{"id":20088450,"date":"2022-05-13T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2022-05-13T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=88450"},"modified":"2022-05-26T16:21:14","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T10:51:14","slug":"climate-change-exacerbates-food-crisis-in-nepals-poorest-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/food\/climate-change-exacerbates-food-crisis-in-nepals-poorest-region\/","title":{"rendered":"Climate change exacerbates food crisis in Nepal\u2019s poorest region"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Khusi Bishwokarma caresses her three-year-old daughter. The child is pale and underweight. She cannot speak clearly or engage in physical activity like other children her age in Muktikot village, in Bajura district of western Nepal. Khusi, speaking with The Third Pole in March this year, says that her daughter is malnourished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"woman<\/div>
Khusi Bishwokarma with her three-year-old daughter in Muktikot village (Image: Shristi Kafle)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Khusi herself is pale. Just a few weeks ago her youngest child, a boy of eight months, died. \u201cI couldn\u2019t breastfeed my newborn properly as I myself didn\u2019t have proper food to eat,\u201d she says. \u201cHe was ill for a few days and just passed away. I have given birth to 13 children in total, only eight are alive today,\u201d adds Khusi, who does not know her exact age but appears to be in her early 40s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For seven to 12 months of the year, Khusi\u2019s husband is away working as a labourer in neighbouring India. With two of her children already married, Khusi takes care of the remaining six. \u201cMy husband brings NPR 10,000-20,000 [USD 80-160] when he returns from India, which is used for food and clothing for the whole family for a year.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a common story<\/a> across Muktikot, a Dalit settlement of 400 households. When this correspondent for The Third Pole visits, the entire village seems to be populated by women and malnourished children, with the men away in India.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who are Dalits?<\/span>
\n

Referred to as \u201cuntouchables\u201d before the term was abolished, the Dalit community are those allocated the most menial and degrading work within caste systems. Although such practices are no longer legal, the long-term impact of social exclusion remains. After visiting Nepal in November-December 2021, the United Nations\u2019 special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights stated: \u201cDiscrimination is the single most important factor explaining why the Dalit are disproportionately affected by poverty: around 42% of Dalit live below the poverty line (43.6% of Hill Dalit and 38.2% of Terai Dalit), whereas the national poverty rate is 25.2%.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

New stresses on top of poverty and marginalisation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

There is a lack of reliable, up-to-date data<\/a> on malnutrition in Bajura district. But between December 2021 and early April this year, health workers diagnosed<\/a> more than 800 children across Bajura as malnourished, with the district health office confirming that levels of malnutrition in the district are higher than the average across Nepal (the growth of 36%<\/a> of children in Nepal is stunted). A survey by the district health office in 2019 found that Swami Kartik Khapar municipality, where Muktikot is located, had the highest number of malnourished children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Western Nepal is beset<\/a> by persistent poverty, low investment in infrastructure and higher incidence of caste-based discrimination. Climate change is exacerbating many of these problems, as drought, floods and drying springs impact subsistence agriculture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"girls<\/div>
Girls wait for their turn to collect drinking water in Kolti village, Bajura. Every year drinking water becomes scarce for months when the only spring dries up. (Image: Shristi Kafle)<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Women and children often experience the brunt of these problems. Chiranjeevi Shahi, president of Swami Kartik Khapar municipality<\/a>, tells The Third Pole that the crisis is exacerbated by a high fertility rate, with women in Muktikot having up to 10 children, of which between two and three die as infants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nepal\u2019s overall fertility rate has fallen from 3.955 in 2000 to 1.845 in 2020<\/a>. Western Nepal has not experienced this change, or a lowering of the infant mortality rate (the number of deaths per 1,000 live births of children under one year old). Two infant deaths for every 10 births \u2013 the figure cited by Shahi \u2013 would mean an infant mortality rate of 200, eight times the national average<\/a> of 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Climate change hits agriculture in western Nepal<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Meghnath Dhimal, chief research officer at government institute the Nepal Health Research Council, says: \u201cMalnutrition is more prevalent in far-western Nepal among the marginalised population due to climatic conditions. We are aware of the situation, but unfortunately we have not been able to undertake any research on the subject.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1975 and 2010, researchers say western Nepal warmed twice as much<\/a> as the global average. Average precipitation in the Karnali river basin declined<\/a> by nearly 5 millimetres a year between 1981 and 2012. These changes mean the region is particularly vulnerable to climate disasters<\/a>, with an extreme drought in 2016.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nepal government\u2019s 2021 assessment of risk and vulnerability<\/a> ranked Bajura as the second most vulnerable district (Humla, in the northwest, was the most vulnerable). Vulnerability was defined as \u201csensitivity or susceptibility to harm, as well as a lack of capacity to cope and adapt. It is influenced by a variety of conditions varying in their sensitivity, such as demographic, socioeconomic, ecological, physical, and geological characteristics, as well as the status and condition of resources and infrastructures.\u201d The 2021 District Disaster Preparedness and Response (DDPR) report states that Bajura experiences drought for eight months of the year, with unpredictable monsoon rainfall patterns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n