Transforming Nepal’s hydro and agrometeorological services to build resilience

Nepal is becoming a hotspot of climate-related hazards with the rapidly changing climate. 

Last year, the flood in the Melamchi River was caused by the intense rainfall triggering the cascading hazards resulted in the loss of lives, the devastation of riverside settlements, infrastructures, and local livelihoods. It caused substantial economic damage to the Helambu-Melamchi- Panchpokhari Thangpal riverside communities and the Melamchi Water Supply System. 

Similarly, the unseasonal October flooding submerged or swept away ready to harvest paddies and incurred losses worth billions of rupees in many parts of the country.

These damages, however, could have been reduced if not totally averted with a timely and accurate weather forecast system-based early warning system.  

And this year, with the starting of the monsoon season, heavy rain has already caused flooding and landslides in the country, causing fatalities and destroying homes. Many Nepali across the country, especially those devastated by last year's unprecedented monsoon floods, are worried and living in fear.

Robust hydro and agrometeorological services are crucial to saving lives, assets as well as building resilience to climate-related hazards.

Robust hydro and agrometeorological services are crucial to saving lives, assets as well as building resilience to climate-related hazards.

Hydro-met Services in Nepal 

In the past five years, Nepal’s six-decade old hydrometeorological service has undergone key transformations.  With the support of the World Bank-financed Building Resilience to Climate Related Hazards Project (BRCHP), under the  Pilot Program for Climate Resilience (PPCR), Nepal has laid a solid foundation for a better hydrometeorological service by modernizing the hydrometeorological observation network.  

The project upgraded 88 surface-meteorological and 70 surface-hydrological observation networks, installed a first-of-its-kind in Nepal C-band Weather Radar, and implemented and commissioned a High-resolution Local Area Numerical Weather Prediction System to name a few modernization efforts. 

As a result, there has been a significant improvement in the accuracy and timeliness of the weather forecasts, flood forecasts and warnings, and agrometeorological services . More people are confident using hydro and agrometeorological services and finding them helpful lately.

For example, farmers in Rapti Sonari Rural Municipality of Lumbini Province follow the rainfall forecast information to make decisions related to farm management, including the timing of paddy transplantation from nursery bed to paddy field. It is helping the farming community mitigate rainfall-related production risks. Similarly, in the Dang District of the same province, communities in Rapti Rural Municipality move to a safer place when they receive flood early warning, saving lives and protecting valuable property. 

While these results are heartening, Nepal still needs to address some critical gaps to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the hydro and agrometeorological services across the country  in years to come. 

Nepal still needs to address some critical gaps to enhance the effectiveness and efficiency of the hydro and agrometeorological services across the country in years to come. 

A report published by the World Bank in April 2022, Pathways for Transforming Weather, Water, and Climate Services in Nepal, evaluated the BRCH project as a case study and identified achievements, gaps, and priorities in transforming the weather, water, and climate services. According to the report, some of the key steps Nepal should take to transform hydro and agrometeorological services are:

• Setting up sufficient number of monitoring stations: Although the basic infrastructures are in place, the spatial density of the hydrometeorological stations is still low or almost absent in the hazard-prone high-altitude regions. It is also the case for upstream areas of the Melamchi River, which has made it difficult to timely issue accurate early warnings and understand and document the impacts of the Melamchi disaster. Therefore, a crucial priority should be setting up a minimum number of monitoring stations considering their importance and budget constraints ; and exploring the possibility of using publicly available remote sensing and weather data to fill the data gaps in high altitude regions.
• Providing targeted hydro-met services: There is still a lack of hydro and agrometeorological services based on user needs.  For example, there is an appetite for seven-day forecasts with a longer lead time, location-specific forecasts, impact-based multi-hazard early warning systems. While developing hydro and agrometeorological products and services, targeting specific sectors such as agriculture, transportation, health, tourism, hydropower, disaster risk management among others with tailored data focusing on the user needs should also be one of the key priorities.
• Improving coordination among relevant agencies and feedback collection from end users: The coordination and communication gap between relevant agencies was evident during October 2021 post-monsoon rainfall. Although the Department of Hydrology and Meteorology published a three-day weather forecast, neither concerned government agencies nor the general public/farmers seriously heeded the forecast, which led to a huge loss of harvest-ready paddies. Therefore, improving coordination and communication between relevant agencies; feedback collection at different users’ levels through a formal mechanism  (e.g., survey, formal interview, and discussion) should be the top considerations.

The World Bank and the Government of Nepal have ongoing discussions on various occasions to strengthen financial and technical partnerships for implementing these steps which will continue transforming Nepal’s Hydro and Agrometeorological Services.

“World Bank’s global expertise will be valuable in developing an early warning system in Nepal,” said Mr. Kewal Prasad Bhandari, Member Secretary of Nepal Planning Commission during a webinar on transforming Hydro and Agrometeorological Services held in March 2022. Another participant, Mr. Anil Pokhrel, the Chief Executive of Nepal Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority highlighted “We definitely need a sizeable investment like BRCHP to transform Nepal’s hydro and agrometeorological services further.” 

As Nepal embarks on a new Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Development (GRID) pathways, the World Bank is ready to support the Government of Nepal in building resilience through further improvement of hydro and agrometeorological services. 

As Nepal embarks on a new Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Development (GRID) pathways, the World Bank is ready to support the Government of Nepal in building resilience through further improvement of hydro and agrometeorological services.