The Small Earth Nepal (SEN), one of the collaborators from Nepal, took part in the training workshop of the regional project entitled ‘Improving skills for promoting sustainable watershed management practices in South Asia’ in Islamabad, Pakistan from 26-28 December 2017. The inception and training workshop was hosted by Pakistan Council of Research in Water Resources (PCRWR) and all the collaborators from Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka joined the workshop.
The three-day workshop was mainly divided into 3 major sessions; opening plenary, training session on climate resilient best watershed management practices, and field tour to observe different water and soil conservation techniques and efficient irrigation technologies in the demonstration site of Pakistan Agriculture Research Council (PARC) located at Rawal Watershed Field Station, Islamabad. In the opening plenary, different distinguished personalities from government line agencies of Pakistan delivered the key remarks and extended their wishes for the success of the workshop. Similarly, collaborators form Nepal- Dr. Madan Lall Shrestha, Advisor of SEN and Academician of Nepal Academy of Science and Technology (NAST) also delivered the key remarks highlighting the urgency of the climate change issues and its impacts on watershed management in the context of Nepal.
The training was attended by 20 professionals from Pakistan working in watershed management and soil and water conservation field. Resources persons for the training were from the collaborating institutions of Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. In the training, participants were provided with theoretical knowledge of climate change scenarios, its impacts on the collaborating countries, and different site specific techniques used for soil and water conservation in watershed management. Dr. Shrestha presented the country status of climate change and impacts on water resources in Nepal. Likewise, Mr. Dilli Bhattarai from SEN shared some of the watershed management practices in Nepal.
During the field visit to the demonstration site, participants observed different efficient irrigation technologies such as drip irrigation, furrow bed irrigation, terrace farming in sloppy land, rainwater harvesting, etc.This workshop is a part of two years (2017-19) international project through financial support of Asia Pacific Network for Global Change Research (APN), Japan. SEN is one of the collaborating partners from Nepal for the project. The project is focused on promoting sustainable watershed management practices including soil, water and energy conservation practices.
A similar workshop is being planned in Nepal in March 2018 and in Sri Lanka as well.
