ZCZC
BSS-51
EXPERTS-GBM-SOLUTION-TWO LAST
Soumya Dutta, Co-Convener of South Asian People’s Action on Climate
Crisis and Trustee of MAUSAM, shared his experiences from the
implementation of NbS in landslide hazard zones and river islands in
the Teesta River Basin.
He emphasised sharing of technical information on specific NbS
interventions with the communities in getting their long-term support
and ownership.
He shared his experience on the use of Vetiver plantation, a deep
rooting indigenous grass variety, for the control of river bank
erosion.
Dr Mokhlesur Rahman, Executive Director of Center for Natural
Resource Studies (CNRS) Bangladesh, shared the case of the Hail Haor,
a huge wetland area extending over 13.000 ha, located in the north
eastern Bangladesh, in the Meghna River Basin.
To address the ecological degradation in Hail Haor, and improve the
livelihoods of local fishermen, CNRS initiated a number of
interventions in partnership with local government.
“Institutional process was developed to ensure community engagement
in the decision making process. Through the restoration of forest and
wetlands, reintroduction of locally extinct fish species and creation
of Wetland sanctuary local ecosystem services were restored,” he said.
However, he highlighted that community based water resource
management is a time consuming process and needs continued
handholding, and therefore policy and local government support is
critical sustainability factor.
Dr Prem Narayan Kandel, Secretary, Ministry of Industry, Tourism,
Forest and Environment, Province 2 of Janakpur, Nepal, shared his work
on bioengineering in Himalayas and the mainstreaming of NbS in the
government policies in Nepal.
He said bioengineering approaches are critical in reducing land
slide and flood disaster risk in the Himalayas and have been included
in the national and local government policies of Nepal, such as Nepal
Road Safety Policy.
On the question of implementation of policy, he emphasized that
both the national and local governments need include it in their
annual plan, develop a programme work and ensure budget provision for
its implementation.
This was the second in the Webinar Series: Strengthening Civil
Society Organisations (CSOs) engagement in water governance in the GBM
basin.
Speakers provided insights on how Nature-based Solutions are used
in river basin management. The first webinar was focused on Nexus
planning for water, food, energy, and environment security and the
third webinar will focus on hydro-diplomacy as a tool for cooperative
water governance happening on 5 August 2020.
The webinar series is part of the BRIDGE GBM project, facilitated
by IUCN, and funded by the Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency (Sida) through the Oxfam Transboundary Rivers of
South Asia (TROSA) programme, aims to build the water governance
capacity of a network of CSOs in the GBM River Basin. Its focus is to
strengthen CSO engagement in transboundary water management issues.
The Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna (GBM) River Basins is prone to
natural disasters, such as droughts and floods. Within first few weeks
of the monsoon in 2020, hundreds have died and many more displaced due
to flooding.
In Nepal, landslides have killed more than 120 people in first six
months of 2020, and still counting. These challenges have put
imperative for governments and other actors to implement solutions to
mitigate impacts of natural disasters.
BSS/PR/MRI/MRU/2053hrs