Lao PDR, a Southeast Asian country, experiences significant challenges due to its status as a Least Developed Country and its high vulnerability to climate extremes. Rainfall scarcity and decreased water flow in the Mekong River and its tributaries contribute to droughts in Laos. Agriculture, water resources, and socio-economic stability are heavily affected by these events.
To address these challenges, Laos needs to focus on two key areas: Drought Management, to mitigate the impacts of droughts, including improving water conservation, enhancing agricultural resilience, and implementing early warning systems. And Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM), to adopting a comprehensive approach to managing water resources that balances economic, social, and environmental needs.
With 44 participants from line-ministries, including representatives from WMO, MoNRE, three from GWP Laos, a drought national consultant, an IWRM national consultant, development partners, the Kick-off Meeting on the development of drought management plan and IWRM action plan for Lao PDR was chaired by Mr. Kingkham, the Deputy Director General of the Department of Water Resources.
This kick-off meeting was organized to introduce the project with detailed work plan and timelines, and to map out the National level stakeholders for forming the Project Working Group to contribute to the development of the Drought Management Plan and IWRM Action Plan.
The Chair for the meeting during his opening remarks emphasised on the need for developing comprehensive drought management plan and the IWRM action plan for Lao PDR. Although there are many ministries involved in the implementation of natural disaster preparation and response; the action plan should be integrated and address the priorities for all relevant stakeholders according to their roles and responsibilities.
WMO provided an overview of the CREWS Cambodia and Lao PDR Project outlining the key activities and highlighting the importance of the drought and IWRM activities. Mr Bounteum, focal point from DMH for the CREWS Lao PDR project talked about the national level activities. He further stressed on the need to collaborate on drought and IWRM across national level stakeholders to ensure all the needs are taken onboard.
Ms. Sengphasouk, as the representative from GWP Laos and the project coordinator presented the proposed drought and IWRM multi-disciplinary stakeholders mapping, and workplan with roadmap to achieve the development of Drought Management Plan and IWRM Action Plan for Lao PDR.
The following are some of the main outcomes from the meeting:
- The drought management plan and IWRM action plan will have a validity of 5 years.
- The endorsement process and level of endorsement for the drought management plan and IWRM action plan will be further discussed to align with the timeline of the project.
- The Lao government has several agencies involved in drought management. These agencies include the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare and the Department of Livestock and Fisheries. They have valuable data and are willing to share it. The GWP-Laos technical team will coordinate the access to this data.
- The national Drought and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Action Plan is being developed. It will serve as an overarching framework to guide specific river basin plans. This approach aims to create a comprehensive strategy for the whole country. It also allows for regional adaptations.
- Thirteen dams under government responsibility are closely linked to drought management. They use forecasts from the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology (DMH) to determine if a year will be wet or dry. Electricité du Laos (EDL) has its own plans to mitigate drought, and these should be included in the overall drought management strategy.
- The GWP-Lao will check and update the list of stakeholders based on the comments from the meeting, as well as explore the existing mechanism to be integrated rather than establish a new and duplicate technical working group. There is a possibility to have the same person for both drought and IWRM.
- Due to time constraints of the project, Mr. Chairman urged the project team to accelerate the implementation of planned activities in close coordination with GWP-Lao.
To wrap the meeting, several steps need to be taken:
- GWP-Lao will take further action on the establishment of a technical working group, which will be expected in June 2024.
- The initial consultation, scheduled for July 2024, will involve important stakeholders sharing their practices and information on managing drought. During this meeting, it will share the initial findings from our research on drought management and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). Additionally, it will cover the preliminary outline for both the Drought Management Action Plan and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) in Lao PDR. Gathering feedback and suggestions from various stakeholders will be a crucial part of this consultation. This will assist in identifying the main areas of focus that should be incorporated into both the Drought Management Action Plan and the IWRM Action Plan. Moreover, it will actively seek input on applicable reference documents to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of these vital water management strategies. And the 2nd consultation will be in December 2024, and finalisation in January 2025 and launch in March 2025.
- The national consultants for drought and for integrated water resources management (IWRM) action plans will start the desktop studies, outlines and draft the action plan as defined in TORs and the workplan.
For more information on the latest updates or progress of the project, please contact Ms. Sengphasouk Xayavong: xsengphasouk@yahoo.com or Mr. Fany Wedahuditama: fany.wedahuditama@gwpsea.org