Namobuddha Municipality, like many other parts of the country, is increasingly affected by delayed monsoons, prolonged droughts, and recurring floods, which reduce agricultural productivity and limit reliable access to safe drinking water. These climate-related challenges disproportionately affect women, who bear the primary responsibility for securing water for their households while having limited participation in local water governance and decision-making. Although several initiatives have sought to improve water access, there remains a critical gap in integrating irrigation and drinking water management through women-led governance systems. Therefore, this project intends to co-design and pilot a selected gender-responsive climate smart water solutions in the municipality to strengthen integrated community water management by enhancing climate resilience, improving water security for both domestic and agricultural use, and empowering women to lead local water governance and decision-making. The project hopes to show-case measured improvements in reducing drudgery faced by women and marginalized groups and governance system to ensure policy uptake and replication by the communities and the local government. 

Study Team: 

• Dr. Shikha Thapa Magar: Team Leader (Gender-Responsive Climate-Smart Water Solutions Expert) 
• Dr. Divas B. Basnyat: Technical Lead (Water and Climate Expert) 
• Dr. Shankar Shrestha: Stakeholder Engagement Expert 
• Mr. Pramit Ghimire: Water Resource Engineer 
• Ms. Sarya Thapa Magar: Research Assistant (Advocacy and Communication) 

Geographical Coverage:  

Namobuddha Municipality, Kavrepalanchok District, Bagmati Province, Nepal 

Project Duration: 

August 2026 – February 2027 (7 months)  

Project Funded by: