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Ram Charan Chaudhary of Samarchaur says, ‘Millions of rupees of the

Nepal Government and our works just vanished in vain. We did a lot to

save our land from being cut down by flood, but the result was just the

opposite of our intentions. I lost hectares of my land and so did

others. This is one of the things that is destroying our livelihoods. The

neighboring villages say we live in a place of death, surrounded by

two big rivers and no way out during the flood season. We

constructed lots of heavy spurs, but they didn’t function well. But

thanks to this technology – the low cost bamboo toe wall with

bioengineering – during the last monsoon, instead of losing our land

to the flood, we gained 15 more meters of land due to the large amount

of sediments deposited along the bank. Also, it’s cheaper, easy to

construct and it worked very well.’

Words from Heart

Supporting the Role of Schools in DRR Phase-II

Bioengineering

More Effective, Low Cost and Replicable

Linked up with Livelihood for Sustainability.

Enhancing local Economy

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Bio Engineering: Is an applied science that combines structural,

biological, and ecological concepts to construct living structures for erosion,

sediment and flood control

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Application of Bioengineering in SRSD Project

The school was badly hit by recurring floods every year resulting in

significant loss of school land.

Shree Janata, LSS of Samarchaur

Problem

What SRSD project did??

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Initial Assessment

• Nature of river flow, magnitude of flood and its frequency

were identified.

• Identification of most appropriate solution for the problem.

• Assessment of local materials, such as bamboo, Kansh,

Narkat, which were easily available.

• Identification of community motivation and participation.

• Cost effectiveness (input vs output).

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Process

• After successful interaction with the community and with their full

participation, we decided to implement a different type of mitigation

and forgo the ‘business as usual’ model that had proved

unsuccessful.

• A simple design was created by integrating the aspects of both hard

engineering and soft engineering to come up with so-called

bioengineering.

• Generally, just carrying out hard engineering is not sustainable at the

community level, but when we add biological components to the hard

components, it becomes more sustainable. This was the basic idea

behind the design.

• It was designed fully based on locally available materials/plants, such

as bamboo, Kansh, Besharmi, Narkat, Rhizome of bamboo, Amrisho

and manpower; thus, making it low cost, more easily replicable and

more economic for the community.

Locally Available Materials

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Rhizome of bamboo Amrisho

Locally Available Materials

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Narkat Kansh

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Construction Phase

Hard Engineering for Stream Bank Protection

• Bioengineering can be

compared with a new born

baby that requires parental

care and protection. In the

same way, new

bioengineering needs

protection that is made

possible by the components

of hard engineering.

• So, a 280m, low cost toe wall

was designed and

constructed along the

riverbank. The major

component of the toe wall

was just BAMBOO not the

bigger GABIONS.

• Bioengineering requires a

bit more scientific or

engineering

consideration.

• After construction of the

components of hard

engineering, the uneven

slope of the riverbank was

evened out into a mild

slope.

• The plantation was done

more systematically,

starting with heavier,

deep-rooted plants at the

bottom to lighter ones at

the top.

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Bioengineering for stream bank/slope stabilization

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Result

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Change

Before bioengineering After bioengineering

• The riverbank is protected now.

• About 15m of land was reclaimed in the past monsoon flood.

• One of the more innovative outputs is that we have linked up this

measure with livelihoods, contributing to its sustainability.

• Local manpower is the main requirement of this methodology.

• This technique has worked very effectively and thus it has become

more trusted.

• Most all community members now intend to duplicate this approach in

other parts of the river to protect their land. This is a major

achievement and signifies its acceptance by the community as a

simple, effective, low cost and easily adoptable mitigative measure.

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Output

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Comparisons between the technology with and without bioengineering

With bioengineering Without bioengineering

• As it contains living components,

it is more sustainable.

• As almost all components of this

technology are easily available in

the local area, it is low cost and

easily replicable.

• In the initial phase, there is need

for greater care, but for a short

duration.

• We can utilize this technology to

generate income, thus tying it to

community livelihoods and

ensuring greater sustainability.

• As it contains non-living

components, it has a short

lifespan.

• This technology requires almost

all components derived from

outside sources and thus it is

expensive and cannot be easily

or cheaply replicated.

• It requires a lot of regular repair

and maintenance and thus

becomes more costly.

• Livelihood activity is nil here and

thus no income generation can

be achieved.

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Thank You Er.Sanjay Shah