The aim of our field trip was to find water abstractions at small tributaries in the catchments of Mahakali, Karnali and Mohana in order to learn about the effects to the benthic invertebrate community and for setting levels for environmental flow in these regions. Numerous hydro power plants are planned to be built in Nepal and therefore environmental flow becomes more and more relevant.
During sampling, we were able to find water abstractions mainly for irrigation purposes. In some areas only few percents of the total discharge is remaining in the riverbeds or even river that were completely abstracted.
The overall objective is to develop a environmental flow concept for the rivers to keep the balance of the ecosystems.
In 2 weeks sampling, we were able to get more than 300 samples at 33 sites. So I will be busy now with sorting the organisms in the samples and identifying them.
