Assessment of Flood Impacts, Losses and Adaptation Practices in Bhajani Municipality, Kailali District, Nepal

Abstract

Floods are the most frequent and damaging hydro-meteorological hazard in the Terai region of Nepal, yet municipal-scale evidence that links hazard mapping, community perception, historical losses and local adaptation remains scarce. This study assesses flood impacts, losses, and adaptation practices in Bhajani Municipality, Kailali District, Sudurpashchim Province, a low-lying municipality with nine wards (176.25 km²) and crossed by the Mohana, Kandra, Kanda (Kadha), and Patharaiya rivers. A mixed-methods design combined a questionnaire survey of 156 respondents (Slovin’s formula, e = 8%), focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, field observation and desk review of the Local Disaster and Climate Resilience Plan (LDCRP). The Relative Importance Index (RII) was used to rank 16 flood-related problems, their causes and effects, and 12 adaptation measures rated on a five-point Likert scale; 64 Chi-square tests of independence examined whether perceptions differ by gender, age, occupation and education, and a GIS-based Weighted Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis (WMCDA) using distance from rivers (30%), Topographic Wetness Index (25%), slope (25%) and Height Above Nearest Drainage (20%) produced a flood hazard map. Wards 3, 5, 7 and 8 were classified as very high flood-risk areas, wards 6 and 9 as high, wards 1 and 2 as moderate and ward 4 as low–moderate; 85 settlements and hamlets are potentially exposed. Sixteen flood events recorded in municipal and community records affected 5,140 households, displaced 598 households, destroyed 188 houses, damaged about 1,695 bighas of cultivable land, caused an estimated loss of NPR 702.4 million and claimed 10 lives. Agriculture damage (RII = 0.863) and livestock damage (0.846) ranked as the most important problems. Non-compliance with flood-resistant building standards (0.914), waterlogging from slow runoff (0.891), insufficient investment in early warning systems (0.854) and weak institutional capacity (0.854) were the leading perceived causes, while displacement of local communities (0.905) and high livestock mortality (0.862) were leading effects. Perceptions were largely homogeneous: 62 of 64 tests (96.9%) showed no demographic association, with age linked only to views on public awareness and physical infrastructure. Strengthening river management and flood-control infrastructure (0.803) was the highest-rated adaptation measure, followed by climate-smart agriculture (0.760). A case study contrasts the slow-onset, long-duration Kandra floods with the rapid, short-warning Kadha flash floods. Flood risk in Bhajani is multidimensional, combining physical exposure, socio-economic vulnerability, infrastructure deficiencies, institutional weaknesses and climatic variability. Ward-prioritized embankment and drainage works, community-based early warning, enforcement of flood-resilient construction, climate-smart agriculture and ecosystem-based watershed management are recommended.