Back to news
10 Jul 2018 | CBFEWS

Local Communities Take Ownership of Flood Early Warning System

At the onset of the 2018 monsoon, a community in Shrikhandi Bhittamore in Bihar, India, raised funds to repair a community-based flood early warning system (CBFEWS) that had been damaged along the Ratu River near the Nepal–India border. The funds were raised by Yuganter, a local NGO, and community representatives led by the Mukhiya of Shrikhandi, Purnima Mishra. The system was repaired by International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) and Sustainable Eco Engineering (SEE), in partnership with Yuganter.

0 mins Read

70% Complete
A team from SEE restoring the system in Shrikhandi Bhittamore

ICIMOD, partners, and local governments have come together to save lives from flash flooding by installing eleven such community-based flood early warning systems (CBFEWS) in nine tributaries of the Bramhaputra, Indus, and Koshi rivers in Afghanistan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan.

A CBFEWS provides at least four hours of lead time for vulnerable communities to respond to approaching floods. The systems, which rely on technology and human operators, have saved lives and property and established goodwill between upstream and downstream communities otherwise unknown to each other. During the 2017 monsoon floods, CBFEWS helped save 17 children on along the Koshi River, in Nepal and India.


A Yuganter representative handing over the amount to SEE-ICIMOD representatives as Purnima Mishra observes

Stay current

Stay up to date on what’s happening around the HKH with our most recent publications and find out how you can help by subscribing to our mailing list.

Sign Up

Related content

Continue exploring this topic

30 Jan 2018 Climate change
ICIMOD Supports LAKI through Side Events at Major International Conferences

ICIMOD is leading the LAKI process, a collaborative initiative between the secretariat of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate ...

25 May 2016 Himalica
Pilot Village Bee Farmers from Bhutan and Nepal Learn about Honeybee Management

The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) conducted a hands-on beekeeping training for Apis cerana bee entrepreneurs from Bhutan ...

8 Jun 2016 News
ICIMOD Meets with President of Nepal

ICIMOD along with key government organisations in the water supply sector were invited by the President of Nepal, Right Honorable ...

17 Nov 2015 News
Reviving the Science in Langtang Valley

  A small team of ICIMOD researchers recently returned to earthquake-ravaged Langtang Valley to rebuild and maintain the network of hydrological ...

24 Apr 2019 Gender
ICIMOD Gender Lead participates in Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity and UN-Women’s Expert Workshop in New York

Considering the importance of integrating cross-cutting issues such as gender in global biodiversity conservation and development, the International Centre for ...

2 Sep 2016 News
Koshi Basin Research Highlighted in India’s Largest Selling Daily

Embankment in Koshi Basin has further increased flood damage. This new finding was based on a research by ICIMOD Koshi ...

14 Dec 2015 News
ICT for Mountain Development Award 2015

ICIMOD is pleased to announce the four winners of the ICT for Mountain Development Award 2015. They are BUET-Japan Institute ...

22 May 2015 News
Team Kathmandu inspires

‘Tracking and Sensing through Android Robotics’ from Kathmandu’s 2015 NASA SpaceApps Challenge was named the 'Most Inspirational' in Global Competition ...