1. Climate Change and Its Impact on Society: A Case Study in Sardi khola VDC, Kaski
Sachin Shrestha
9849216748
Abstract
Sardi Khola VDC’s temperature is rising and rainfall is becoming unpredictable. Rural communities of
that area are experiencing the adverse impact on societies due to climate change. There are experiencing
visible impact of climate change on agriculture, biodiversity, wild life, fishery, poultry form, tourism,
water resources as well as livelihood. Participatory tools and methods along empirical field studies are
used to collect data from the field. Both qualitative and quantitative research techniques are applied to
gather the information related to objectives. The major elements of this methodology include the use of
primary and secondary data, household questionnaire survey, focal group discussion, key informant
interviews and field observations. Acquired data are analyzed using Microsoft Excel 2007 (quantitative
information) and using bar and chart graphs (qualitative information).
Recent climate change phenomenon as visible evidences in climate variability particularly in
temperature and rainfall have been observed which have resulted into a number of climate disasters. The
people perception is that there are increasing in temperature and decrease in rainfall as well as temporal
shift in precipitation amount from Sep-Nov to Feb-Mar. Majority of respondent said that water resource is
decreasing. Resulted consequences are scarcity of water resource, increased dryness in rangelands, leaching
problem in mud roofed house etc. The ongoing climate change and changes projected to occur are likely
to have impacts on different sectors. The sensitive sectors are agriculture, forestry, water and energy,
health, infrastructure, tourism, industry and overall livelihoods and economy of the people. Poor people,
small holders, landless, women, children and people with disability are most vulnerable to loss of
physical capital (damage to shelter and infrastructure), human capital (malnutrition and diseases), social
capital (displacement of communities), natural capital (loss of productivity in agriculture, livestock and
fisheries), and financial capital (more disaster and less income). Degradation of livelihoods by climate
change will thus leave poor people with less of the assets they need to withstand shocks and stresses.
The subsistence farming economy is affected due to changes in the reliability of stream flow and drying
of spring sources. A more intense and potentially erratic monsoon and the impacts of flooding create
severe impacts on society. Decline in rainfall from November to April adversely affect the winter and
spring crops. Decline in food production has threatened to the food security of people. Increases in
temperature have impacted on the changes in the timing, intensity and volume of rainfall. Floods have
increased phenomenon and have taken lives, destroyed physical assets, displaced people and inundated
and deposited sediments on agricultural land.
Climate variability (changes in temperature and rainfall) has resulted into shifts in agro-ecological
zones, prolonged dry spells, and higher incidence of pests and diseases. Production of major winter
crops wheat and rice decreased in 2015 by 32 and 24 percent respectively compared to previous years.
Crop yields have decreased due to variation in rainfall pattern hence by more than one third population
at high risk of food insecurity. Thirty percent of sources are dried or substantial decreased in water
volume in Sardi khola and spring sources which caused problems for the availability of drinking water,
irrigation water and in business too (trout fishery, diary form etc) as well as forest areas dried up and
caused adverse effects on biodiversity. Awareness and sensitizations in groups, institutions and
providing technical and financial support to them, sustainable water resource management,
strengthening agriculture system, research and development, technology transfer and financing are some
recommended adaptation measures.