When an effort to protect a community from Kosi river led to its decline

In the 1960s, government engineers built embankments on the Kosi and Kamala rivers to prevent flooding

For the people in the Kosi-Kamala floodplains, located in the foothills of the Nepali Himalaya, life is centred on the river and the wetlands for agriculture and fishery. While the agriculture is mostly rain-fed in summer, it is irrigated by groundwater and by water pumped from the wetlands in winter.

The Kosi region has historically been very flat, lower in elevation – a floodplain landscape. However, flood control measures altered it, cutting off small river channels that used to meet the rivers Kosi and Kamala. On the other hand, the wetlands located outside the embankments don’t get enough water from the