Department of Forests and Soil Conservation (DOFSC) Nepal, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) organized the National Consultation on Freshwater Challenge (FWC), in Kathmandu, at Hotel Himalaya, Kupundole, on December 16, 2024. In the meeting, participants discussed the challenges of operationalizing the FWC, a global initiative launched at the UN Water Conference in March 2023. The FWC aims to restore 300,000 km of degraded rivers and 350 million hectares of wetlands by 2030 in 44 countries, including Nepal.  My reflection as one of the panelists at the meeting.

According to data from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey conducted in Nepal in 2019, 95.4% of the Nepali population had access to a basic water supply , and 94.5% had improved sanitation . However, the coverage for safely managed drinking water and safely managed sanitation stood at just 19.1% and 61%, respectively.

This case study highlights growing upstream-downstream contestations, unfair water distribution and limited say of women in drinking water systems in hills of Nepal. It is a short version of the chapter by the authors entitled “Applying a Climate Justice Framework to Understand Inequities in Urban Water Governance amid Climate Change Challenges in Nepal’ in the forthcoming book Environmental Justice in Nepal: Origins, Struggles, and Prospects.

Ensuring fair and affordable access to safe drinking water is a primary objective of donor-funded large-scale urban water supply systems in Nepal. Unfortunately, the high installation costs associated with private taps have posed a threat to water accessibility to urban poor in peri-urban areas. The provision of communal taps has important implications for accessing water to households who cannot afford a private connection.

With climate change impacts cascading through the water cycle, the challenges are of recrafting of the approaches to water development and management including water education that is well informed of climate change risks.

SmartPaani’s journey provides useful lessons to Nepal’s policy makers and households about the role social business enterprise that practice fair business play in providing such services. Pursuing a fair business practice, SmartPaani will bring new perspectives and make the company a part of sustainable drinking water solutions in Nepal.

Erratic monsoon rain, recurrent floods, groundwater contamination, and the unreliability of sources make provisioning safe drinking water a major challenge in the flood-affected region of North Bihar.

As somebody who was born and raised in an urban setting and had the privilege of running water at home, I had little appreciation of the difficulties people in rural areas