Mandira Singh Shrestha and Ujol Sherchan

What happens when flood early warning is communicated from district level to vulnerable communities, the end users of that information?

At least four communities across the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) are better prepared to fight floods this year. Floods and flash floods in the Hindu Kush Himalaya cause considerable loss of lives and property in downstream communities, particularly during the monsoon. To address such flood risks and to enhance the resilience of vulnerable communities, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and its partner organizations have set up community-based flood early warning systems (CBFEWS).

At the onset of the 2018 monsoon, a community in Shrikhandi Bhittamore in Bihar, India, raised funds to repair a community-based flood early warning system (CBFEWS) that had been damaged along the Ratu River near the Nepal–India border. The funds were raised by Yuganter, a local NGO, and community representatives led by the Mukhiya of Shrikhandi, Purnima Mishra. The system was repaired by International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Sustainable Eco Engineering (SEE), in partnership with Yuganter.

This short report presents a selection of the key findings, achievements and lessons learned from the Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme (HICAP) over the period 2012– 2017. A more comprehensive overview of all of HICAP’s work is provided in the annual programme reports. This summary report focuses on selected HICAP approaches to science, action research, pilot activities, and communications and outreach. In doing so, we aim to highlight:

Building on collaborations on disaster management in Gilgit Baltistan in 2017, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), the Gilgit Baltistan Disaster Management Authority (GB-DMA), and the Aga Khan Agency for Habitat (AKAH) have reinforced their commitment to improve disaster risk management in Gilgit Baltistan, Pakistan, by joining hands to develop the Disaster Risk Management Plan of Gilgit Baltistan.