Jhari Prasad Mahato, 50, lives in Gulmeli neighborhood of Madi Municipality, Chitwan. But life hasn’t been easy for Mahato as he faces many difficulties pertaining to his livelihood, especially due to the flooding of local rivers. The Rakteni River, which flows near his neighborhood, gets flooded every monsoon. A few years ago, Jhari Prasad harvested the paddy on his 15 kattha land and was drying it when the flooded Rakteni washed away his whole produce at nighttime.
Similar is the story of Mohan Sah Kanu, 69, who lives in Madi-3, Naya Ratani neighborhood. Kanu, an active member of the local community disaster management committee, grows paddy, wheat and beans. In the past, he has had bitter experiences like sleepless night because of floods in the local river, which washed away his produce ready for harvest. To address this problem, the Government of Japan provided financial assistance of $442,839 equivalent to approximately 50.36 million Nepali rupees, to Shapla Neer Citizens’ Committee in Japan for Overseas Support, an international NGO based in Japan, to work with a Nepali partner NGO, Rural Reconstruction Nepal (RRN), to implement a disaster risk reduction (DRR) strengthening project in Chitwan District.
The grant assistance is being used to strengthen community resilience to disasters in Madi Municipality, one of the flood prone areas, located in Chitwan District under the One River, One Community program. The project has been working in close coordination with local government, stakeholders, and communities and undertaking different activities, including support for capacity development of local government and communities, and establishment and maintenance of disaster reduction infrastructures. The project is also developing capacity of local bodies such as the Local Disaster Management Committees (LDMCs), Ward Disaster Management Committees (WDMCs) and Community Disaster Management Committees (CDMCs) on disaster risk reduction and facilitate the cooperation between these committees and other stakeholders.
It is supporting the establishment and maintenance of infrastructure such as river widening, gabions and embankments as well as retention walls and drainage systems. The communities are maintaining these structures in cooperation with the local government. Following the implementation of the project, local residents are heaving a sigh of relief. “We can sleep well now. We harvest our agricultural production safely. It makes us happier. There is no damage of household properties including pets,” says Kanu. The house of Madhuri Sah, Madi-5 Basantapur neighborhood was fully damaged by flood of Rakteni River twice within a 10 years period in past.
Many times, her house was safe from flood but household properties and utensils were swept way. The same condition had to be faced every year in monsoon. The project adopted the concept ‘One River, One Community’ covering 14 neighborhoods of river corridor from its up-stream to down-stream area. In the one-and-half years of the project, 2,583 meter long mud dam in river corridors have been built and 40 meter river span in down-stream and 20 meter wider river span in mid-stream area have been widened. A 2,550 meter long gabion embankment has been made in the high risk area of river corridor whereas, a 65 meter long stone masonry wall has been made in the most high risk area of river corridor.
‘One River, One Community’ is a concept to work focusing on a single river and covering entire neighborhoods of that river corridor. Entire neighborhoods from up-stream to down-stream area are considered as a single community. During the time of monsoon, river flood damages from up-stream to down-stream’s neighborhoods. So, to reduce damages of one risk spot, it is found scientifically that the risk is caused by any other area’s landscape. It is important for infrastructure’s design to cover the entire neighborhoods from up-stream to down-stream area of the river corridor based on the flood occurrence mechanism.
It is not only about making infrastructures, but also improving capacity of community people for disaster risk reduction and management. This concept aims to foster the relationship between communities of that river corridor for helping each other. The community played a vital role during construction through their labor and monitoring which have been greatly appreciated.
