Lessons on Adapting to a Changing Climate from the West Bengal Water Project and Their Partners

Last week, it was a pleasure for the Oxford Water Network to help organise the webinar titled "Lessons on Adapting to a Changing Climate" inspired by the West Bengal Water Project expedition to the Indian states of West Bengal and Sikkim focused on documenting pioneering water management initiatives.

The West Bengal Water Project was comprised of five graduate students from Oxford’s School of Geography and the Environment, Raphaela Betz, Susy Higueras, Victoria Taylor, Patrick Robichaud, and William Wallock. The project was driven by questions about how communities adapt to shifting hydrological conditions, what innovative methods are employed to mitigate water-related risks, and how West Bengal's water managers can serve as global exemplars. The team spent 2 months in India last year and was excited to share some of their learnings in the webinar.

The webinar was joined by the project's partners, including Development Research Communication & Service Centre (DRCSC), Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN), Society for Direct Initiative for Social and Health Action (DISHA), and Sikkim University. They shared their work they were doing to address the pressing water-related challenges in the region. This was followed by a panel discussion between Professor Sugata Hazra (Jadavpur University) and Professor Rakesh Ranjan (Sikkim University) on the challenges that the region continues to face in adapting to climate change and managing its water.

The presentations and discussions were reach and insightful and some of the key takeaways were:

• Demand and supply: Water security varies in time and space, to address this, both demand and supply management solutions should be introduced

• Bottom-up initiatives: When local people take charge of their water, this is where the demand management starts to be successful

• Community leadership: Technological solutions are welcomed and accepted but community leadership is key

• Traditional knowledge: Different forms of rainwater harvesting together with quality improvement are the traditional solutions helping to adapt to the changing climate

• Holistic approaches: There is a need to introduce integrated watershed and springshed management supported by better data availability and capacity development

• Worshipping the nature: The concept of a sacred landscape can teach different stakeholders to protect nature by worshipping it

The webinar sparked a lot of discussions and ideas for collaboration - regional participants were exchanging contacts to potentially work together on common challenges. 

You can access the recording on OWN's YouTube channel and if you are interested to collaborate with the West Bengal Water Project Team or their partners, reach out to Ira at owncoordinator@water.ox.ac.uk.