Nepal is a water-rich nation with over 6,000 rivers, a total mean annual runoff of 224 billion cubic meters, and a per capita water availability of about 9,000 cubic meters that ranks 68 out of a total of 169 countries. Despite this seeming abundance, the country has to cope with acute water scarcity, a major constraint on Nepal’s efforts aimed at economic development and poverty alleviation.

The key messages carried in this brief are:

Water availability and access are key constraints to poverty reduction and food security.
Maintaining enough water for agriculture will become increasingly difficult due to climate change and competition for water with urban users, industry and the environment.
Major new investments are needed to improve water availability and access in river basins, broaden our understanding of how major drivers of change influence water availability and access, and devise adaptive management strategies to deal with these changes.