“Nepal’s food bowl is drying up, but no one is paying attention.”
Rautahat and Parsa: Teja Mukhiya, a 25-year-old farmer from Sonarniya village in Rautahat, sits alone at the edge of his rice field. The soil beneath him is cracked, and the rice he planted just ten days ago is already turning yellow.
“All has dried up,” he says in Bhojpuri. “If the rain doesn’t come, what will we harvest?”
Mukhiya’s worries are shared across Madhesh Province, the fertile plains along Nepal’s southern border. Once called the country’s granary, this region is now facing an unprecedented water crisis. Taps are dry, wells are empty, and fields lie barren.
For the third year in a row, irregular monsoon rains and falling groundwater levels are disrupting both city and village life. Experts warn this is not just a seasonal problem—it’s a full-blown ecological emergency caused by years of neglect and mismanagement.
Cities Run Out of Water
In Birgunj, a busy commercial city, Pintu Srivastava never imagined the handpump he installed seven years ago would stop working. “Now we get drinking water from my son’s school,” he says. “Even showering is a luxury. I haven’t poured water over myself in two days.”
Water tankers come only occasionally. Srivastava carefully rations what little water he gets for bathing and washing clothes. A short rainfall provided only temporary relief.
Birgunj’s mayor, Rajeshman Singh, confirms the scale of the crisis. The city needs 25 million liters of water daily, but the national water supply and tankers together provide only around 17.45 million liters—far less than needed. Many neighborhoods go weeks without water.
Nearby, farmer Dilip Yadav says his area has no municipal pipelines or functioning borewells. “It’s been over a month since our pump stopped working. We survive only when the army brings tankers.”
Warning Signs Ignored
Rakesh Shah, head of Birgunj’s environment division, has tracked the region’s declining water levels. “In 2022, water could be found at 20 feet. By 2023, it was 30 feet. This year, 35 feet. Below that, handpumps stop working.”
Locals remember when water was abundant. Now, families struggle to get even two buckets of water for daily use.
Vice-chancellor of Madhesh University, Deepak Shakya, explains that decades of deeper drilling failed to solve the problem. “The signs were there, but we didn’t pay attention. Now we are paying the price.”
The Chure Hills and Groundwater Loss
Much of the problem stems from the Chure hills, a vital source of groundwater. Uncontrolled extraction of sand, gravel, and boulders, along with deforestation and urban development, has destroyed natural recharge zones. Now, rainwater runs off instead of replenishing underground aquifers.
Dipak Tiwari from Birgunj gives a stark example: “Someone dug 80 feet for a foundation and found only dry sand. This wasn’t farmland, just a residential plot.”
Impact on Farmers and Agriculture
In Rautahat and Parsa, farmers are seeing their fields turn yellow or remain barren. Brij Kishor Shah says, “Only 70% of rice has been planted this year. By now, everything should be green.”
Even borewells drilled up to 150 meters have failed. Farmers who rely on electric pumps or private tankers face high costs and unreliable electricity. A failed harvest can push families into poverty for years.
Fish farmers are also affected. Bigu Mukhiya invested heavily in ponds for fish farming, but the ponds have dried up. Even a short electricity outage could kill the remaining fish, threatening his livelihood.
A Human-Made Disaster
Experts agree that climate change is causing erratic rainfall, but poor planning, neglect, and corruption have turned a natural challenge into a man-made disaster. Broken recharge systems mean rainwater no longer replenishes groundwater effectively.
Urgent solutions include expanding irrigation, installing electric pumps, protecting the Chure hills, building ponds, harvesting rainwater, diversifying crops, and adopting climate-resilient farming.
“If we don’t act now,” says Tiwari, “this will turn from a water crisis into a food crisis.”
Back in Sonarniya, Teja Mukhiya touches the brittle rice plants and quietly says, “I don’t know what we’ll eat this year. And next year? Who knows?”
For farmers across the Terai, time—and water—is running out.
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