Gyanu Maskey and Anushiya Shrestha
This case study highlights growing upstream-downstream contestations, unfair water distribution and limited say of women in drinking water systems in hills of Nepal. It is a short version of the chapter by the authors entitled “Applying a Climate Justice Framework to Understand Inequities in Urban Water Governance amid Climate Change Challenges in Nepal’ in the forthcoming book Environmental Justice in Nepal: Origins, Struggles, and Prospects.
Introduction
In its 2015 constitution, Nepal enshrined “access to safe water and sanitation” as a fundamental right of its citizens. Nepal has also committed to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 6, which states, “Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all.”
The Nepali government has made several initiatives to achieve these targets, the most recent being the National Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Policy of 2023. This policy aims to achieve the SDG 6 by 2030 and provide “safe, secure, and universally available drinking water and sanitation services” to all by 2043.
With the intent of providing secure water to all, the Government of Nepal (GoN) is currently implementing several large-scale water projects in urban areas. Two such projects being developed are located in rapidly emerging mid-hill towns in Central and Eastern Nepal, Dhulikhel and Diktel, respectively. With loans from the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the projects aim to provide tap connections to every household. While both projects have had a positive impact on people’s lives, three issues that need attention have emerged: 1) upstream-downstream clashes, 2) unfair distribution across both the urban core and its periphery as well as caste and class groups and 3) low participation rates among women. In the following sections, we discuss these three issues.
Figure 1. Map showing Dhulikhel and Diktel
Growing upstream-downstream contestation
Dhulikhel’s community-managed water supply system has been serving the urban core since 1992. Soon, a newly formed water board will start to manage the ADB-funded project. In Diktel, a similar ADB-funded water project is operating. Both projects rely on upstream water sources, Dhulikhel on the Roshi River 13 km away, an area beyond its jurisdiction, and Diktel on the Ramba and Majh rivers and Kaule source in different wards of the municipality.
Upstream communities claim prior rights to water sources. They refer to the water in the above-mentioned sources as their ancestral inheritance and use it to meet livestock, agricultural, and domestic needs. They note that their livelihoods, such as fish farming and milling, depend on these water sources. Thus, water security in the urban cores of both towns is dependent on the generosity of upstream communities and how well competing water-related claims are handled.
A fish farm that is reliant on Ramba Khola in Diktel
The people who reside in the urban core of Diktel also argue that, because they live in the same municipality through which the Ramba, Majh and Kaule sources flow, they deserve rights to the water sources. According to the committee members, “Jal, jungle, jamin (water, forest, land)—the country’s natural resources belong to the government, with equal rights to those resources for all.”
Over the years, Dhulikhel and Diktel have engaged in several negotiations and signed several compensation agreements, and acknowledgment of upstream-downstream inter-dependencies has improved. Providing upstream communities with material and monetary incentives in exchange for drinking water has increased water access and the associated urban development in both towns. Still, unmet expectations, weak representation of affected groups, and unrealised commitments hinder amicable relations. Amid these persistent contestations between the upstream and downstream communities, securing water for the growing populations of Dhulikhel and Diktel has become increasingly challenging.
Unfair water distribution
In both towns, the unevenness of the water supply across wards is pronounced. The two water supply systems favour wards inhabited by wealthy households while peripheral wards where the poor reside are often not supplied or only irregularly supplied.
In their peripheral wards, both municipal governments have initiated a one-house-one-tap system. These systems either tap local spring water or pump water from deep borewells. Urbanisation, haphazard land surface interventions, and climate change have, however, resulted in the depletion of many spring sources. Furthermore, low volumes and low quality have plagued the performance of many deep borewells.
Decline in the quantity of water at Paiyun Dhara, a private source in upstream Diktel.
In Diktel, the ADB-project made individual connections mandatory in place of existing communal taps. Dhulikhel’s one-house-one-tap system is similar. Having individual taps is expensive. Members of the water users’ committee in Diktel noted that the high installation charge and high-water tariff were necessary to pay off the project loan. However, many poor and marginalised residents cannot afford individual taps. One household remarked, “We can’t afford the installation charge or monthly tariff.” Another Dalit woman recounted, “Earlier, we at least had access to drinking water, but now they have seized those sources.”
A woman collecting water from a communal tap in Dhulikhel
Marginalized groups residing in the peripheral wards, continue to struggle to access water through piped supply system.
Although the nation has become more inclusive in recent years, caste- and gender-based marginalisation still persists. For instance, in Dhulikhel, “high-caste” women were reluctant to allow Dalit women to touch the spring. In fact, the former did not even allow the latter to rest their pots on the stone near traditional sources. Consequently, the poorest sections of society, primarily women, Dalits, and other marginalised groups residing in peripheral wards, continue to struggle to access water through the new piped supply system.
Eight Dalit households in Diktel depend on this small “kuwa,” which takes a long time to replenish itself and requires people to wait their turn to fill their vessels with drinking water.
Women Have a Limited Say
Apart from caste-based discrimination, gendered roles entrenched in Nepali society prevail in both these municipalities and it is mostly women who shoulder the responsibility for household water. Even in areas with improved access to water, they are excluded from most decision-making. In both towns, the water users’ committee is dominated by men from the core area, men who are relatively wealthy and powerful.
In Dhulikhel, where once the ethnic Newar community controlled the water security systems initiated in the early 1990s, there have been some encouraging changes. The water users’ committee now has six female and nine male members, and some women have started seeing their voices heard. Nevertheless, other women, particularly single women, Dalits, and those from low socio-economic backgrounds, still find it challenging to participate in decision-making structures and processes. The majority of the women members feel they have no choice but to acquiesce to decisions without offering an opinion. One female committee member shared, “Anyone who speaks out faces risk losing his or her position in the committee.”
In Diktel, however, the merged water users’ committee (formed by merging old Ramba khola water users committee and Majh khola water users committee) is comprised only of political party members and the 13-member advisory committee has no women members at all.
Locals collecting drinking water in Nunthala, Khotang
For the most part, neither town treats female committee members the way they treat male members. While male members are given technical and high-level decision-making roles such as fund allocation, women members are offered “women’s work,” such as organising cleanliness campaigns in Dhulikhel and choosing the color of paint for the committee building in Diktel. This sort of discrimination has undermined the confidence of female members. Other evidence of discrimination is that meetings are often organised in the morning, a time unsuitable for women, who have to engage in household chores then. The women we consulted stressed that they wish to prove that they are indeed capable of making major decision. Women’s convenience and their meaningful participation, however, seems to be the least of men’s concerns.
Women members were offered feminine roles, such as organizing cleanliness campaigns and choosing the color of paint of the committee building.
The Way Forward
In recent years, Nepal has made access to safe water for all a priority. In the process, some people have gained access to an improved supply of water. Even so, inequity persists, not only in terms of sharing between upstream and downstream communities and urban cores and their peripheries but also in the representation and meaningful participation of women, the poor, and other marginalised people. The experiences of these two towns underscore the need for more equitable water distribution, more inclusive governance, and the reciprocal recognition of rights and responsibilities. All of these changes are key to sustainable water management and reaching the country’s commitment to the target of water for all.
All Photos credit: Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS)
This blog article was first published at South Asia Nadi Sambad 23rd April 2024.
“Views expressed here are personal and not associated with any affiliated organisations”
