Nepal and India

Photo Source: The Himalayan Times
   NIAS Course on Global Politics
National Institute of Advanced Studies (NIAS)
Indian Institute of Science Campus, Bangalore
For any further information or to subscribe to GP alerts send an email to subachandran@nias.res.in

CWA # 150, 26 July 2019
Nepal and India
Monsoons first, Floods next and the Blame Games follow

  Mahesh Bhatta

It is not that measures have not been taken in the past to deal with flooding on the border, however, unless India and Nepal come with comprehensive joint plans, inundation will continue to wreak havoc on each side of the border. 

Mahesh Bhatta is with the Centre for South Asian Studies (CSAS), Kathmandu. Views expressed are authors' own.

Nepal is highly prone to natural disasters, especially floods and landslides that take place almost during monsoon. Every year floods create havoc at Indo-Nepal border, especially in southern plains of Nepal and the adjoining states of India mainly in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. Both the countries are well aware of this problem for long, yet the headlines during the latest flood episode speak of floods causing devastation across the border 'unexpectedly'. 

Is the problem inherent or political or both?

Nepal's Natural Problem

Fragile and rough geographic composition, elevated slopes, complicated geology, irregular weather patterns, and unplanned settlements have made Nepal more vulnerable to natural disasters. It now counts as one of the extremely vulnerable nations to flooding and landslides in the region. 

Due to heavy rainfall and river overflow, flood intensity in Nepal has risen in the latest years relative to the previous decades. 

Like every year when the communities along the Indo-Nepal border get inundated by floods, people and governments from each side demonstrate their concerns in public domain including social media, mainly by blaming each other. However, as rain recedes, the concern gets hushed within few days until the arrival of next monsoon. 

Every year hundreds and thousands of people lose their lives, get displaced and lose their property, yet the flood threats become insignificant to both the country. This year too, the concerns on flood have yet again raised high in the past couple of days. Because of continuous pouring rains over the days, many Nepali villages bordering India have been badly affected by the flood. One of the most caught observations is flood disaster has been caused mainly because of rapid infrastructural development and road construction from India on its side of the border.

The Floods in 2019: A Situational Overview

Three days of continuous heavy rainfall during early July this year has resulted in flooding and landslides all over Nepal, particularly in the 28 eastern districts, with the most severe damage in provinces 1, 2 and 3. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, there had been 90 deaths, 29 missing and 41 injured. According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), about 76,990 families (384,950 people) have been affected, and 18,694 houses are damaged. Sunsari, Morang and Udayapur districts of Province 1, and Siraha, Sarlahi, Rautahat and Mahottari districts of Province 2 were the worst impacted districts of Terai. The largest recorded 24-hour rainfall on July 11 and 12 were in Simara, Bara District, 311.9 mm, and in Janakpur, 245 mm. In Province 2 - Sarlahi, Saptari, and Mahottari districts have the floodwaters receding, but needs remain particularly high in Rautahat district.

There are continuing relief efforts from the government and non-government humanitarian agencies, and the situation is gradually returning to normalcy. The temporarily displaced population is gradually returning to their place. According to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the number of temporarily displaced persons has reduced from a peak of 17,431 on 16 July to 11,839 households. 

Floodwaters have declined in most areas, and significant roads are in operation following repair works. Rural highways, however, stay unreachable in some of the southern areas of the Terai districts, and waterlogging and related damage continues to pose operational difficulties in some places in the southern portion of Saptari, Rautahat, and Mahottari districts. Although water has begun to recede, a big section of the population is still underwater, especially in Rautahat district. Authorities have forecasted heavy rainfall in central and western regions to continue.

The Official View
 

Bureaucrats and officials from Nepal who have closely observed and monitored over the issues for the years have blamed the Indian side for considering this issue lightly and not coming with lasting solutions, despite series of attempts from Kathmandu. 

Sheetal Babu Regmi, a former secretary of water resources engaged in a series of discussions with India, recently said that governments on both sides have never been serious about addressing the long-standing issue of flooding in the Terai region, particularly the villages bordering India. He said, we tend to make great promises, but fail to fulfil them. India first builds boundary structures and then talks later. 

It is not that measures have not been taken in the past to deal with flooding on the border, however, unless India and Nepal come with comprehensive joint plans, inundation will continue to wreak havoc on each side of the border. 

Similarly, another former bureaucrat, Anup Upadhyay, a former secretary at the Ministry of Water Resources said, regular communication between authorities and engineers from both parties should be established to tackle the flooding issue. He said that weaknesses and shortcomings are on both sides. 

Likewise, Former foreign minister of Nepal, Prakash Sharan Mahat, who also served as energy minister said Nepal and India agreed to create a joint technical team to check regions susceptible to flooding and inundation during the fourth meeting of the Joint Commission in New Delhi in 2018. But there is no tangible progression, and when monsoon occurs, then the only discussion over flood, inundation, and embankment becomes our priority.

Nepal and India have five distinct mechanisms to deal with flood, inundation, and embankment. After a five-year hiatus, the "Joint Water Resources Commission" held its conference in New Delhi in January 2019. However, no substantial action has been taken seriously yet to tackle the problem. 

In 2011, the two sides also reached an agreement to share hydro-meteorological real-time information for flood prediction operations. In June and November 2018, field visits were conducted in the southern plains of Nepal from Jhapa district of eastern Terai to Banke district of western Terai and Nepal's side shared a technical report with the Indian side in February 2019. The report was discussed at the Inundation and Flood Management Joint Committee in May this year. However, for the Nepali team, negligible progress has been made because the Indian side has constantly said they need budget permission and structural redesign before they can execute the Nepali side report.

The Blame Game

Devastating floods have triggered bilateral tension between Nepal and India, with Nepali politicians and media outlets claiming that Indian dams and infrastructures along the shared border have left Nepal vulnerable by blocking the natural flow of rivers, causing monsoon an enormous catastrophe. 

Trans-boundary floods are both a political and a logistical concern. In case of recent floods, Nepal's ministry of home affairs yet again pointed to two large Indian dams on Kosi and Gandaki River, as well as highways, embankments, and dikes constructed parallel to Nepal's 1,751 km border with India, arguing that these infrastructures impede the natural water flow. 

The issue is that infrastructure on one side can have a severe effect on its neighbours, particularly during the monsoon. However, hydrologists and disaster specialists in Nepal argue that latest floods have been exacerbated not just because of built dams but also because of illegal mining of boulders and sand from the low Churia Hills for use in the rapidly growing construction in India.

On the other hand, India criticizes Nepal for generating floods because of heavy deforestation which contributes to the overflow of water into India. Similarly, Indian authorities assert they do not receive enough information and data about heavy rainfall in the mountains and glacier situations from Nepalese authorities. 

Moreover, the effect of these floods has deepened by human interference and myopic political action. The result is an international blame game, with India and Nepal accusing each other of short-sighted and self-interested policies. Citizens bordering each side have suffered because of poor collaboration at the institutional level to efficiently share data and coordinate disaster relief. The fact is that effective data sharing and early warning would lessen the destruction. Strategic thinking about how institutions deal with these disasters is now essential. Both nations should effectively share weather pattern data, take action to decrease the overall impact of floods, and consult each other while developing infrastructure that could have trans-boundary implications. The authorities and the experts from both sides need to recognize and accept the shared responsibility to minimize the harm and tackle this common natural threat.

Print Bookmark

PREVIOUS COMMENTS

NIAS Global Politics Database
March 2024 | CWA # 1251

NIAS Africa Team

Africa This Week
NIAS Global Politics Database
February 2024 | CWA # 1226

NIAS Africa Team

Africa This Week
The World This Year
December 2023 | CWA # 1189

Hoimi Mukherjee | Hoimi Mukherjee is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science in Bankura Zilla Saradamani Mahila Mahavidyapith.

Chile in 2023: Crises of Constitutionality
The World This Year
December 2023 | CWA # 1187

Aprajita Kashyap | Aprajita Kashyap is a faculty of Latin American Studies, School of International Studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University New Delhi.

Haiti in 2023: The Humanitarian Crisis
The World This Year
December 2023 | CWA # 1185

Binod Khanal | Binod Khanal is a Doctoral candidate at the Centre for European Studies, School of International Studies, JNU, New Delhi.

The Baltic: Energy, Russia, NATO and China
The World This Year
December 2023 | CWA # 1183

Padmashree Anandhan | Padmashree Anandhan is a Research Associate at the School of Conflict and Security Studies, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangaluru.

Germany in 2023: Defence, Economy and Energy Triangle
The World This Year
December 2023 | CWA # 1178

​​​​​​​Ashok Alex Luke | Ashok Alex Luke is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Political Science at CMS College, Kottayam.

China and South Asia in 2023: Advantage Beijing?
The World This Year
December 2023 | CWA # 1177

Annem Naga Bindhu Madhuri | Annem Naga Bindhu Madhuri is a postgraduate student at the Department of Defence and Strategic Studies at the University of Madras, Chennai.

China and East Asia
The War in Ukraine
October 2023 | CWA # 1091

Annem Naga Bindhu Madhuri

Issues for Europe
IPRI Quarterly Forecasts I Triggers, Trends, and Trajectories
July 2023 | CWA # 1012

Bibhu Prasad Routray

Myanmar continues to burn
2022: The World This Year
December 2022 | CWA # 879

Padmashree Anandhan

The Ukraine War
Europe: Heatwaves, Wildfires, Droughts, and Ice Melt in Alps
November 2022 | CWA # 838

Rishma Banerjee

Tracing Europe's droughts
NIAS Africa Weekly
March 2022 | CWA # 705

NIAS Africa Team

In Focus: Libya
The World This Week: 150th Issue
December 2021 | CWA # 630

GP Team

Europe in 2021
Pakistan Reader
October 2021 | CWA # 588

Abigail Miriam Fernandez

TLP is back again
NIAS Fortnightly on Science, Technology & International Relations
August 2021 | CWA # 528

STIR Team

Space Tourism
Science, Technology and International Relations
September 2019 | CWA # 162

Lakshman Chakravarthy N

5G: A Primer
South Asia Monthly Brief (Nov 2018)
December 2018 | CWA # 71

Mahesh Bhatta | Centre for South Asian Studies, Kathmandu

Nepal
South Asia Monthly Brief (Nov 2018)
December 2018 | CWA # 70

Nasima Khatoon | Research Associate, ISSSP, NIAS

The Maldives
South Asia Monthly Brief (Nov 2018)
December 2018 | CWA # 69

Harini Madhusudan | Research Associate, ISSSP, NIAS

India
South Asia Monthly Brief (Nov 2018)
December 2018 | CWA # 68

Sourina Bej | Research Associate, ISSSP, NIAS

Bangladesh
South Asia Monthly Brief (Nov 2018)
December 2018 | CWA # 67

Seetha Lakshmi Dinesh Iyer | Research Associate, ISSSP, NIAS

Afghanistan