Back to news
10 Jul 2018 | CBFEWS

Local Communities Take Ownership of Flood Early Warning System

At the onset of the 2018 monsoon, a community in Shrikhandi Bhittamore in Bihar, India, raised funds to repair a community-based flood early warning system (CBFEWS) that had been damaged along the Ratu River near the Nepal–India border. The funds were raised by Yuganter, a local NGO, and community representatives led by the Mukhiya of Shrikhandi, Purnima Mishra. The system was repaired by International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Sustainable Eco Engineering (SEE), in partnership with Yuganter.

0 mins Read

70% Complete
A team from SEE restoring the system in Shrikhandi Bhittamore

ICIMOD, partners, and local governments have come together to save lives from flash flooding by installing eleven such community-based flood early warning systems (CBFEWS) in nine tributaries of the Bramhaputra, Indus, and Koshi rivers in Afghanistan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan.

A CBFEWS provides at least four hours of lead time for vulnerable communities to respond to approaching floods. The systems, which rely on technology and human operators, have saved lives and property and established goodwill between upstream and downstream communities otherwise unknown to each other. During the 2017 monsoon floods, CBFEWS helped save 17 children on along the Koshi River, in Nepal and India.


A Yuganter representative handing over the amount to SEE-ICIMOD representatives as Purnima Mishra observes

Stay current

Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.

Sign Up

Related content

Continue exploring this topic

29 Sep 2015 News
Thana Glacier Mass Balance measurement and monitoring in Chamkhar Chu Basin, Bhutan

  The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), with the support of Government of Norway in collaboration with the 

24 Jul 2019 Cryosphere
Reassessing Tsho Rolpa glacial lake

Tsho Rolpa is a large, potentially dangerous glacial lake in Nepal that has been the subject of extensive research and ...

11 Sep 2017 Gender in Koshi
Why China should Include a Gender Perspective in its Climate Change Policies

In Haitang, off-farm wage labour outside the community has, for some years, been an important income-generating strategy. As the drought ...

2 Jun 2016 News
Building Local Capacities for Managing Springsheds and Reviving Springs

Springs are the primary source of water for many communities living in mid-hills of Nepal.  Changes in social and economic ...

Yak Festival 2017

The festival took place in Phalelung rural municipality in Panchthar district, an area bordering Sikkim and the Indian territory of ...

Strengthening Farmers’ Knowledge on “Animal Nutrition and Health Care for Improving Dairy Production” in the Kangchenjunga Landscape, India

From 16-18 November 2017, around 50 dairy farmers from Ribdi-Gorkhey, India, convened in Ribdi for a three-day hands-on training and ...

8 Jul 2016 News
HIMAP Author Writeshop Held

The Hindu Kush Himalaya Monitoring and Assessment Program’s (HIMAP) Coordinating Lead Authors' Writeshop was organised by the International Centre for ...