Waters of life : perspectives of water harvesting in the Hindu Kush Himalayas

A commonly held notion about mountain areas s that these are all plentifully endowed with water, and mountain communities should not be facing too much difficulty in accessing needed water supplies. These two volumes, discussing efforts by local communities to hamess water resources for drinking and agriculture, show clearly that plentiful endowment does not necessarily mean it is readily available. Water for the settlements and fields of mountain households had become increasingly scarce. Tapping more distant sources has many technical, environmental, and socio-institutional implications as the discussions in these two volumes indicate

ICIMOD's main objective in bringing out these two volumes is first to close some of the continuing knowledge gaps about the use of resources by mountain communities. It is hoped that by a better understanding of prevailing practices it will contribute towards the development of sustainable systems in the future. Another important reason is that this is also the year of the World Water Vision and it would be a gross oversight if mountain communities did not have a place in this vision. We hope this small contribution will help in this direction.

ICIMOD is very grateful to the Ford Foundation for supporting the water harvesting programme of the Centre which has made this review work possible. The contributions of all the national and local organizations, including the authors of the various papers and case studies, are also highly appreciated. Dr. M. Banskota, Deputy Director General and Professor S.R. Chalise, Water Resources' Specialist, planned the outline and contents of these documents and ensured that all critical issues were covered. Obviously much more can be said about important topics like water and mountain communities. This is only a small step forward towards improving our understanding about water harvesting at community level in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas. ICIMOD is looking forward to taking the next steps that should include, in particular, capacity building in local planning and management of water-harvesting systems.