency on agro based labors thereby increasing cost of production which seems very relevant analysis.

With intermingling of climatic, social, economic phenomenon it is not easy to compose any conclusion that can be attributed merely to climate change.