Small Scale Water Storage Systems: Appropriate means of improving Agricultural Livelihood in the Hills of Nepal
Deepak Lochan Adhikari , Technical Advisor, Development Inn Pvt. Ltd., Kathmandu, Nepal E-mail: deepaklochan@yahoo.com Chiranjibi Rijal Managing Director, Development Inn Pvt. Ltd, Kathmandu, Nepal E-mail: csrijal@gmail.com ABSTRACT Agriculture is the backbone for sustaining rural livelihoods in Nepal. Such an important sector is predominantly based on natural rainfall. Although Nepal is blessed with abundant rainfall on annual basis, most of it occurs during four monsoon months leaving other months almost dry. The hill and mountain slopes are the most water scarce areas. Climate change effects have further aggravated the reliability of rainfall as seen from past years. Poorest have been the hardest hit due to their low adaptive capacity. To cope with the seasonal water scarcity local community have built varieties of water storage structures since historical times. Over years improved modern structures have also been adopted by them with or without agency sup...