Flood Impact on Livelihood of Local Community in Shankarpur VDC

Flood Impact on Livelihood of Local Community in Shankarpur VDC
Ek Raj Sigdel
Western Terai Landscape Complex project

Referring to his body height, Mr. Kanja Rana said, when the slope of the rain was up-to three feet, it was usual to him. However, when the height increased gradually and reached up-to five feet, then they started to rescue children and old aged people. In no time, some household and livestock shed which were located near to the edge of river and fertile low lands were washed away. Then, turn of livestock came, the time has already late, they lost about 40 cattle, 50 pigs and 35 ducks to the flood, recalled Mr. Rana. Luckily, the flood was happened during the morning and hence no human casualties happened. This was a case of an unusual flood and its impact in Shankarpur VDC, Kanchanpur district, Nepal. Referring to the 36 hour continuous rains and 12 hour flood of September 30, 2008, this flood was the second of this type in my 80 years age, said Natthu Rana, a local inhabitant. According to him, similar kind of devastating rainfall was noticed 42 years back in the village.

Objective: To analyze the impact of the flood on livelihood of local communities a detailed study was carried out in ward number one, two and three of Shankarpur Village Development Committee, a smallest unit of local government. Specifically the objectives of the study were to analyze the type of people who got hardest hit from the flood and to make recommendations for adaptation measures.

Mthodology: Initially, the flood hazards scenario and vulnerability contexts of the Kanchanpur district were overlapped. It helped to identify Shankarpur VDC as one of the flood disastrous areas in the district. Based on the field observation and community consultation, three wards of the VDC were found badly affected from the flood. Focus group discussions were held separately with women group, men group and old aged people in the affected wards. According to the local people, land holding size was a prime indicator of the well being of the local people in Shankarpur VDC. Therefore, to understand the people who got badly affected, household survey was carried out in the entire household (91HH) of ward no 1. The data were analyzed by using Microsoft excel and a conclusion was drawn. The result was shared with district based stakeholders as well. Then recommendations for climate adaptation were elicited.

Livelihood context
Shankarpur is one of the 19 Village Development Committees of Kanchanpur District, which is located in the Far Western Development Region of Nepal. Out of the four categories, the VDC falls under third rank in human development index, and first in human poverty index (DDC Kanchanpur, 2005). Average rainfall and temperature per year in the district is 1575mm and 230 Celsius respectively.

The area is located towards east from Doda River that originates from Churia range, a fragile hill and traverse through the middle of Shankarpur VDC. There were a total of 288 household with 2,429 people of which, 48% women and 52 % man in the study area. Over 95% household were Tharu, local inhabitant of this area as against the only 23% Tharu in the district as a whole, and the rest of people were hill migrant. Rain fed agriculture is the main source of income to over 85% people of this area. In an average, a household owns 1.5 hectare agriculture land. Crops and livestock are two major source of income of the local community. Rice, wheat and maize are major staple foods and pulses, turmeric, ginger, sugarcane and off season vegetable are some other cash crops. The livestock includes cattle, pig, poultry and ducks. Annually, about 50% youth goes to India for seasonal work. Less than one percent people are service holder and 15-20 household make money from small business.

Fire wood is the main source of energy for over 90% people of this area. They collect firewood from proposed community forests, which are located at the fringe area of a big chunk of forest called Laljhadi Corridor. According to local women, the time for collecting a head load of firewood has increased significantly over the years. With the support of some local NGOs and other government projects, a few social groups like women groups, cooperatives, community forests coordination committee etc were formed and functional in the village.

Flood and impact
A heavy rainfall followed by an unprecedented amount of flood was appeared after 42 years period in Shankarpur VDC. The rain was continued until 36 hours and flood was started to appear after 12 hours rainfall. The flood was started from four o’clock in the morning of September 30, 2008. Pouring of heavy rain, strong wind, heavy flood, and cold wave combined together and made the life very jeopardous, said local. The impact was noticed mainly in natural, physical and social capitals.

Impact on natural capital
The questionnaire survey of the 91 household revealed that in an average a household own1.5 hectare agricultural land. Out of the total, 0.1 hectare was washed away and the remaining 0.5 hectare agriculture land was covered totally by sand and boulders. According to local inhabitants, one hectare land costs Rs. 20, 00,000 (1$ = Rs.68). According to this estimate, each household had to lose Rs. 120,000 in a year. The land holding size was ranged from 8 hectares to no land in the sampling households.

In another way, while calculating the loss in terms of rice grain, it comes around Rs. 7,500 per person. (1 Hectare produces 3000 Kg rice and 1 Kg costs Rs. 20 in local market, the average family size of the area is 8.4)). Per capita income of the local community in Kanchanpur District was Rs. 13695 (DDC Kanchanpur 2005). This estimate implies that significant proportion of per capita income has already been lost by the flood. The challenge now is how to sustain the local community at least in the flood impacted year.

The entire household, irrespective to the lands holding size lost land for the flood. Further, while analyzing the primary data it was revealed that the loss of land was directly proportional to the land holding size. It could be due to presence richer people’s land in fertile low land. About 50% of the total standing crops were lost by the flood. Also, significant amount of stored grains were washed out. Similarly, local people lost considerable number of goat, pig, cattle, and ducks to the flood.

To safeguard the life, almost all the households resettled in nearby Laljhadi Jungle, a prime habitat of wildlife species, including tiger and wild elephants. The area has been identified as one of the bottlenecks area of Terai Arc Landscape Complex that spread over the transborder areas of India and Nepal. With the aim of conserving globally significant biodiversity of the bottleneck area, WTLCP has implemented conservation and development programs for three years in and around Laljhadi Forest. The project is supporting the communities with bio-gas, plantation of timber and non timber species in degraded land, seed money for income generation activities, formation of forest user groups and committees, saving and credit groups, among others.

Impact on physical assets
The flood significantly affected the physical infrastructure of the village. Five wooden bridges were completely destroyed while one suspension bridge was dilapidated. Similarly, 198 drinking water pumps, and 5 Km graveled road was washed away. However, because of the presence of Saccharum munja, banana, bamboo and Bombax ceiba in some part of the river bank, some 15 households were saved.

Impact on social capital
People Moving Towards Safe Place (Photo by A. Gurung)The flood affected all sections of the society, irrespective to income group, aged group and gender. Men were involved more in rescuing children and old aged people, while women had to spend considerable time for safeguarding immediate need of food and clothes. According to Bhagawati Rana, a local woman, in the absence of swimming skills, the women were in more dangerous situation than men. As of the women, similar situation was applied in children and old aged people. Though a total of 14 human casualties were recorded in the entire district, luckily no human casualty was witnessed in the entire VDC. About 40-50 people saved their life by clinging on sparsely distributed trees in the study area. Similarly, due to the tradition of keeping hanging baskets, made up of by Saccharam munj, some households saved enough food for two-three days.

Recommendations
Livestock Casualties in Shankarpur (Photo by A.Gurung)To ensure the long term survival of this community in this locality and safeguarding biodiversity resources of the area for along run, immediate and long term measures should be explored. Similarly, scope of work should be extended from local level to regional level.

• In a short run,
  Rescue package, including construction of dilapidated household and basic infrastructure facilities, like huts, drinking water pump and livestock sheds needs to be maintained
  Low cost bio-engineering with mass scale plantation of Saaccharam munja, bamboo and Bombax ceiba in river belt needs to be promoted
  Human injuries, livestock, crops, and loss of households needs to be compensated
  Awareness program on upstream downstream linkage should be implemented and they should realize the importance of conserving watershed area for safeguarding their life in a long run
  Short term cash crops like cucumber, tomato and watermelon needs to be cultivated in the river bank during winter seasons
  
  In a long run,
  An embankment, that spreads almost 200 meter needs to be constructed
  An integrated plan at regional level, addressing watershed and plain area needs to be prepared and implemented
  
  Conclusion: In a nut shell, the flood was unusual in the study area. It impacted natural, physical and social life of local communities. All the communities, irrespective of income groups, gender and aged group people were badly affected by the flood. Considering the gravity of the problems, immediate as well as long term measures are proposed from local scale to regional level.
  
  References
  DDC Kanchanpur, 2005; Periodic District Development Plan, Kanchanpur.