Climate Risks to Water Security: Framing Effective Response in Asia and the Pacific

309 Pages·2023·8.373 MB·English

by  Hemant Ojha, Nicholas Schofield, Jeff Camkin

PALGRAVE STUDIES IN CLIMATE RESILIENT SOCIETIES
SERIES EDITOR: ROBERT C. BREARS
Climate Risks to
Water Security
Framing Effective Response
in Asia and the Pacific
Edited by
Hemant Ojha · Nicholas Schofield ·
Jeff Camkin
Palgrave Studies in Climate Resilient Societies
Series Editor
Robert C. Brears, Avonhead, Canterbury, New Zealand
The Palgrave Studies in Climate Resilient Societies series provides readers
with an understanding of what the terms resilience and climate resilient
societies mean; the best practices and lessons learnt from various govern-
ments, in both non-OECD and OECD countries, implementing climate
resilience policies (in other words what is ‘desirable’ or ‘undesirable’
when building climate resilient societies); an understanding of what
a resilient society potentially looks like; knowledge of when resilience
building requires slow transitions or rapid transformations; and knowl-
edge on how governments can create coherent, forward-looking and flex-
ible policy innovations to build climate resilient societies that: support
the conservation of ecosystems; promote the sustainable use of natural
resources; encourage sustainable practices and management systems;
develop resilient and inclusive communities; ensure economic growth;
and protect health and livelihoods from climatic extremes.
· ·
Hemant Ojha Nicholas Schofield
Jeff Camkin
Editors
Climate Risks
to Water Security
Framing Effective Response in Asia
and the Pacific
Editors
Hemant Ojha Nicholas Schofield
University of Canberra Global Future Research
Canberra, ACT, Australia Canberra, ACT, Australia
Australian National Univeristy
Canberra, ACT, Australia
Institute for Study and Development
Worldwide
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Jeff Camkin
Institute of Agriculture
University of Western Australia
Perth, WA, Australia
ISSN 2523-8124 ISSN 2523-8132 (electronic)
Palgrave Studies in Climate Resilient Societies
ISBN 978-3-031-16647-1 ISBN 978-3-031-16648-8 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-16648-8
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2023
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This book is dedicated to the communities of Asia and the Pacific who are
facing unprecedented challenges of climate change-induced water insecurity,
and to the citizens, local leaders, scientists, and government and
non-government personnel working diligently to design and share solutions.
Preface and Acknowledgements
The idea of the book emerged following the work around a climate
and water security report commissioned by the Australian Water Part-
nership (AWP) in 2019. The first editor (Hemant Ojha) and second
editor (Nicholas Schofield) conducted an assessment of how climate risk
to water security is being manifested in various localities in Asia and the
Pacific. As a programme of Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and
Trade (DFAT), AWP was keen to promote an understanding of climate
risk to water among its large base of partners working in the region. Jeff
Camkin was later invited as an external reviewer who brought thoughtful
comments to improve that report and further stimulated our thinking
and engagement on the topic. The intellectual exchanges among the
three of us around that report writing and reviewing was the seedbed
for the idea of this book, and we thank AWP for providing a breeding
ground for it.
Based on a fairly extensive review of literature covered in the AWP
report, we became convinced that the Asia-Pacific region is so diverse,
dynamic and complex that climate-water risks cannot be generalised
across the region. Moreover, we sensed that important lessons in
vii
viii PrefaceandAcknowledgements
responding to climate-water security risks are emerging from different
socio-ecological zones, beyond the regional and national levels. A lot
of these practical insights have gone unnoticed or are not well docu-
mented. Therefore, we became convinced that contextually grounded
and practice-based insights would fill significant gaps in wider knowl-
edge about climate risk management in water security. Coincidentally,
Palgrave approached Hemant Ojha for a possible contribution to their
Climate Resilient Series, which we readily accepted as a vehicle for
digging further into these ideas.
We thank the Institute for Study and Development Worldwide (IFSD)
for its research and infrastructure support for the editorial work. Priyanka
Gurung, an IFSD research officer working from Nepal, provided signifi-
cant editorial assistance, including preparing the manuscript for submis-
sion. We thank the many authors who cooperated with us in a relatively
short timeframe which was also during the COVID-19 pandemic.
While we appreciate support and cooperation of others, we take
responsibility for the editorial work for this book. As editors, we provided
overall framing questions and guidance to chapter authors; however, the
actual content and views expressed in each of the chapters are those of
the authors themselves.
We do believe that the book’s contextual insights from local socio-
ecological zones and river basins will stimulate further research, policy
discussions and management towards a more secure water future in the
context of climate change.
Sydney, Australia Hemant Ojha
Perth, Australia Nicholas Schofield
Lisbon, Portugal Jeff Camkin
July 2022
Contents
1 Introduction 1
Hemant Ojha, Nicholas Schofield, Jeff Camkin,
and Priyanka Gurung
1 Why This Book? 2
2 The Growing Climate Risk to Water Security 4
3 Socio-Ecological Zones and Basins as Sites
of Climate-Water Risks 6
4 Chapters Overview 8
References 12
2 Water Security and Spring Conservation
in the Himalaya 15
Manish Kumar, Roshan Rathod, and Aditi Mukherji
1 Introduction 16
2 Declining Himalayan Springs 18
2.1 Anecdotal Evidence in Absence of Long-Term
Monitoring 18
2.2 Deterioration of Spring Water Quality 19
ix
x Contents
3 Climate and Socio-Economic Drivers of Changes
in Himalayan Springs 19
3.1 Climatic Drivers of Changes in Himalayan 20
4 Socio-Economic Drivers of Changes in Himalayan
Springs 22
4.1 Infrastructure—Dams & Tunnelling, Road
Cutting, Mining or Quarrying 22
4.2 Urbanization and Tourism 22
4.3 Gender and Caste 23
5 State and Community Responses for Spring
Conservation and Revival in Himalaya 24
5.1 Traditional Knowledge Systems for Spring
Conservation 24
5.2 Early Research and the Spring-Sanctuary
Model 25
5.3 Hydrogeology-Based Spring Rejuvenation
Programmes 26
5.4 Policy (State & National Recognition) 27
6 Gaps and Future Directions 28
References 30
3 Water Stresses and Responses in Myanmar’s Central
Dry Zone 37
Leonard Drury, Robyn Johnston, and Petra Schmitter
1 Central Dry Zone 38
2 Impacts of Climate Change and Development
on Water 40
3 Water Management in the CDZ 41
4 Rehabilitation of Pyawt Ywar Pump Irrigation
Project 44
5 Restoring Artesian Aquifers in the Pale Sub-Basin 48
5.1 Groundwater Irrigation Development 50
5.2 Groundwater Management—Issues
and Constraints 51
5.3 Groundwater Management and Rehabilitation
of the Tube Wells 53