Empowering Communities
through
Participatory Climate Resilience Planning
Rural
communities are the ones who are directly experiencing impacts of
climate change. They are also the first respondents to any climate
induced disasters such as flash floods, hailstorms and the related
impacts on water, sanitation and hygiene. Changes in quantity of
rainfall and seasonal patterns are already being experienced in many
parts of India, creating problems for the rural population and other
communities’ dependent on land in securing their livelihoods and
increasing the risks they face.
Participatory planning for climate resilience brings communities to the
fore for any climate adaptation action in a country. The process
involves applying a climate lens to already complex developmental
processes and incorporating new thinking to integrate climate risks into
development priorities.
Such an exercise was undertaken during the implementation of the UNICEF
and Development Alternatives project titled, ‘Enhancing Climate
Resilience of Children, Adolescents and Women in Rajasthan.’ Rural
communities in Rajasthan are increasingly confronted with the realities
of climate change. The climate resilient planning for WASH in Rajasthan
that was undertaken involved orientation of the community on
micro-planning, understanding of climate change and its impacts on
livelihoods and their environment, use of participatory rural appraisal
tools and group exercises to understand the situation, problem
identification, planning with adaptation visioning exercises. The
community then engaged in detailed activity planning focussing on issues
in the water sector that were identified during the planning exercises.
These micro-plans were then shared with local government officials to
explore options for funding and support for implementation.
The exercises revealed that the most common changes reported relate to
the timing, quality, quantity and overall predictability of rainfall
such as delayed onset and shorter rainy seasons, increased frequency of
heavy rainfall events and frequent prolonged drought seasons. These
perceived changes correlated with an analysis of meteorological data
over the last few decades. The communities even revealed that rainfall
variability affects crop production and hence livelihood security. The
solutions for increasing rainwater storage capacity and groundwater
recharge through repair and upgrading of small dams can be possible at
the village level. A financial mapping for the costs of these small
adaptation measures can be addressed through panchayat level funds and
existing schemes. To address water scarcity during summer months,
enhancing water management capacity of the communities through formation
of water management committees would be the way forward.
While community can drive the shift towards adaptation, village and
block level interventions cannot fully address the needs. It is required
to have appropriate external policy to support it. Not all existing
plans and policies may address the issues faced by the communities as a
result of climate change. There is a need for state and national level
interventions to assist with the necessary economic and infrastructural
resources required. A good measure to address adaptation in the water
sector would be to develop village water security plans with a climate
lens. The National Rural Drinking Water Programme (2013) guidelines
direct that external help from CSOs for planning and technical support
would be required for making the village water security plans and
implementing them. Without effective hand-holding, governmental
interventions for addressing climate impacts will have no ownership.
These will remain at most as pockets of good practices that are not
mainstreamed.
Adaptation to climate change is not about radically new responses. It is
about implementing measures that give priority to existent development
and environmental issues. The strategies and measures are already
present in the state climate action plans, disaster management plans,
drinking water management plans but haven’t been successfully
implemented. ■
Syed A A Farhan
sishaqi@devalt.org
References
-
Reid, H., et al., (2009),
'Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change: An Overview', in
Community-based Adaptation to Climate Change’, Participatory Learning
and Action (PLA) Series, no. 60, International Institute for Environment
and Development (IIED), pp. 11-33
-
CARE, (2011), Decision-making
for climate resilient livelihoods and risk reduction: A Participatory
Scenario Planning approach
-
CARE, (2012), Policy brief:
Why Community Based Adaptation Makes Economic Sense
-
CARE, (2014), Participatory
Monitoring, Evaluation, Reflection and Learning for Community-based
Adaptation
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