Kholikhim Bazaar rests easier with flood-control structures installed with Swedish assistance

February 15, 2018

Located at the confluence of the Singati Khola and the Tamakoshi Khola, the settlement of Kholikhim Bazaar in Laaduk, Dolakha, is at high risk of floods every monsoon, when the waters threaten to enter local homes and cause havoc. What’s more, the area was rendered further vulnerable to the effects of natural disasters when shaken by the 2015 earthquake. The quake and subsequent landslides not only destroyed a great many houses in the Bazaar, but residents such as Krishna Bahadur Thakuri now found themselves grappling with dual fears: of floods on one hand and landslides on the other.

To help ease this precarious situation, the UNDP implemented Integrated Climate Risk Management Programme, funded by the Government of Sweden, undertook a key river-control and bio-engineering intervention in the area. A 480 cubic-meter gabion structure, stretching 180 metres in length was constructed along the Singati to hold back the river and prevent overflow.

The new structure has benefitted around 1,200 people—around 540 of them women—across 200 households, and locals are now resting a little easier. “If this last monsoon was any indication, the gabion structures are effective even during heavy rainfall—we’re hopeful this will be the case in the forthcoming monsoons,” Krishna Bahadur says.

The Integrated Climate Risk Management Programme (ICRMP) is a global programme spearheading UNDP’s climate risk management (CRM) approach, which aims to strengthen the risk management practice by harmonizing risk reduction and adaptation to effect a holistic, positive impact on poverty reduction and development. Funded by the Government of Sweden, ICRMP currently spans six pilot countries (Honduras, Armenia, Kenya, Uganda, Nepal, and Indonesia).

The ICRMP builds upon the climate risk assessment methodology and experiences under past UNDP programmes, especially the Climate Risk Management – Technical Assistance Support Project (CRM-TASP ), which was completed in 17 countries to assess the overall risk that climate change poses to sensitive development sectors, including agriculture, water and sanitation, food security, healthcare and managing the environment, and to identify actions that governments and communities can take to protect lives and livelihoods.