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Political Ecology of Water Governance in South Asia a Case Study of the Koshi River Communities

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Political Ecology of Water Governance in South Asia a Case Study of the Koshi River Communities Political Ecology of Water Governance in South Asia A Case Study of the Koshi River Communities Kiran Maharjan A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy (Human Geography) School of Geosciences Faculty of Science The University of Sydney June 2018 Statement of Originality This is to certify that, to the best of my knowledge, the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources have been acknowledged. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes. Kiran Maharjan Dated 26.06.2018 i Abstract Nepalese communities around the Koshi River, a transboundary river between Nepal and India, are facing unprecedented water-related problems. They face water scarcity in dry seasons as well as recurrent flood disasters during monsoons causing soil erosion, inundation and siltation in their agricultural land and villages. This problem has largely been linked to the governance of the river via the Koshi River Agreement (1954, revised in 1966) between Nepal and India. Considering the issues faced by the riverine communities, this thesis analyses the political ecology of water governance in South Asia. Specifically, it examines how the Koshi River governance contributes to environmental injustices for the riverine communities. It uses an actor-oriented political ecological framework, integrating the concepts of governance, theory of access and environmental justice, to understand various dimensions of injustice. Using a mixture of qualitative and quantitative methods, it explores how multi-scalar power relationships and access-regulation of resources produce environmental injustice, and how communities cope with the injustice. The thesis argues that environmental injustice for transboundary riverine communities is produced by socio-natural complexes, where multi-scalar power relationships play a critical role. It demonstrates that the hydro-hegemony of India in the forms of political, economic, knowledge- power, information, and technology has influenced the governance of the river, including the negotiation of the original agreement. Results show that the power relationships among various multi-scalar intra-national actors in Nepal have influenced the decision-making processes. The system of governance has provided the powerful with even more power for regulating the access of the local people to resources, creating different forms and degrees of environmental injustice and uneven coping capabilities. The injustices have existed not only as unequal distribution of benefits and harms, non-recognition and non-participation in the decision-making but also as a lack of responsibility and accountability on the part of the powerful actors. Highlighting the need for enhancing environmental justice, this thesis proposes an alternative governance framework by considering various roles, rules and relationships among actors with differential powers across different scales and places. It suggests a need for the formulation of comprehensive research backed policies that facilitate the weaker government to strengthen its existing institutions and take effective actions to cope with the problems of irresponsibility and unaccountability of the powerful nation, enhancing livelihoods of the riverine communities. This thesis has produced the evidence-based local knowledge regarding governance and environmental justice and enhanced the science-policy interface by the grassroots-nested environmental movement. Overall, it has advanced the evidence, narratives, insights and the discourse on political ecology. ii Acknowledgements I waited long for the moment to write this part of the thesis, and the time has finally come. I want to acknowledge the people who have helped and supported me in completing this study. While recalling the names of the people, it appears that so many in Nepal and Australia have contributed to this study in different ways. First of all, I would like to thank all the questionnaire and interview participants for their voluntary participation and hospitality. Their interest, openness, patience and invaluable time for my research made this study possible. Their precious information and stories have enriched this study. My special thanks go to Chandra Sigdel and Lal Bahadur Limbu from Prakashpur, and Ghana Shyam Paudel from Mahendranagar for their hospitality and sharing important information related to my study. I am deeply grateful to my friendly and honest research assistants - Amrit Kumar Kabirath, Olin Kabirath, Laxman Kabirath from Prakashpur; and Dipesh Khadga, Dhirendra Yadav and Nagendra Yadav from Hanumannagar and Gobargadha. They introduced me to many interviewees and skilfully set up interviews with a lot of them. I would like to thank them for patiently helping me in collecting data, accurately translating interviews wherever needed and accompanying me while walking, especially, to Srilanka Tapu and Gobargadha during the hot summer of around 380C. Dipesh Khadga also sent me some photographs from my field sites taken during monsoon floods. I would like to express my special thanks to my friend Raj Kumari Gurung, who gave an overview of my fieldwork sites and introduced me to her contacts in different I/NGOs in Biratnagar. I would also like to thank Krishna Bhattarai of Abhiyan Nepal, Itahari and Dil Bahadur Nepali of Action Aid International Nepal, Biratnagar for providing valuable information regarding my fieldwork sites and providing me important contacts of key-informants from the sites. I am also grateful to Chiranjeevi Bhattarai, Itahari, a brother of my friend Chudamani Bhattarai, for accompanying me to Prakashpur and introducing me to some key-informants there. My special gratitude also goes to Paras Sir, a teacher at a school in Prakashpur, for finding accommodation for me in Hanumannagar. I would also like to thank Chakra Timsina, Prakashpur and Raj Kishor Singh, Hanumannagar for providing me with accommodation during my fieldwork. I am also grateful to the family, especially the mother, of Chakra Timsina for the nice cooking and the hospitality. I would also like to thank some of my friends for providing me with emotional support and helping me in various aspects - Ananda Raj Pokharel for translating and certifying the translated documents for submitting to the Human Research Ethics Committee; Roshna Maharjan and Bipin Maharjan for helping me in data entry; and Susheel Dangol, Basanti Kumpakha and Sudarshan Pokharel for collecting, creating and providing me necessary maps. I would like to express my special thanks to Rita Mastrantone for the thorough editing of this thesis. I am grateful to my former colleague, also a fellow PhD student, in the Department of Political Economy, Toby Rogers for his continuous moral support and encouragement to complete my thesis. iii I would like to express my gratitude to Elizabeth Hill, my supervisor while I was in the Department of Political Economy, for accepting me as one of her PhD students and providing me suggestions in improving my capacity in writing a thesis. My gratitude also goes to Joy Paton and Gavan Butler, my former associate supervisors in the department. I owe my supervisor, Phil McManus, a debt of gratitude for accepting me as his PhD student in the School of Geosciences during the critical moment of my candidacy, providing me with constructive comments and suggestion, and supporting me in getting completion scholarships from the university and the Faculty of Science. I would also like to express my sincere gratitude to Krishna Shrestha, the University of New South Wales, for helping me in completing this thesis by providing me with his continuous moral support and constructive suggestion. I am also indebted to Bob Fisher for providing invaluable feedback on my thesis in the capacity of associate supervisor. I would like to appreciate and acknowledge the University of Sydney for providing me with the University of Sydney International Research Scholarship (USydIS) for four years, the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences for providing me with the Doctoral Research Travel Grant for covering my field expenses and the Faculty of Science for the completion scholarships. Last but not least, I would like to thank my family and relatives for always being by my side through all ups and downs. I would like to express my deep gratitude to my sister Sita, brother in law Ramesh and other relatives for taking care of my daughter, parents and grandmother during the massive earthquake in Nepal, which was worst time I’ve ever faced in my life, while I was in the eastern Terai region of the country collecting data. I am also grateful to my cousins Bikash and Prakash for providing me with emotional and other necessary support whenever needed for completing this thesis. I would also like to thank my good friend, also a sister, Roshna Maharjan for providing emotional support and encouragement for completing the thesis. My father Krishna, mother Krishna Maya and grandmother Kanchhi’s blessings, unconditional love and support and continuous encouragement for my studies have made me what I am today. It was my father’s dream of getting tertiary education for me and my sister since he was unable to pursue his study despite a great deal of interest and passion, due to financial and family reasons. I want to proudly tell him, “Dad, I have done it now.” I also remember my grandmother always telling me to give attention to my studies, since
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