In winter, farmers dig pits along the Jhiku Khola river bed to irrigate their potato farms pumping the water collected overnight. But this is lowering the water table and affecting crops in the summer. Photo: MADHUKAR UPADHYAFarmers in Panchkhal Valley east of Kathmandu have been seen this season carrying kerosene jerry cans to run water pumps to irrigate their paddy fields. Ordinarily that would not be surprising, but this was the middle of the monsoon.
At a time when streams here in Kavre district would be swollen, they were dry. Jhiku Khola, the lifeblood of this valley, did not have a normal flow this year even in August, behaving more like a season stream. Much of the upland rice terraces would have remained fallow if it hadn’t been for the water pumps, which run on kerosene because of the electricity shortage.
Natural springs, which should have been gurgling with water are still dry this year. The monsoon has been arriving late by up to two weeks for the last few years, which is delaying rice plantation, reducing ripening time and harvests. In Dhankuta in eastern Nepal, only about half the paddy has been planted this monsoon. Hill farmers wait till the first week of August, and if it still does not rain adequately, the drop in harvest doesn’t make plantation worthwhile.
The riddle for us was why the Jhiku Khola in Kavre was dry. Lakes, ponds, reservoirs, and aquifers in the hills are full in the four monsoon months even when only a fraction of the precipitation seeps underground to recharge groundwater. That groundwater seeping out of mountain slopes (mool) is what people in the hills depend on for their water needs.
Traditionally, Nepalis have names for three types of springs in the mountains: the more or less permanent sthayi mool at the foot of hills, the one that comes to life in July called asare mool and then the saune mool that bursts in August. The timing of springs indicates the extent to which the monsoon has replenished groundwater reserves in the hills.
न्युजमाण्डुमा प्रकाशित कुनै समाचारमा तपाईंको गुनासो भए हामीलाई newsmandu@gmail.comमा इमेल गर्न सक्नुहुनेछ । साथै तपाईले आफ्नो विचार, विश्लेषण, लेख रचना, सल्लाह र सुझाव पनि पठाउन सक्नुहुनेछ । हामीसँग तपाई फेसबुक र ट्विटरमा पनि जोडिन सक्नुहुन्छ ।
At a time when streams here in Kavre district would be swollen, they were dry. Jhiku Khola, the lifeblood of this valley, did not have a normal flow this year even in August, behaving more like a season stream. Much of the upland rice terraces would have remained fallow if it hadn’t been for the water pumps, which run on kerosene because of the electricity shortage.
Natural springs, which should have been gurgling with water are still dry this year. The monsoon has been arriving late by up to two weeks for the last few years, which is delaying rice plantation, reducing ripening time and harvests. In Dhankuta in eastern Nepal, only about half the paddy has been planted this monsoon. Hill farmers wait till the first week of August, and if it still does not rain adequately, the drop in harvest doesn’t make plantation worthwhile.
The riddle for us was why the Jhiku Khola in Kavre was dry. Lakes, ponds, reservoirs, and aquifers in the hills are full in the four monsoon months even when only a fraction of the precipitation seeps underground to recharge groundwater. That groundwater seeping out of mountain slopes (mool) is what people in the hills depend on for their water needs.
Traditionally, Nepalis have names for three types of springs in the mountains: the more or less permanent sthayi mool at the foot of hills, the one that comes to life in July called asare mool and then the saune mool that bursts in August. The timing of springs indicates the extent to which the monsoon has replenished groundwater reserves in the hills.
न्युजमाण्डुमा प्रकाशित कुनै समाचारमा तपाईंको गुनासो भए हामीलाई newsmandu@gmail.comमा इमेल गर्न सक्नुहुनेछ । साथै तपाईले आफ्नो विचार, विश्लेषण, लेख रचना, सल्लाह र सुझाव पनि पठाउन सक्नुहुनेछ । हामीसँग तपाई फेसबुक र ट्विटरमा पनि जोडिन सक्नुहुन्छ ।
शेयर गर्नुहोस्