Water resources and Bio-diversity

Water Resources in Nepal

Nepal calls to mind images of the Himalaya, peace, tranquility, and voluminous flowing water, which when harnessed to produce hydropower for export, provides the comfort of easy revenue.Water in Nepal remains a seminal contribution to comprehensive thinking about the complexity of Himalayan waters.Water is most important for the life of living organisms such as plants, animal and man. It is also essential for agriculture, industries, drinking and many other purposes. The water of atmosphere reaches the earth surface through precipitation and from earth surface it reaches the atmosphere through evaporation and transpiration. Therefore, continuous circulation of water from the earth to the atmosphere and vice-versa in maintained by nature. This is called water cycle. Conventional water discourses are immune to the interdisciplinary percept. It has been calculated that total water on earth is 1.46 x 10⁹cubic kilometers. About 90% water is found in ocean, 4.1% on earth, 2.0% in the glacier, 0.052% in lake, river. Water is a most important component of our ecosystem. It is raw material for photosynthesis and numerous other processes. Our body contains 100 pounds of water. It promotes chemical activity. In recent years Nepal’s water wealth has begun to attract international attention as a resource of world-class proportions. Indeed, with a theoretical hydroelectric potential billed at 83,000 MW and an established inventory of feasible sites totaling about one-third of Nepal’s rivers hold the promise of abundant energy that very few places in the world can match. When one adds to this electricity bonanza the prospect of irrigating one of the world’s most fertile areas -the northern plains – for second and third crops, the vision of an overflowing cornucopia, seen from the vantage point of pure engineering, can be overpowering. Initial expectations from Nepal’s water resources were based on an analysis that viewed falling water from a physicist’s perspective, which then fuelled both publicity and political hopes regarding the nation’s future.Subsequently, the evolution of complex problems involved in harnessing the cascading waters of the Himalaya began to cast doubts on the viability of quick development. There were physical uncertainties regarding the quantity and nature of Nepal’s water. Very little was known about the riverbeds and hills upon which gigantic engineering structures were to be built, and what became known was generally unfavorable to large structures. There were also incongruities between the vision of full-scale water resources development and larger social realities. These difficulties have taken the romantic euphoria out of Nepal’s water and have left an uncomfortable hiatus in public debates regarding this physical asset. This monograph is an attempt to step back and re-scan the horizon. It is an interdisciplinary effort at slicing anew the whole that is Nepal and her water resources and synthesizing the various strands of social and physical concerns that bear upon Nepali water. It does not propose a deep analysis of any individual element pertaining to water, although the need and scope exist for very specialized studies of the many manifestations of water. Indeed, for the specialist in the different disciplines,the treatment of their favorite subject in this monograph may seem to be hopelessly brief and almost callous. It is because the task set forth is to pick out only the essence of the various elements and to see how it weaves into the fabric.

Bio diversity

Nepal owns the different condition for geographical, geomorphological, and climate and it occupies the most diverse ecosystem on Earth. The biodiversity consists of 118 distinct ecosystems in the various physiographic zones of the country: lowlands include 23, 52 in the mid-hills, mountains have 28, and 5 in areas common to more than one of the above-given zones.Nepal has only 0.1 percent of the total land found in the earth and harbors about 2.7 percent (5,586) of plant species, 3 percent of (ferns-ed.) and 6 percent of bryophytes (plants which do not have vascular systems and it reproduce through the means of spores-ed.).Nepal consists of over 9.3 percent of the total bird species in the world and 4.5 percent of world's total mammal species. It also includes 1 percent of fresh fish species, 1 percent of amphibians, 4.2 percent of butterflies, and 1.6 percent of reptiles, from the report. Biodiversity includes Food, Water and Health for All (ICIMOD - International Center for Integrated Mountain Development-ed.) people in the Nepal and it is called the showroom of the world's flora and fauna. The basis for the existence of humankind and the development of human civilization is called biodiversity. Such diverse plants and animal species and life forms involve in an essential role in creating and developing the agriculture, medicine, forestry, and industries. Such plants and species are disappearing from natural habitats it is due to the lack of human knowledge about the contribution which biodiversity and diverse ecosystems make for maintaining crucial ecological method and life-supporting systems. There is a threat to the biodiversity when the measures for time cannot be considered. In this context, the Nepal Government has established a 20-year master plan in the forestry sector in 1988.

Biodiversity status of Nepal

The Forestry Sector Master Plan is developed for the conservation of ecosystem and genetic resources by considering as a primary program for protecting the confined and special areas.It makes the conservation by considering the people and development process. Through the authority given to the adequate priority for the Community Forestry Program and developing subsequent programs for covering an essential part of renewable natural resources, it has empowered people for conserving and sustainably utilizing such resources.The Nepal Agricultural Perspective Plan has also provided the significant role for agro-biodiversity and envisaged the relation with forestry and agricultural sectors. The Tenth five-year Plan (2002-2007) continues the past programs and emphasizes the preparation and implementation of the National Biodiversity Strategy that covers all aspects of biodiversity conservation, sustainable utilization, and fair and equitable sharing of the benefits from conservation efforts.As Nepal became a member of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2003, it is challenged to preserve such valuable biodiversity. Without patent rights, there is the threat that Nepal can lose various agricultural products, medicinal herbs, and other valuable items related to biodiversity.

The important threats to Nepal's biodiversity are (Nepal Biodiversity strategy, 2002): Encroachment/fragmentation and degradation of habitat, Poaching and illegal trade of key wild animals and plant, Unsustainable use of average assets, spread of invasive alien plant species, Human-wildlife conflict, local weather exchange (direct impacts), Overgrazing by means of cattle, fireplace, flood and landslide, pollution of aquatic environments and changes in river flows, giant infrastructure progress. While the above mentioned are direct threats, there are a number of indirect drivers and root explanations that interact in complicated ways to cause human triggered alterations in biodiversity. Indirect drivers including inequitable access to wooded area benefit lack of fiscal choices, populace growth, and cultural and religious factors that impact neighborhood communities' behavior in ways that impact biodiversity. And climate exchange is having growing effects on people and nature, in some cases exacerbating indirect drivers of biodiversity loss.

References

Flippo, Edwin B. Personnel Management. London: Oxford Press, 1980.

Gynwal, Ram Prasad. Know Nepal. Kathmandu: Bhundipuran Prakashan, 2012.

Hamilton, Francis B. An Account of the Kingdom of Nepal. New Delhi: Manjushri Publishing House, 1971.

Heywood, Andrew. Politics. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.

http://www.forestrynepal.org/notes/biodiversity/status/Nepal

http://visitnepalbalu.blogspot.com/