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

29 Jul 2015 News
Micro-planning in Myanmar

The ‘Rural Livelihoods and Climate Change Adaptation in the Himalayas (Himalica) Initiative’ facilitated a three-day micro-planning workshop in Kyaung Taung ...

17 Nov 2015 News
Water Assessment in Tsirang, Bhutan

The International Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in collaboration with the Local Government, Tsirang District, Bhutan conducted a rapid ...

15 Sep 2016 News
HI-AWARE at the ’33rd International Geographical Congress’, 2016

Amina Maharjan, agricultural economist, and migration specialist with HI-AWARE, participated in the 33rd , held in Beijing between 21-25th August ...

6 May 2016 Water
Tackling Water Scarcity in Barshong

A team of officials from ICIMOD and the District Agriculture Office in Tsirang visited Himalica pilot sites in Barshong, Bhutan, ...

7 Dec 2018 DFAT Brahmaputra
Benefit Sharing from Hydropower Generation in South Asia

These studies were conducted by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), Pakistan; People’s Science Institute (PSI), Dehradun, India; the South ...

Yak Festival 2017

The festival took place in Phalelung rural municipality in Panchthar district, an area bordering Sikkim and the Indian territory of ...

Findings and learnings from the WeACT project in the Upper Koshi Basin

Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs) are one of the most serious natural hazards in mountain regions, including the Upper Koshi ...

12 Oct 2015 News
Team visits climate smart Indian cardamom farms

  Wanting to know more about sustainable management practices of cardamom produc-tion, a team of six from the International Centre for ...