News and Activities

The 32^nd SC Meeting of GWP Southeast Asia was held in Singapore on 10 July 2016 before the Singapore Water Week and GWP PAN Asia Workshop.

9 Steering Committee Member from 9 countries in Southeast Asia gathered at the Marina Barrage, Singapore to discuss the program and plan for the 2016 and 2017. The plan of 2017 for core budget work plan has not been decided yet but 2 alternatives has been prepared and proposed for the countries.

Coinciding with the meeting of the GWP Steering Committee (SC), a High Level Roundtable on Water Security and the SDGs was held in Yangon, Myanmar on May 24, 2016.

Three-day AWC First General Assembly-Summary Report
Reported by HE Mr. Watt Botkosal
Regional Chair, GWPSEA on 30 March 2016

The 1^st Asia Water Council General Assembly was hosted and Co-organized by Ministry of Public Works and Housing and AWC Secretariat on 24-26 March 2016, Nusa Dua Beach Hotel and Spa, Bali, Indonesia. The AWC was established by 15 Founders of Countries and international Agencies since the 7^th World Water Week in Korea. The AWC aims to raise global awareness of Asia’s water problems and promote the sustainable development of Asia by resolving regional water issues. The General Assembly aimed to discuss the AWC Constitution and the operation plan for the AWC and to share the commitments from Founders. The General Assembly was attended by about 200 participants from about 50 organizations including Minister, Vice-Minister, Directors General, Directors, Chairpersons, AWC Secretariat, national and international organizations from Asia, Europe, Africa, and Australia such as UNESCO-IHP, FAO, and ADB (Asian Development Bank), KOICA,  Representative of GWP SEA, Country Water Partnership of Indonesia, national agencies etc. 

“Many activities had been done and showed progress in the past five years, but there are also still remaining a lot of challenges and many IWRM activities need to be done in the coming years. However, the new phase of strategy implementation has to be improved and aligned with national natural resources strategy and other water related sector plans as well as the 8th national socio-economic development plans of the government 2016-2020” said Mr. Thoumma Saluemxay, Deputy Director General of Department of Water Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

The workshop on 26 May 2015 highlighted that The Lao National Water Resources Strategy and Action Plan 2011-2015 implementation and development is very crucial for water sector collaboration among stakeholders in the country since the last five years of review.

Lao Water Partnership with support from GWP Southeast Asia held a seminar on 15 June 2015 to support the Government of Lao PDR’s policy in relation to preparation and finalization of national socio-economic development plan 2016-2020, Strategy 2025 and Vision 2030, which related to national sustainable development and green economy.

Mr. Thoumma Saleumxay, Deputy Director General of Department of Water Resource, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, chaired the meeting and expressed on the important of Integrated Water Resources Management, sustainable development management in Lao PDR in in his opening remarks.

In Bago River, water has been used for Agriculture, Industries and Tourist attraction which means the quality of water is important to be used for human and other living things.
Water of good quality should be clear and free from harmful substances and can be used by humans and other living things.
Myanmar Water Partnership and Global Water Partnership-Southeast Asia together with government organizations, University, NGOs, INGOs (total 55 participants) gathered to discuss about water quality monitoring and evaluation aspects in Bago River on 15th September 2015 at Irrigation Technology Center, Bago.

GWP Myanmar (MmWP) held a Workshop on Integrated Flood Management in Bago River Basin at the time of Climate Change on 3rd August 2015 at Irrigation Technology Center, Bago.
Bago River situated in the Bago Region has occurred frequent flooding in the rainy season especially in July and August. The occurrence of flooding in recent period is more prominent due to the impact of climate change. Although certain activities of structure measure have been done to prevent flooding, there has been necessary to introduce non-structure measure approach to combat the flood disaster.
In this workshop, it is intended to organize multi-stakeholders from the Bago River Basin to discuss Integrated Flood Management and adopt this approach to sustain the livelihood and socio economic conditions of the people who are residing in this river basin. The dialogue was organized by MmWP and Irrigation Department, Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation of the Union of Myanmar with sponsorship support from GWP SEA.

The capacity needs for youth on IWRM in Lao PDR is strongly needed to advocate the knowledge and skills which they can further support and disseminate among their specific groups in the schools, universities and communities. Youth has more creative ideas and lots of activities related to environmental protection as well as some of water protection – water saving campaign, etc.

The government of Lao PDR is working very constructively to improve the water resources planning and management system in Lao PDR especially in the formal higher education system.

Through the Lao Water Partnership, Mr. Chanthanet Boualapha, Director General of Department of Water Resources, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment who acts as chairperson of Lao Water Partnership opened the consultation on mainstreaming the IWRM in the formal higher education system. He expressed on the important of IWRM progress and application in Laos context for a decade as well as capacity building on this field. He also addressed the importance of the strengthening the local capacity in the whole country for IWRM decentralization and human resource development including emphasizing on integration and mainstreaming IWRM /IRBM approach into education system in each level.

26 lecturers from Indonesian universities recently met in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, together with GWP representatives for a workshop on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) ToolBox.