Reconfiguration of the Water–Energy–Food Nexus in the Everest Tourist Region of Solukhumbu, Nepal

Olivia Aubriot (), Marie Faulon (), Isabelle Sacareau (), Ornella Puschiasis (), Etienne Jacquemet (), Joëlle Smadja (), Véronique André-Lamat (), Céline Abadia and Alix Muller
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Olivia Aubriot: CEH - Centre d'Études Himalayennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Marie Faulon: Passages - UB - Université de Bordeaux - MCC - Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication - UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour - UBM - Université Bordeaux Montaigne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Isabelle Sacareau: LIENSs - LIttoral ENvironnement et Sociétés - INSU - CNRS - Institut national des sciences de l'Univers - ULR - La Rochelle Université - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Ornella Puschiasis: CEH - Centre d'Études Himalayennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, CESSMA UMRD 245 - Centre d'études en sciences sociales sur les mondes africains, américains et asiatiques - IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement - Inalco - Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales - UPCité - Université Paris Cité
Etienne Jacquemet: Passages - UB - Université de Bordeaux - MCC - Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication - UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour - UBM - Université Bordeaux Montaigne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Joëlle Smadja: CEH - Centre d'Études Himalayennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Véronique André-Lamat: Passages - UB - Université de Bordeaux - MCC - Ministère de la Culture et de la Communication - UPPA - Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour - UBM - Université Bordeaux Montaigne - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Céline Abadia: CEH - Centre d'Études Himalayennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique
Alix Muller: CEH - Centre d'Études Himalayennes - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

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Abstract: A case study in the Solukhumbu region in northern Nepal reveals that the high number of seasonal tourists—which has doubled in 20 years—has led to growing water, food, and energy demands that have modified agropastoral practices and the use of local resources. This has induced new patterns in the movement of goods, people, and animals in the Everest region and the reconfiguration of the water–energy–food nexus. We use this concept of nexus to analyze ongoing interactions and transformations. Key changes involve (1) massive imports of consumer goods; (2) use of local resources with new techniques (hydropower plants, improved mills, greenhouses, and pipes for domestic networks) that depend on imported materials, which are newly accessible to Sherpas as a result of economic benefits generated by tourism; (3) commodification of local resources (water, hydropower, vegetables, fodder, and flour); (4) an increasing number of electrical appliances; and (5) new uses of water, especially for tourist-related services, including hot showers, watering of greenhouses, bottling of water, and production of electricity for cell phones, rice cookers, and other electric appliances. These new uses, on top of traditional ones such as mill operation, compete in some places during spring when water supplies are low and the tourist demand is high. A transfer of pressure from one resource (the forest) to another (water) has also resulted from the government ban on woodcutting, incentives to develop hydropower, and the competition between lodges to upgrade their amenities by offering better services (such as hot showers, plugs to recharge batteries, internet connections, and local vegetables). Our research finds that water is now central to the proper running of the tourist industry and the region's economy but is under seasonal pressure.

Keywords: Tourism; water–energy–foodnexus; flux; hydropower; watermill; Upper Solukhumbu; Everest; Nepal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://shs.hal.science/halshs-02164589v1
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Published in Mountain Research and Development, 2019, 39 (1), pp.R47-R59. ⟨10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-17-00080.1⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:halshs-02164589

DOI: 10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-17-00080.1

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