Rising Drinking Water Insecurity in the Indian Himalayan Region of Sikkim: A multi-stakeholder perspective

Abstract

For the past 15 months, we are working on a project to assess drinking water security challenges in the Indian Himalayan Region (IHR) of Sikkim. One of our project‟s aim is to estimate the social and economic cost of drinking water scarcity in the rain shadow regions of the IHR. For this purpose, we have been assessing the water availability and water quality in the district of South Sikkim. In the IHR‟s mountainous terrains, freshwater is mostly available from natural springs and lakes. However, human-induced climate change impacts such as reduced snow-cover in the peaks, frequent landslides, and reducing vegetation cover are resulting in less water availability and drying up of many perennial springs and reservoirs