Peri-urban Areas Under Pressure

Thousands of people move daily to neighbouring cities, growing peri-urban settlements in search of employment, healthcare, education, and business opportunities. Changunarayan, Banepa, Dhulikhel, Tokha, Kirtipur, Budhanilkantha, and the other peripheries of Pokhara and Bharatpur have seen an increase in built-up areas at the expense of arable farmlands in recent years. Land cover and land usage are always shifting. Houses, colonies, roads, commercial buildings, and industries are being built on these farms. This shift represents the dramatic urbanisation of rural areas, turning them into peri-urban areas. However, there are a lot of several crisis that comes along with this increase. 

Firstly, these peri urban areas are on the verge of deterioration of both natural resources: water and forest soil. Secondly, Infrastructural developments such as roads, drainage, and solid waste management frequently outpace these areas and growing population. The overwhelming rise in population in any peri-urban area is likely to increase waste generation, yet due to inadequate basic infrastructure, these wastes (Wastewater, Faecal Sludge, or Solid waste) end up in water resources or soil via open channels.  This starts the deterioration of the natural resources in these places.  

Adding on the institutional system are perceived to under address these issues either due to resource constrain or due to ineffective human capacity. As a result, these specific communities are more susceptible to environmental degradation, climate change, and public health hazards. This piece of article tries to summarise the key issues found through the Water food and climate nexus, funded via International Strategy Fund- Leeds University project in collaboration with Kathmandu University. 

Growing water scarcity

One of the prominent challenges for many of the peri-urban areas in Nepal is the growing water scarcity. The drying of springs, whether due to seasonal or anthropogenic causes, has led to an increase in borehole drilling along peri-urban fringes. The unregulated borehole drilling has caused over-extraction that could be perceived to decrease in the ground water table, which has created an additional burden to the existing water resources. 

As the availability of reliable water sources declines, communities' dependency on jar or bottled water is increasing. The available spring sources also lack the proper protection strategies to ensure the quality water. Though most of the community manage water supply schemes exists, the gap remains in the technical and financial and overall management.  Evidence of water borne disease breakout every monsoon clearly intensifies and highlight the issue or water quality assurance from these water supply schemes.