1. 1
Ram Charan Chaudhary of Samarchaur says, ‘Millions of rupees of the
Nepal Government and our works just vanished in vain. We did a lot to
save our land from being cut down by flood, but the result was just the
opposite of our intentions. I lost hectares of my land and so did
others. This is one of the things that is destroying our livelihoods. The
neighboring villages say we live in a place of death, surrounded by
two big rivers and no way out during the flood season. We
constructed lots of heavy spurs, but they didn’t function well. But
thanks to this technology – the low cost bamboo toe wall with
bioengineering – during the last monsoon, instead of losing our land
to the flood, we gained 15 more meters of land due to the large amount
of sediments deposited along the bank. Also, it’s cheaper, easy to
construct and it worked very well.’
Words from Heart
Supporting the Role of Schools in DRR
Phase-II

2. Bioengineering
More Effective, Low Cost and Replicable
Linked up with Livelihood for Sustainability.
Enhancing local Economy

3. 3
Bio Engineering: Is an applied science that combines structural,
biological, and ecological concepts to construct living structures for erosion,
sediment and flood control

4. 4
Application of Bioengineering in SRSD Project
The school was badly hit by recurring floods every year resulting in
significant loss of school land.
Shree Janata, LSS of Samarchaur
Problem

5. What SRSD project did??
5
Initial Assessment
• Nature of river flow, magnitude of flood and its frequency
were identified.
• Identification of most appropriate solution for the problem.
• Assessment of local materials, such as bamboo, Kansh,
Narkat, which were easily available.
• Identification of community motivation and participation.
• Cost effectiveness (input vs output).

6. 6
Process
• After successful interaction with the community and with their full
participation, we decided to implement a different type of mitigation
and forgo the ‘business as usual’ model that had proved
unsuccessful.
• A simple design was created by integrating the aspects of both hard
engineering and soft engineering to come up with so-called
bioengineering.
• Generally, just carrying out hard engineering is not sustainable at the
community level, but when we add biological components to the hard
components, it becomes more sustainable. This was the basic idea
behind the design.
• It was designed fully based on locally available materials/plants, such
as bamboo, Kansh, Besharmi, Narkat, Rhizome of bamboo, Amrisho
and manpower; thus, making it low cost, more easily replicable and
more economic for the community.

7. Locally Available Materials
7
Rhizome of bamboo Amrisho

8. Locally Available Materials
8
Narkat Kansh

9. 9
Construction Phase
Hard Engineering for Stream Bank Protection
• Bioengineering can be
compared with a new born
baby that requires parental
care and protection. In the
same way, new
bioengineering needs
protection that is made
possible by the components
of hard engineering.
• So, a 280m, low cost toe wall
was designed and
constructed along the
riverbank. The major
component of the toe wall
was just BAMBOO not the
bigger GABIONS.

10. • Bioengineering requires a
bit more scientific or
engineering
consideration.
• After construction of the
components of hard
engineering, the uneven
slope of the riverbank was
evened out into a mild
slope.
• The plantation was done
more systematically,
starting with heavier,
deep-rooted plants at the
bottom to lighter ones at
the top.
10
Bioengineering for stream bank/slope stabilization

11. 11
Result

12. 12
Change
Before bioengineering After bioengineering

13. • The riverbank is protected now.
• About 15m of land was reclaimed in the past monsoon flood.
• One of the more innovative outputs is that we have linked up this
measure with livelihoods, contributing to its sustainability.
• Local manpower is the main requirement of this methodology.
• This technique has worked very effectively and thus it has become
more trusted.
• Most all community members now intend to duplicate this approach in
other parts of the river to protect their land. This is a major
achievement and signifies its acceptance by the community as a
simple, effective, low cost and easily adoptable mitigative measure.
13
Output

14. 14
Comparisons between the technology with and without
bioengineering
With bioengineering Without bioengineering
• As it contains living components,
it is more sustainable.
• As almost all components of this
technology are easily available in
the local area, it is low cost and
easily replicable.
• In the initial phase, there is need
for greater care, but for a short
duration.
• We can utilize this technology to
generate income, thus tying it to
community livelihoods and
ensuring greater sustainability.
• As it contains non-living
components, it has a short
lifespan.
• This technology requires almost
all components derived from
outside sources and thus it is
expensive and cannot be easily
or cheaply replicated.
• It requires a lot of regular repair
and maintenance and thus
becomes more costly.
• Livelihood activity is nil here and
thus no income generation can
be achieved.

15. 15
Thank You Er.Sanjay Shah