Climate Change Impacts on Water Resources in Prok VDC of Manaslu Conservation Area, Gorkha, Nepal

Nepal’s temperature is rising faster than the global average, and rainfall is becoming unpredictable. Water resource is projected to become one of the most pressing environmental problems with high impacts from climate change in hills and mountains of Nepal. Drying up of water sources is likely due to dry seasons, irregular rains, and high intensity rainfall leading to high run-off and less infiltration. Rural communities in hills and mountains of Nepal are experiencing the impact on water resource due to climate change. The study was done to identify the climate change impacts on water resources in Prok VDC of Manaslu Conservation Area, Gorkha, Nepal. The major elements of this methodology include the use of primary and secondary data, household questionnaire survey, focus group discussion, key informant interviews and field observations. Temperature, rainfall and discharge of thirty years data of the nearest hydro-meteorological station and non-climatic indicators based on community perceptions of climate variability were documented to assess climatic variability scenario. The climatic data interpretation showed that temperature has increased whereas trend of rainfall and discharge has decreased and non climatic indicators on community’s perception also illustrated on climatic variability in the area. Drying up of the water resources was the major impact of climate change and decreased in water volume in stream and river of the study area. Decrease in water sources caused problems for the
water availability and adverse effects on agricultural production, human health and biodiversity of the area.
The Physico-chemical and microbiological analysis of water samples were taken from stream, tap and reservoir from the Prok VDC of Manaslu Conservation Area. The physical and chemical analysis includes the determination of pH, temperature, turbidity, conductivity, chloride, freecarbondioxide, hardness, alkalinity, iron, nitrate and ammonia using standard methods. Microbiological analysis was done by assessing the total coliforms from membrane filtration method. The physico-chemical qualities of these samples make them good and fit for drinking. But the microbial analysis was found to be the presence of total coliform in all water samples and revealed that climate change might be responsible for degrading situation of water quality due to increasing temperature and precipitation variability in the study area.
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