When the River Came, a Wall Stood: Why Nepal Needs More Climate Finance Now

Across the Churia range, communities are actively reducing their vulnerabilities through locally driven actions that protect ecosystems, sustain livelihoods, and restore the natural environment. Here, protecting nature is not a symbolic gesture tied to a calendar date, it is fundamental to survival and prevent inequality escalation, often determining whether communities retain their homes or lose them to expanding riverbeds shaped by a changing climate.

In Building a Resilient Churia Region in Nepal (BRCRN) project funded by the Green Climate (GCF) Fund implemented by the Government of Nepal with the technical support of FAO, communities are reducing their cascading hazards, risks and vulnerabilities with the local efforts to protect nature, ecosystem and livelihood.

Ms. Gayatri Paudel has lived in Bahuban  Besibazar in Ilam for the past sixteen years. The small market settlement lies beside the Sukininda River which remains quiet and narrow in winter, terrifying during the monsoon. Every year, when the erratic rains pour, the river swells beyond its banks and rushes through the market, carrying mud, debris, and fierce with it.

“We had to stay all night in waist deep water, because there was nowhere to go. The next day we couldn’t even raise our legs; they were stuck in the mud.” - Ms. Gayatri Paudel, Besibazar, Ilam

Across the foothills of the Churia range, hundreds of villages sit beside seasonal streams that appear harmless for most of the year but turn destructive in the monsoon and/or post monsoon. Such settlements are at the frontline of climate and extreme disaster risk threatening their lives and wellbeing. Despite of a negligible share on global greenhouse gas emissions, Nepal consistently ranks among the world’s most climate-vulnerable countries, with increasing extreme events of heatwaves, drought, floods, landslide, Glacial Lake Outburst, Landslide Dam Outburst, and Forest Fire. BRCRN recognizes that these climate risks and vulnerabilities are different to diverse communities and impact differentially. Hence, it promotes inclusive and intersectional approaches that respond to the unique vulnerabilities faced by women, Dalits, Indigenous Peoples, Madhesi communities, and other marginalized groups.

The memory of unseasonal post monsoon heavy rain in last October 2025 remains vivid: Landslides and floods across eastern Nepal claimed more than 60 people, within Ilam, the worst affected district, reporting at least 40 deaths and thousands displaced. Roads collapsed, homes were swept away, and farmlands were buried under silt and debris.
Yet amid this devastation, Besibazar remained largely untouched.

The difference was not just luck. It was the result of BRCRN’s mitigation actions with meaningful participation of most vulnerable groups.

A year before, a Riverbank Stabilization Structure (RBS) had been constructed along the Sukininda River under the BRCRN initiative. When the river level rose, the flow encountered this locally built structure, carefully engineered with vegetation such as bamboo and other grasses, with community involvement and ownership which helped guide the water back toward its natural course.

“We are alive only because of the embankment.” — Ms. Shanta Karki, resident, Besibazar

Across Nepal, such stories are becoming proof that small scale climate adaptation works at community level, when it is adequately supported. To date, BRCRN has constructed 380 riverbank stabilization structures, check dams and gullies protection structures protecting thousands of hectares of farmland, homes, schools, roads, and critical infrastructure. More importantly, these structures have saved lives and safeguarded their livelihood assets.

What makes BRCRN’s work particularly significant is where it chooses to intervene and with whom. Priority is given to highly vulnerable and marginalized communities, often living in floodplains or fragile landscapes with limited capacity to recover from shocks. Just downstream of Besibazar lies Dhardhare, home to the Indigenous Meche community. Traditionally dependent on farming and fishing, the Meche have seen their livelihoods steadily eroded by recurring floods and exclusion in the related decision-making processes.

“BRCRN’s 158-meter embankment prevented the river from destroying our homes and lands during this year’s floods. It saved our lives, settlement, agricultural land, road, school, community buildings, electricity infrastructure and protected downstream settlements with many indigenous communities.” - Mr. Kaji Meche, President, Embankment Construction Committee

This illustrates what a risk informed, climate-resilient future looks like—one that protects both nature and communities. However, such interventions still lack adequate funding to fully implement all 26 Critical Ecosystem Restoration Plans (CERPs) developed under the project. Increased climate finance and inclusiveness is essential to ensure a truly climate resilient Nepal.