The work of Nepal Water Initiative emphasizes interdisciplinarity, community engagement, and student involvement. Our team brings together the distinctive perspectives and methods of marine science, geospatial science, and conservation science with those of economics, anthropology, and religious studies. As we put our interdisciplinary vision into practice, the NWI aims to train and empower the next generation of global scholars and conservation champions by meaningfully involving students–at William & Mary and multiple Nepali academic institutions–in our research. A guiding principle of our project is that it must be Nepali-driven, thus all of our work is developed and implemented with the active participation of Nepali stakeholders, community leaders, scholars, and policy-makers.
The NWI’s end goal is to co-develop information, tools, and strategies for managing water resources in a fashion that sustains ecological well-being, community well-being, and economic well-being in Nepal.
Learn more about the different components of our interdisciplinary project below.
Ecological Well-Being
The overarching goal of the Nepal Water Initiative is to develop effective strategies to mitigate the impacts of climate change and anthropogenic activities on the water resources of Nepal. This goal requires an understanding of the complex interactions among Nepal’s agriculture, water resources, energy, and biodiversity sectors.
Photo: Mugitar (on Tama Koshi River), Ramechhap, Nepal, April 2024.
Economic Well-Being
Water is the single most important natural resource underpinning Nepal’s economy and livelihoods, including fisheries and irrigated agriculture. Nepal has one of the slowest growing economies in Asia and in recent years has looked to its rivers – which have the potential to generate massive amounts of hydroelectric power – to ease power shortages at home and export excess electricity (to markets in neighboring India, Bangladesh, and possibly, China) in a bid to develop its struggling economy.
Photo: Koshi Barrage, Koshi River near Koshi Tappu Wildlife Reserve, May 2024.
Community Well-Being
The NWI believes that successful and sustainable conservation strategies are necessarily inclusive and socially just, and this means they must engage local communities in Nepal in their own terms. Effective conservation strategies are not built solely on robust science but also depend on social support from people who value lands and waters for deeply rooted cultural and spiritual reasons.
Photo: NWI team (incl. W&M and Nepal Engineering College students) after discussion program at local school in Chisapani, Nepal, May 2023.
Our Partners
Critical to the work of the Nepal Water Initiative are our partnerships with academic institutions, non-governmental organizations, and social leaders in Nepal.
Photo: Students from the Aquatic Biodiversity Assessment course preparing to electrofish in the East Rapti River, Chitwan, Nepal, May 2024.
Student Research
As we put our interdisciplinary vision into practice, the NWI aims to train and empower the next generation of global scholars and conservation champions by meaningfully involving students–at William & Mary and multiple Nepali academic institutions–in our research.