At this time, the situation is dire and miserable due to the numerous wildfires across the country and their aftermath effects on humans and wildlife. Thousands of people and wild animals are affected by the wildfires and drying up the spring water sources across the country in the mountain, hilly, and Terai regions of Nepal alarming way. The spring water sources are drying up rapidly due to climate change, seismic activities, deforestation, and changes in land use. Though we do not have the exact data regarding the dried-up spring sources of the country however, many researchers reported most of these springs had dried up in the last 10 years due to the adverse impact of climate change and other associated reasons.
A past survey revealed that around 73.3% of spring water sources had decreased the water flow and 12.2 % had dried up over the past 10 years but now this dried-up ratio is growing rapidly and the situation is getting worse. The availability of spring water sources is not only important for humans it is also most important for wildlife and for maintaining the natural ecosystem while protecting water catchment areas as well. On the other hand, it's paramount during the situation of wildfires in terms of controlling wildfires and protecting wild animals to cope with this horrible situation. Water availability is a primary source of controlling wildfires and protecting wildlife but unfortunately, the lack of water availability is causing a decrease in the water source yield and is drying up the spring water sources unexpectedly as a result dozens of rain-feeding and spring-fed lakes and ponds had dried up so wildlife is suffering from the lack of drinking water for the survival of their daily lives and wildlife's environment is getting worst causing water scarcity, deforestation, wildfires, changing weather pattern with the adverse impact of climate threats. Our ancestors had designed and constructed rainfed and spring-fed ponds and lakes in the forest area to access drinking water for the wildlife, the plants and for themselves and also had used it to control wildfire during the time of wildfires. Wild animals could protect their lives by moving close to these lakes, ponds, and water sources but now there is no opportunity for wildlife to create a disabling environment through human-made constructions and changing climate context. Our ancestors built such kinds of lakes, ponds, and other water bodies aiming to provide water for humans, wildlifes, and the environment and also for firefighting during the time of wildfires. But unfortunately, in this modern era, we are harming ourselves without knowing it and ignoring our previous ideas and best practices in terms of watershed management and disaster risk reduction and management.
The Wildfires do not affect wildlife and the human's lives and livelihoods only. It affects the environment by creating air pollution and contributing to carbon emissions as well. This is not confined to it has effects on damaging natural ecosystems by deforestation and demolishing wildlife habitats as well.
Every year in the dry season Nepal faces countless wildfire incidents in the forest area as a result hundreds of humans have died and many wildlife loses their lives every year as well due to the wildfires similarly highly heated by their livelihoods immensely. According to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA), 769 people have died and 2,568 have been injured in 18,791 wildfires in Nepal from 2013 to 2023 so the financial loss has been more than Rs22 billion. therefore, Millions in financial losses have been incurred each year causing wildfires because of that the economic status of the community has been greatly affected.
The wild animal migrant turnover has been increasing in cross-border areas due to a lack of water access and it will soon become more terrible because water sources are drying up and depleting rapidly against expectations and conflict between humans.
Local government should pay attention to it and make appropriate plans of preventive measures for wildfires and promote spring water source protection and community-based watershed management initiatives by adopting ancient tradition knowledge and practicing ingenuous ways. The local government needs to take action to make a plan and execute it, the programs should be appropriate in the local context and for the well-being of local people and wildlife otherwise, it could not be sustained and successful so before executing the program to higher sincerity about it. Provincial and federal governments can also play vital roles in these issues as a back power technically and financially. Some of the basic initiatives that can play a vital role in protecting spring water sources and mitigating wildfires which are digging temporary ponds in the forest and grazing areas that can support recharge spring water aquifers and groundwater recharge which will also help meet the water demand of the wild animals, vegetation with local species ( Sisno, Allo,Uniu, Dale chuk etc.) in the water catchment area in the hilly and mountain region and periphery of the spring water sources that support to prevent water flow decreasing, increase water flows, and protect spring water sources form the environmental degradation, build up fire break and fire lines in the forest area, building safe places for the wild animals during the wildfires which can build nearby water sources and other safe places where wildfires could not reach so that wild animals can be safe during the time of wildfires, similar thing for the community people who have been living in nearby forest area, firefighting water ponds can be constructed at the top of the village and forest area which is to always be filled up so that people can use this storage of water to control wildfire during wildfires. Similarly, promoting awareness programs, distributing firefighting equipment, access to wildfire alerts, access to early warning services, and emergency response strategies of local people and local government are prominent initiatives at the local level for the response to the issue of drying up spring water sources and increasing wildfires incidents in many parts of Nepal.
Some of the villages in the Karnali region of Nepal where around 50% of spring water sources have dried up over 2 decades due to deforestation, unsustainable land use, haphazard development, avoiding environmental aspects, environmental neglect, and adverse impact of climate change as a result people are facing numerous disasters related to climate change.
Many of the donors, INGOs, NGOs, CBOs, and private sectors have been working in the area of watershed management, biodiversity conservation, and disaster risk reduction sectors and have been expensing huge budgets on policy, guidelines, training, seminars, etc. but they have missed out the implementation of the basic initiatives in the grassroots level which can be possible with proper partnership with local people and deploying the local people. we could not achieve better results without addressing the basic needs of the local people in these sectors. The local government, aid organizations, and other concerned parties should be aware of addressing basic needs first and afterward relevant to discuss ambitious plans and targets. The current situation is exactly the opposite where aid organizations and donors are quite busy with advanced ambition and planning at 5-star hotels excluding local people at the same time the situation of the local people is far behind than planned so how is it possible? beyond considering these factors. Therefore, the local government needs to develop an appropriate plan to address these genuine issues, and donors, aid organizations need to support the local government to accelerate these initiatives in a systematic way with a higher number of community participation by adopting traditional knowledge and practice to watershed management and mitigation wildfire incidents in Nepal, without desires and commitment of local government and local people that would not be possible and would only be talkative for donors, INGOs, NGOs, and service providers.
Dr. Rawal is the Regional Representative of ARCSA International