Water Climate and hazard (WATCH) Programme 

Aaranyak-ICIMOD study on climate change adaptation on the Brahmaputra flood plains of eastern Assam completed

The  study on Assessing Local Adaptation Strategies to Climate Induced Water Stress and Hazards in the Greater Himalayan Region: A Case Study in the Eastern Assam Flood Plains of the Brahmaputra Basin in India, carried out for the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Kathmandu, Nepal was successfully completed in technical collaboration with the ICIMOD. The study was carried out between July 2008 and September 2009 in five highly hazard-prone villages of Lakhimpur and Dhemaji districts of Assam. The reports have been published by ICIMOD in two formats, a synthesis report entitled ‘Local Responses to Too Much and Too Little Water in the Greater Himalayan Region’ and a full report called ‘Adjusting to Floods on the Brahmaputra Plains, Assam, India’ which can be accessed in their website following the links given below.

Five case studies were carried out under the ‘Too Much and Too Little Water’ project of ICIMOD, one each in Nepal, China and Pakistan and two in India (Assam and Bihar). The synthesis report contains the abstracts of all the five country case studies.  The synthesis of the Assam case study can be found on page 43 of this report. The full reports are published separately for each case study.  While the full report is meant for more interested readers and researchers, the synthesis volume is targeted more at planners and policy makers.  A short documentary film (11 minutes) titled ‘Living with flood’ has also been made as a supplement to the case study in Assam.  The film will be available in Aaranyak office hopefully in January 2010.

ICIMOD is complementing the field study with a comprehensive study on the policy aspects of adaptation to climate and water induced hazards in the Greater Himalayan Region. In India the study is being carried out by the National Institute of Disaster Management (NIDM), Ministry of Home Affaiars, Government of India, New Delhi.  The policy reports should be available early next year.

The Assam study mainly explores the ways and means through which the local communities of the study sites have so far coped with and adapted to changing nature of climate and water induced hazards like floods, flash floods, sand casting, river bank erosion, rainstorms etc. Changing nature of the water induced hazards in the study area is a manifestation of the impacts of climate change in the Himalayan region.  The perceptions, practices and strategies developed by communities utilising mainly their traditional knowledge systems have been documented and analysed. Factors influencing the community’s adaptive capacity have also been highlighted.  The field investigations were conducted mainly using principles and tools of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA)

This study looks into community coping practices from the perspective of climate change adaptation. ‘Adaptation’ as a means of dealing with impacts of climate change has gained extra-ordinary importance worldwide. Regions like northeast India located downstream of the Himalayan water flux, possessing delicate ecosystems rich in biodiversity as well as ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity need special planning, policies and action programmes to empower the vulnerable communities so that people can acquire or strengthen the adaptation skills and capacities to deal with impending effects of a changing climate. Such steps must be supplemented with change in the present development paradigm to make the pursuit of development more environment and people friendly.

Reports can be downloaded from the following links

Synthesis report: http://books.icimod.org/uploads/tmp/icimod-local_responses_to_too_much_and_too_little_water_in_the_greater_himalayan_region.pdf

Full report: http://books.icimod.org/uploads/tmp/icimod-adjusting_to_floods_on_the_brahmaputra_plains,_assam,_india.pdf

For further information please write to :

Partha Jyoti Das, Ph.D..
Head, Water Climate and Hazard (WATCH) Programme, Aaranyak

  ©AARANYAK 2009                         To know more about this initiative please contact Dr. Partha Jyoti Das at Tel: +919435116558               

                                                                              Email : partha@aaranyak.org