This site uses cookies, as explained in our terms of use. If you consent, please close this message and continue to use this site.
PHOTO CONTEST WINNER ANNOUNCEMENT
We are excited to announce the long-awaited results of this photo contest! We ran the contest from February–September 2022 and received a wide range of excellent submissions.
Through the photo contest, we aimed to collate stories of individuals, institutions, and/or interventions that are significantly contributing to disaster preparedness and response or enhanced resilience in the Koshi basin. Our sub-themes included:
The entries were evaluated by a panel of four independent judges, including a professional photographer, communications specialist, gender specialist, and DRR expert. The photos were judged based on originality, clarity of the visual story, resonance with the theme, and composition (Focus of the main subject, creativity in the relative overall balance of the photograph).
Refer here for more details.
Caption: Lalita Kumari Mukhiya (15) and Sangita Kumari Mukhiya (16) live in the Kosi Barrage, on the border of Saptari and Sunsari districts, Nepal. Lalita and Sangita are very good friends and study in the 10th grade. Their families belong to the Malllah caste whose traditional occupation is fishing. Now that their families have stopped fishing, they earn their livelihood by selling firewood and herding cattle. Every day, Lalita and Sangita go to the Koshi River on a boat to mow grass from the water-logged land and graze their cattle.
Caption: Bachan Mukhiya, 65, of Bhardah Village, Saptari district learned to fish at a very young age. His ancestors were also fishermen. As he grew older, he witnessed the dwindling fish population in the river. Although the fish population has shrunk, the fishermen still carry their nets. In the morning, Bachan goes on a boat to cut grass, and in the afternoon, he carries a net to fish in the river.
Caption: Bishnu Maya Tamang, 43, is a resident of Bardibas Municipality-4, Gairi Tole, Mahottari district in Nepal and lives in a family of six. She was married at very young age and took on all the household responsibilities including taking care of her in-laws.
Bishnu Maya is a member of a 25-member community user group (CUG), the Community Development and Advocacy Forum Nepal (CDAFN) in Gairi Tole Village. Here, she has learned about preparing organic liquid fertiliser, integrated pest management (IPM), agri-based farming technology, and off-season vegetable farming with climate smart technology.
As an active member of CDAFN, Bishnu Maya has been able to develop her capacity in commercial vegetable farming through various techniques. She initially started with vegetable farming, earning a good income, and was inspired to expand to commercial vegetable farming within her 0.5 hector of land area.
Bishnu Maya explains, “This area is in a dry part of Bardibas Municipality where there are no irrigation facilities. I used to collect rainwater and drinking water from the nearby village for vegetable farming. When I became a member of the Panchadhura Livelihood Women’s Agriculture Group, I was able to receive irrigation facilities from the project. With an improved rainwater harvesting pond, the farming business has become easy for me and for other interested members in our group.”
“Due to changing climatic conditions, new diseases and pests have become a challenge for us every year. However, with the various IPM techniques we have learned, we are gradually moving forward from these problems and towards climate smart vegetable farming’’, she adds.
Bishnu Maya earns around NPR 45,000 per month through commercial vegetable farming after expenses. Her business has been profitable for past four to five years. She is happy with her work and plans to expand it continuously.
Caption: The Koshi river basin not only faces acute water-induced disasters such as landslides and floods in rugged mountain terrains, but chronic environmental disaster such as sandification is also causing irreversible damages to the mountain communities residing in the flat Yeru Tsangpo river basin. The grassland fences have been devoured relentlessly by the fast-moving sand dunes in the forestless, dry, and mostly barren river basin.
Due to climate change and volatile glacial meltwater discharge, lowered and irregular river water levels exposed large areas of sandy riverbed and floodplains to the voracious wind over time, creating and advancing sand dunes to take over the once rich riverside wetlands and grasslands, and are now approaching farmlands. Such chronic environmental disasters have largely been neglected and deserves unbiased, timely, and prompt responses for building resilience in this remote area of the Koshi River Basin.
Caption: Barriers as worriers Checkerboard sand barriers near Yeru Zangbo river in the Tibetan part of Koshi River Basin
Although sand dunes have long existed in the flat, dry, and mostly barren basin of Yeru Tsangpo river, one of the major tributaries of the Koshi/Pengqu River in Tibet, sandification is leading to the environmental degradation of floodplains along the river. Fast expansion of sand dunes have encroached riverside wetlands, grasslands, and farmlands, destroying local communities’ grazing and farming resources, and the fragile floodplain ecosystems that sustain local communities and their livelihoods.
As a sand control response, local governments and communities have been using the checkerboard sand barriers as an affordable, practical, and nature-based sand stabilisation method, considering factors of near-surface wind velocity and sand transportation intensity. In addition to the science- and evidence-based engineered measure, sand-fixing plant species are also cultivated in these checkerboards as an ecological measure to further prevent sand advancement.
Caption: A flood leaves a muddy mass after trespassing the stone barrage and inundated part of farmlands near the Yeru Zangbo River in the Tibetan part of the Koshi River Basin. Sand dunes are also visible not far from the farmland in the background.
Local communities and their livelihoods have been facing threats by encroaching sand dunes and recurrent floods over time, amplified by ongoing environmental and climate change. Local measures of building stone barrages, however, only provide a minimal mitigative cushion from such environmental disasters. In addition to acute floods, chronic environmental disasters such as sandification calls for equal attention to help local communities break the tug of war between floods and sands in this remote region of the basin.
