Building upon the Adaptive Capacity to Livelihood Resilience in arid, semi arid and flood prone regions

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Building upon the Adaptive Capacity to
Livelihood Resilience in arid, semi arid and
flood prone regions

• Presented by
• Aditi Dass
• Winrock International India
• May 11, 2006

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• Outline of presentation
• Case Study on Drought and Flood in India
• Risks vulnerabilities
• Adaptation strategies

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Case Studies
States selected on the basis of the level of
vulnerability of the states to droughts, floods
and cyclones which is a function of damages
reported Villages within the most drought prone
districts of Rajasthan, Andhrapradesh and
Karnataka have been selected. Similarly, a
case study in Orissa has been taken up within a
flood prone district, which is also susceptible
to cyclones.
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Damages due to extreme events between the period
1900 to 2004
Number of people affected due to various extreme
events in India.
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Probability of Occurrence of Droughts
A perennial feature 19 of area affecting 12 of
population annually Frequency of
droughts Tamilnadu, JK, Telangana, West
Rajasthan - every 2.5 years Gujarat, E. Rajasthan
Western Uttarpradesh every 3 years Other
states have droughts every 4-5 years Based on
the rainfall deficiency for the last 100 years
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Severe droughts in India in last 100 years
Year of country area affected of less rainfall over entire India of less rainfall over drought reg.
1918 71 -26 -49
1965 41 -17 -36
1972 47 -25 -35
1979 45 -21 -38
1987 50 -18 -45
After 1987, India experienced severe drought in
2002, where 29 of the area was affected
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Temporal-spatial spread of drought impacts
Drought is occurring in some or the other part of
the country Primary impacts water availability,
agriculture production, hydropower
generation Secondary Impact Agricultural GDP
dips, increase in commodity prices, livelihood of
people dependent on rainfed farming (marginal
farmers farm laborers surviving) affected
Rainfed areas (61) most affected
2000
1984
1986
2001
1997
2002
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Damages due to droughts
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Case study analysis Risks associated with
droughts

• Depletion in water resources for agriculture and
  drinking women walk 1-2 kms to fetch water
• Reduction in crop yields and change in cropping
  pattern
• Dwindling fodder stock and declining income of
  farmers lead cattle selling esp. marginal and
  small farmers who sell at depressed prices
• Increased incidences of debt
• Decline in nutrition and health status
  malnutrition strikes (esp. among children and
  women) whenever drought occurs

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Adaptation
Local Level Adaptation Case studies in
Rajasthan, Karnataka, Andhrapradesh Level of
adaptation not same Government Institutions and
policies to combat droughts Central Arid Zone
Research Institute (CAZRI) Rural Works Programme
Drought Prone Area Programme (DPAP) - labor
intensive schemes such as medium and minor
irrigation, road construction, soil conservation
and afforest action Dissemination of
technologies relating to soil management, water
harvesting, improved agronomic practices and
drought-resistant crops - CRIDA Desert
Development Programme (DDP) Integrated Watershed
Management Programme rejuvenate depleted
natural resources on watershed basis National
Watershed Program for Rainfed Areas (NWSDPRA)
around 22 mha
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Traditional coping strategies in response to
drought

• Physical
• Household/Community
• Migration (15-30)
• Sale of assets (land, livestock, durable assets)
• Reduce intake of food and decline in other
  expenditure
• Shift from superior to inferior food grain
• Mixed cropping
• State/Government
• Food distribution system
• Water supply (tanker, new wells etc)
• Employment programs

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Traditional coping strategies in response to
drought (contd.)
Social Economic
Sharing and cooperation Borrowing
Sacrifice by senior hh members Imports/assistance
New Community relationships Diversification in source of income
Inter and intra community exchange programs Subsidy/grants
- Relief works
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Modern coping strategies

• Farming techniques to retain productivity during
  droughts
• Soil water conservation practices
• Farm Pond enables storing runoff water
• Planting drought resistant varieties provided by
  the state Agriculture Univ.
• low adaptability of the above
• Livelihood Education skill based
  diversification of occupation
• Livestock ownership pattern changed from few
  people owning bigger herd size to almost all hh
  owning few small animals
• Govt. efforts area specific development
  programs initiated for drought prone areas to
  mitigate poverty

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Conclusion - drought

• Marginal small farmers and landless hh are most
  vulnerable to drought
• Middle level farmers in AP have also fallen prey
  to recurrent droughts due to
• Decline of crop acreage
• Fall in water table water harvesting structures
• Fall in employment purchasing power
• Scarcity of food and fodder
• Lack of change in cropping pattern lack of
  drought resistant seeds
• Inability of farmers to repay loans with
  continuous droughts
• Drought in Rajasthan was effectively managed
• Dominant strategies in drought prone areas
• Adopting mixed farming system (crop, livestock
  agro-forestry)
• Resources conservation approach
• Collective sustenance

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Floods in India and its impacts
2003
1986
1988
2000
2001
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Government expenditure and Damages due to floods
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Impact of floods

• Floods play major role in poverty
  vulnerability, esp. of marginalized communities
• Damage on Infrastructure health, sanitation,
  water supply, roads, educational institutions and
  opportunities for environment
• Loss of individual property
• destroy of kachcha houses, stored food hh
  goods
• Poor looses assets each time flood occurs
• Poor have to take loans at high rate of interest
  for survival
• Health
• water borne diseases like cholera, dysentery,
  typhoid other gastrointestinal diseases are
  common
• Lack of effective health care system
• Unavailable inaccessible due to prohibitive
  costs
• Lack of clean drinking water, well water mixes
  with flood water
• Effect on women
• loose control over food, fodder, fuel cattle
  rearing
• In post-disaster recovery phases, women suffer
  the most
• Cant get loans against lands because it is never
  in their name

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Coping with Floods

• Structural measures-
• Construction of storage dams, reservoirs,
  embankments, drainage structures as required at
  suitable locations
• Raising the levels of the roads and constructing
  houses at higher heights or raising the plinth
  level of the houses
• Non-structural measures
• Flood forecasting warning. The Central Water
  Commission (CWC) has a flood forecasting system
  covering 62 major rivers in 13 States with 157
  stations for transmission of flood warnings on
  real time basis.
• Post-flood activities for rescue, relief and
  rehabilitation operations.
• Peoples Participation

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Case study Measures taken by Jagatsinghpur in
Orissa (worst flood affected in 2001)

• Heights of embankments raised by 3-4 ft
• Repairing jobs of weak points of embankment was
  taken up by govt.
• Elevated spot merdha were used for immediate
  shelter to flood affected people
• Mud houses which were completely washed away,
  were rebuilt at an elevated area
• Just before onset of monsoon people got ready
  with dry food reserve and other essential items
• Different variety of paddy is sown in flood prone
  areas which are not destroyed even if the plant
  remains under water until 10 days

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Conclusion - flood

• 3 successive disasters have seriously affected
  sustainability of livelihoods in Jagatsinghpur
• Super cyclone 1999
• Flood 2001
• Flood 2003
• Loss of thousands of lives
• Areas most affected by flood of 2001 and 2003
  were areas affected by cyclone in 1999
• Poor disaster preparedness
• Restoration works have to extend beyond normal
  time frame
• Devastating flood has given opportunity to
  reflect gaps in our disaster preparedness methods
  mechanisms

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Mainstreaming Climate Change, Vulnerability
Adaptation Concerns
Why Climate change long term impacts may be
irreversible Long gestation period required for
adaptation (such as developing drought resistant
varieties) Infrastructure lifetimes are long and
are at risk Long time scales required for
institutional arrangements to be in place for
combating impacts of CC (national to village
level)
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Policy Question

• What do we need to do differently because of the
  expected adverse impacts of climate change?

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• Thank You