It was 2h30 in the morning in mid-September when a terrifying rumble echoed through the valley, followed by a telling silence. Somewhere uphill, the monsoon rains had brought the sodden earth to its tipping point triggering another massive landslide, this time in Kurtoe Gewog, a village in Bhutan’s Lhuentse District. Five lives were lost that night, including an entire family swept away with their home as they slept.

A deadly landslide in Kurtoe Gewog on 19th October 2022

Landslides are increasingly frequent in Bhutan as climate change is linked to heavier monsoon rains that saturate the land, dislodging it from mountainsides and sending devastating avalanches of mud and debris down valleys. For Tshering Penjor, LoCAL Coordinator for UNCDF Bhutan, the moment he learned of this latest landslide was tense – he grew up in Kurtoe Gewog and still has family there, including his father.

“I was already traveling to the region for work when news came through on social media of a landslide in my home village,” explained Mr Penjor, who had travelled from his base in the capital Thimphu to north-eastern Bhutan in September for work commitments. “I was quickly able to contact cousins and friends in the area to get news of my family and for me, this time, the news was good. But other families were not so fortunate that day.”

Bhutan is implementing the Local Climate Adaptive Living Facility nationwide, channeling funds to local government authorities across the country for locally led adaptation to the impacts of climate change. Designed by UN Capital Development Fund over ten years ago, LoCAL offers a mechanism for driving climate finance to communities using its internationally recognized ISO standard, now being implemented or designed for implementation in some 34 climate-vulnerable countries worldwide. In Bhutan, typical investments include small-scale yet big-impact infrastructure projects, such as climate-proofed bridges, culverts to safely channel flood waters and irrigation systems to address the increasingly dry growing season when farmers struggle to keep their crops watered.

A wave of destruction

On arrival in Kurtoe Gewog, Mr Penjor is happy to find Kuenzang Dema, the mother of his good friend but saddened by her difficult circumstances. Ms. Kuenzang Dema is unscathed but left destitute by the landslide, taking refuge at the nearby army barracks.

“I am too scared, we cannot go back,” sobs Mrs Kuenzang Dema, a farmer whose house is still standing, but on unstable earth making it impossible for her to move back home. “I lost all my cattle. There is only one left but it hurts too much to look at it – I still have the memory of the whole herd together. It is too painful to see that cow alone. They told me they found the bodies of the other cows 15 kilometers downstream.”

Landslide survivor Mrs Kuenzang Dema with Ms Chhimi Lhadon, a relative of Tshering Penjor in Kurtoe Gewog

Villagers explain that the landslide came after a prolonged period of heavy rain. Throughout the previous month, rain battered down on the hills every day, they said. The unusually intense and prolonged rains so late in the monsoon season led to numerous landslides across Bhutan this year. As Tshering and the team drive across the country for a routine evaluation of LoCAL investments, the remnants of landslides are visible at every turn leaving brown scars on the mountainside and blocking the roads that provide a lifeline for villagers and communities.

Reducing vulnerabilities

LoCAL, with budget support from the European Union, is working with local governments to finance investments that take into account highly localized climate projections, boost awareness of the risks associated with climate change and work with local communities to identify climate resilient investments that best meet their needs. Since 2017, the Government of Bhutan, with EU budget support, has channeled approximately US $3.3 million through the LoCAL Performance Based Climate Resilience Grant system to communities for locally identified investments.limate resilient investments that best meet their needs.

Some 25 km from Kurtoe Gewog, but some three hours' drive on mountain roads, lies a small community in the hills of Gangzur Gewog. Here, following community consultations, the local government constructed an irrigation channel to catch and safely direct rainwater to the fields using a LoCAL performance-based climate resilience grant. The system spans over a kilometer, directing water off the mountain in the monsoon period and storing it for the irrigation of crops in the increasingly long and dry growing season when water is scarce, enabling farming families to irrigate their fields.

“The untimely rainfall makes it hard as we count on small streams for the rainwater to build up in our drain,” said Mrs Karma Yangzom, a mother of four whose land produces enough to feed her family, though not enough to sell or trade a surplus. “But at least now with the channel, when there is rain, we can collect it.”

“Whatever we grow is for our own consumption, we don’t have enough to sell. At least we don’t have to go to the market, even if sometimes we do have shortages,” said Mrs Yangzom, adding: “We’ve lost cattle and lives to landslides - but I am still happy I don’t have to buy from the markets.”

Mrs Yangzom proudly shows her land in Gangzur Gewog

While the irrigation system has increased food security in the valley, it does need careful maintenance, which is carried out by a community appointed works-team.

“While we don’t see much rainfall in the communities, there will be heavy rainfall higher up at the water sources and these can build-up into landslides particularly in this area because of the landscape,” explained Tshewang Thinley, GUP (Head of Gewog) of Gangzur Gewog.

“Our piping system runs 800m on a cliff. Every time a landslide buries or washes away our system, [the community appointed team have to] put it back in place.”

Mr Penjor credits the community’s readiness to maintain the irrigation system with the strong sense of ownership, derived from the LoCAL emphasis on ensuring that investments are locally led.

“These investments were decided by the communities themselves and in many cases the adaptation interventions were executed by the community themselves who are also the beneficiaries,” explained Mr Penjor. “There is strong local ownership […] benefits the communities much more compared to an investment delivered using a top-down approach.”

But with increasing climate impacts like landslides, floods and droughts, he explains that communities in Bhutan, like the village where he grew up, are in a race against time:

“We are already like late in terms of acting or responding to climate change because things are becoming more and more complex in terms of the climate impacts including the cost of adaptations,” said Mr Penjor. “While the local governments know where they should be investing in terms of addressing and overcoming these climate issues, the lack of resources is a main barrier for them.”

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Article edited by Sarah Harris Simpson, reporting photos and video by Cedric Jancloes with Tshering Penjor © UNCDF LoCAL