New Angle Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy Volume 5 Number 1 2019 ISSN 2565-5124 Water Security and Inclusive Water Governance in the Himalayas
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NEw ANgLE Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy Volume 5 Number 1 2019 ISSN 2565-5124 Water Security and Inclusive Water Governance in the Himalayas 9 How does a social justice framing help understand local peoples’ claims over natural resources? 9 How do power relations shape water access and distribution between core and fringe areas in Nepali towns ? 9 What dynamics of conflict over water resources are emerging in the urbanising mid-hill towns of Nepal? 9 How are civil-society groups responding to large dam projects in the Eastern Himalaya region of India? 9 What issues and opportunities the newly formed local governments in Nepal are facing in implementing inclusive water governance ? 9 How can participatory community engagement transform gender relations in agriculture and water management? 9 How do agrarian structures affect groundwater access for irrigation in Nepal’s Tarai Madesh? 9 How can local experts contribute to inclusive water governance? Published by Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) on behalf of Nepal Policy Research Network (NPRN) New Angle Notes to Contributors Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy New Angle: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy is an internationally peer- Volume 5 Number 1 reviewed journal published by Southasia 2019 Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) on behalf of Nepal Policy Research Network (NPRN). We welcome articles which are based upon Chief Editor concrete data as well as analysis of secondary and historical sources. We encourage articles Dil Khatri, Southasia Institute of which record the results of completed Advanced Studies (SIAS) investigations and raise questions emerging from on-going work. Special Issue Editors Articles must subscribe to the Dil Khatri following format: Stephanie Leder, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) 1. Research articles: should be roughly 6000-7000 and include an abstract of Hemant Ojha, University of Canberra 250-300 words. 2. Opinion pieces can be between 2000- International Advisory Board 3000 words with summary of 100 to 150 words [key message]. Hemant Ojha 3. Spelling should be in the UK English. Andrea Nightingale, University of Oslo 4. Articles should be in an MS Word compatible format, with a font size of Fraser Sugden, University of 12, and 1.5 line spacing. Birmingham 5. Short quotations should use single Siri Eriksen, Norwegian University quotation marks, while longer quotes of Life Sciences should be indented. Jon Ensor, University of York 6. Photos can be included, but should be no more than 4×6 inches, and will be published in black and white. Managing Editors For further information, please visit: Suchita Shrestha, SIAS www.nepalpolicynet.com Gyanu Maskey, SIAS and Kathmandu Or University Contact: Design and Layout The Editor, New Angle NPRN Secretariat Sanjeeb Bir Bajracharya Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS) NK Singh Marga-304, Minbhawan-31 Kathmandu, Nepal Front and Back Cover Photo PO. Box 23499 Telephone: 977-1-4469801 Toby Smith (panipahar.com) E-mail: [email protected] Contents EDITORIAL Water Security and Inclusive Water Governance in the Himalayas Stephanie Leder, Dil Khatri and Hemant Ojha 1-6 ORIGINAL RESEARCH ARTICLES Natural Resources and Social Justice Agenda in Nepal: From Local Experiences and Struggles to Policy Reform Hari P. Dhungana and Gyanu Maskey 7-31 Water Security in Urban Water Governance: A Case Study of Dhulikhel Municipality, Kavrepalanchowk, Nepal Kushal Pokharel, Tikeshwari Joshi, Jagannath Adhikari and Kaustuv Raj Neupane 32-48 Water Conflicts in Urbanizing Regions in the Himalaya: Case Studies from Dhulikhel and Bidur in Nepal Kamal Devkota, Dil Khatri and Kaustuv Raj Neupane 49-73 The Consensual Politics of Development: A Case Study of Hydropower Development in the Eastern Himalayan Region of India Deepa Joshi, Joas Platteeuw and Juliana Teoh 74-98 Water Security and Social Inclusion: Local Governance within the Newly Established Rural Municipalities in Nepal Pamela White and Juho Haapala 99-127 Transformative Engagements with Gender Relations in Agriculture and Water Governance Stephanie Leder, Gitta Shrestha and Dipika Das 128-158 COMMENTARY PAPERS Enhancing Water Access in Nepal’s Terai-Madhesh Fraser Sugden 159-164 Local Experts as the Champions of Water Security in the Nepalese town of Dhulikhel Hemant Ojha, Eszter K. Kovacs, Kamal Devkota, Kaustuv Raj Neupane, Ngamindra 165-178 Dahal and Bhaskar Vira NEw Nepal Journal of Published by NPRN Social Science and Hosted by SIAS ANgLE Public Policy Available at www.nepalpolicynet.com 2019 Vol 5 ( 1 ), pp. 1-6 EDITORIAL: WATER SECURITY AND INCLUSIVE WATER GOVERNANCE IN THE HIMALAYAS Stephanie Leder1, Dil Khatri2 and Hemant Ojha3 1 Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural TheSciences Himalayan (SLU), regionUppsala, is Sweden; known Visiting as the Research even Fellow, rising Southasia socio-economic Institute inequalities of Advanced in ‘waterStudies tower’ (SIAS), of Kathmandu, South Asia Nepal (Bajracharya Corresponding both email: rural [email protected] and urbanising areas (Narain et et al.,2 2015; Southasia Singh and Institute Pandey, of 2019),Advanced and Studies al., (SIAS), 2013 ;Kathmandu, Zimmer, 2011). Nepal These problems yet,3 the problem University of water of Canberra insecurity & Institute is are ofespecially Study and set Developmentto escalate in contextsWorld- escalatingwide (IFSD), in urban, Sydney, peri-urban Australia and rural of political and climate uncertainty, while areas of the lower Himalayan region (Ojha efforts to find solutions face a multiplicity et al., forthcoming). Three drivers lead to of competing knowledges (Karpouzoglou water crisis in the region. First, climate & Zimmer, 2016; Mehta, 2007). Powerful change affects the water availability as actors such as industries, hydropower the Himalayan region experiences faster projects, and development agencies rate of warming (Immerzeel et al., 2019). control water resources and drive decision- Second, there is an increasing demand making processes in water governance, for water due to population growth, marginalising smallholders, women and rapid rate urbanisation, and industrial tenant farmers, and migrants (Joshi et al., activities (Connor, 2015). Third, there is 2019; Sugden, 2019, Leder et al., 2019a; an increasing level of disparity over water Leder et al., 2017). access and use, attributed to existing or 1 Department of Urban and Rural Development, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Uppsala, Sweden; Research Fellow, Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS), Kathmandu, Nepal. Corresponding email: [email protected] 2 Southasia Institute of Advanced Studies (SIAS), Kathmandu, Nepal. 3 University of Canberra & Institute for Study and Development Worldwide (IFSD), Sydney, Australia. © Leder et al., 2019 1 New Angle: Nepal Journal of Social Science and Public Policy Vol. 5 (1), 2019 We consider water security as a vision Most importantly, contributors examine which can be achieved through the the way in which diverse struggles over means of inclusive water governance. water could be addressed by more inclusive This perspective is strongly rooted and climate adaptive water governance in a social and environmental justice reforms. perspective which uncovers the multiple relational ties through which diverse and differently powerful actors interact among THE THORNY QUESTION OF themselves and with the environment. The JUSTICE IN LOCAL WATER Himalayan region offers an urgent context GOVERNANCE to explore water security questions deeply embedded in contested political fields. A Researchers on water security and local number of governance challenges prevent water governance stress the need for diverse Himalayan communities to have the analysis of socio-cultural, political, reliable and equitable access to water. and economic relations to understand While approaches such as integrated how differentiated access to and control water resource management and over water is linked to poverty, livelihood decentralising government arrangements options and landlessness (Harris, 2008; give hope for more locally adaptive Sultana, 2010; Ahlers et al., 2014; Zimmer, approaches, the sectorial approach of 2011). In the lower Himalayas, everyday ministries to implement policies prevent relations around gender, age, ethnicity the implementation of such ambitions and caste differences shape water access (Suhardiman et al., 2015). Similarly, (Resurrección et al., 2019; Leder et al., rapid urban development processes 2017; Leder & Sachs, 2019). It is these escalate resource conflicts, historically kinds of complex social relations which rooted in structural inequalities based on are often hidden in mainstream water landownership, gender, ethnicity, class security and governance research but and other divides which shape water are vital to understand diverse and governance at its deepest core. State, sometimes covert water allocation market and civil society actors engage in strategies (Zwarteveen & Neupane, 1996). contention with each other in policy and We envisioned this Issue to explore how implementation processes, as they bring these political and economic dynamics diverse intentions to improve “water shape and reshape water management in security” and competing interests (Leder contexts of urbanisation, out-migration, et al., 2017; Shrestha and Clement, 2019). and anthropogenic climate change. This Special Issue includes six original