Nepal flood resilience project (NFRP)

Main purpose
Erosion control / slope stabilization,
Flood protection: redirection / drainage / infiltration of flood waters,
Climate adaptation / resilience,
Food security,
Land tenure equality and security,
Increasing community cohesion / community building

Other expected benefits
Biodiversity conservation / restoration,
Land restoration for increased soil fertility / reversal of land degradation,
Erosion control / slope stabilization,
Flood protection: redirection / drainage / infiltration of flood waters,
Pollution control / remediation (air, soil, water),
Reduced environmental degradation from sustainable resource use,

Conflict context
The 1996-2006 civil war in Nepal has lasting marks on the livelihoods op its civilians. In the 1990s a left-wing politcal party rose to prominence and instated a communist government in 1994, which challenged the monarchy. In 1995 the monarchy dissolved the communist government, splitting up the communist party. The resulting Maoist Communist Party then began an insurgency in the rural areas of Nepal, gaining much support from especially rural women and lower caste communities.

In 2001, the Maosits escalated their insurgency in the same year that the king, queen and other members of the royal family were shot dead by the crown prince. Along with the US, the Nepali government lists the Maoists as a terrorist organistaion. In 2002, violence worsened and hundreds of civlians were killed.

In 2006 a peace agreement was signed, after roughly 13,000 people had died in the decade long civil war, tens of thousands were internally displaced, and more than a thousand people had dissapeared. According to Human Rights Watch, there have been very few successful prosecutions since the end of the war, nor have the Truth and Reconciliation Commission been successful in delivering post-conflict justice. At the same time, serious human rights abuses continue to occur in Nepal, but with a weak justice system, these largely go unprosecuted. In recent years, extra-judicial killings and incidents of toture by security forces and shootings of unarmed protestors have been frequent.

Peace and security contributions
The bio-dyke has been identified as an appropriate approach for protecting the communities and their properties from flood. It protects agricultural land from being lost to floods through bank erosion, stops floods from entering in to the settlement where it can damage community and individual infrastructure, assets and lives, stops floods from entering into the farm land where crops grow that can be damaged, and stops deposition of silt/ debris on agricultural field that deteriorate the land productivity or suitability for cultivation.

Reported elements of good practices

The bio-dyke protects both agriculture and forest land, settlement and other infrastructure (roads, trails, bridges, drinking water, drainage, schools, health-posts, community shelters, etc.) which is the primary objective of making bio-dyke. Protection of assets and properties leads to sustainable livelihoods of the communities, thereby reducing their vulnerability. It increases the confidence level of communities for investment on the land to increase the production and productivity. The bio-dykes also provide plant products to the communities once it is established and contributes to restore disturbed ecosystems, and provides shelter to flora and fauna.

Reported challenges

Due to climate change, the intensity of flooding has been increasing. The biodykes require around 3-4 years to mature. If floods hit the Bio-dyke in the first year of its construction, it may damage the dyke, which can result in loss of community efforts. To ensure buy in of local governments, a number of follow up meetings to convince the importance and cost effectiveness of the biodyke is required, which requires a lot of effort of the project team. The community needs to contribute, but with reasonable number of days for construction of the bio-dyke. Since the affected households are poor, they need to earn to survive. So if they have to contribute several days for the bio-dyke construction, they will have problem for daily necessary goods – basically foods.