KATHMANDU, JULY 11
While the Madhes government has been advocating for the 'Feed the Nation Campaign', the provincial government has declared Madhes Province a drought-prone area. The cabinet meeting held on Thursday declared the province a drought-stricken area.
According to Chandan Singh, a Madhes provincial lawmaker, the Madhes government declared Madhes Province a drought-hit region on Thursday with a cabinet decision because there is no sign of rain despite being in the middle of the monsoon season.
"Water scarcity is severe in districts such as Bara and Parsa, as well as in some major cities," he said. "We have asked the central government and the appropriate ministry to intervene and provide assistance. However, the fact we cannot ignore is that exploitation of the Chure region costs water to a larger demography living in the Tarai belt."
According to Madhes province data, only 30 per cent of paddy plantations have been completed, compared to 70 per cent in previous years around this time of the monsoon.
On the other hand, it is facing a severe drinking water crisis.
According to Dr Sohan Sha, vice-chair of the Madhes Province Policy and Planning Commission, 313 drinking water projects are stalled due to the central government's failure to provide the attention promised to the provincial government following federalism's implementation. "This has had a compounding effect of exacerbating the water crisis in Madhes, which has the largest population number in the smallest land mass. The implementation of these projects would require around Rs 18 billion," he said. "It's stupendously surprising and shocking that Madhes was declared drought-hit during peak monsoon season."
Meanwhile, Dr Sha, who once told the Himalayan Times in an interview, 'We are campaigning to feed the nation amid myriad challenges,' took to social media to share a screenshot of the published news titled, 'Madhes declared a drought-stricken area' and wrote in the latest edition of his Country and Madhes Update, "After all, the Madhes Provincial government has had to declare the province a drought-prone area. There were numerous challenges in education, healthcare, and agriculture, but environmental challenges will undoubtedly have a multifaceted and far-reaching impact."
According to him, the government's development policy is incompatible with environmental concerns. "The province that has probably suffered the most impact of climate change has to be Madhes," he wrote in his post. "This makes the Madhes Provincial Government's participation in national and international forums related to the environment of the Government of Nepal paramount."
To achieve our net zero CO emission commitment and promote climate justice, the Madhes Provincial Government should prioritise resources for fair burden sharing and climate adaptation, despite having the smallest area and highest population density among all provinces, as per Sha.
"Although Madhes Province has raised numerous issues of social, political, and inclusiveness, the most pressing issue right now should be climate justice because its impact has begun to affect the lives of everyone and the economy," he said.
"Although the government has made some efforts to mitigate climate change, the magnitude of the problem necessitates large-scale challenges, so we bear a great responsibility to protect the environment for ourselves and future generations."
Meanwhile, Ujjwal Upadhyay, a climate change and disaster risk mitigation analyst, shared that it has been a month since the monsoon entered Nepal, but only 12 per cent of the expected rainfall has been received in the central Terai (Sarlahi, Rautahat, Bara and Parsa), which has worsened the problem.
"Official confirmation is awaited, but the Terai people's only source of drinking water, namely 30 per cent of the underground springs (chapakal locally (handpumps)), have dried up." His post reads: "There is an extreme water crisis in settlements that always have access to water."
As per him, in Madhes' major cities such as Birgunj, Gaur, Kalaiya, and Malangawa, people can be seen walking around in the early morning looking for water with buckets. "Not only is there no rain, but there is also a severe water crisis. How painful! Even though the Nepali month of Shrawan is approaching, the majority of the rice fields remain barren due to a lack of water," reads his post.
"Some farmers who have access to irrigation through 'deep boring' are few in number, but this clearly demonstrates the pressure on groundwater and the worsening water crisis that will occur in the coming days."
He further said that the growing climate crisis, deteriorating monsoon system, and, most importantly, the unrestricted exploitation of the Chure region are drawing the Terai region closer to desertification by the day. "If we still delay in seeing it, it will not be long before 51 per cent of the country's population living in this region is considered internal refugees," he added.
