Climate Change Drying up the Water Sources in Nauli Village

Nauli is a small settlement situated in Dadeldhura District in Far-Western Nepal. It is a very remote village, which one has to reach by foot. Especially during rainy season, it can take up to four hours to reach the village from the nearest road. Nauli is mostly a magar community, with 26 out of the 32 households being magar. It is a very traditional community, where the villagers are earning their living through traditional farming and goat rearing.

Drinking water from a traditional source “naula”

There is a traditional water source “naula” near the village, which is the most important source of drinking water for the villagers. According to them, there was sufficient water still some years ago, but now this source is decreasing day by day. Because of global warming, climate change and deforestation, less rainfall has occurred.

To manage the drying up of the source, the villagers constructed a recharge water tank, but still there was more demand for water than the naula could provide. The next action was to lock the naula and distribute water equally to all households. During the dry season, only 10 litres per household could be given per day. However, there was some flexibility in this: if a family had guests coming over, they could receive some extra water so that they could be hospitable to their guest.

But water still had to be fetched from remote sources. This led to school dropouts as children had to fetch the water.

What did RVWRMP do?

During the mapping of needs and sources– making of the Water Use Master Plan, it was realised that there were no other proper water sources nearby. Also lifting systems were not an option for the village. The only choice left was to improve the existing source. Two tanks reserving altogether up to 30,000 litres of water were constructed. During the dry season, the reserve tanks will provide 40 litres of water per household per day, which is four times more than what they received before. During the rainy season, water does not need to be rationed.

The villagers understand the value of the water source and the scheme is well maintained. Some recharge pond pits have been constructed above the source and the villagers have planted plants around the source to protect it. But most importantly, now children can go back to school as they don’t have to spend their time fetching water.