News and Activities

A good film does more than entertain or fill seats at the cinema. It has the power to change hearts and minds – and sometimes society more widely.

Water is one of the most basic human needs and is now currently facing multifaceted complexity. From depleted ground aquifers to polluted river, water has been for quite some time under pressures due to urbanization, population growth, industrialization and so forth.

Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism was proposed by Chinese Primer Likeqiang ni the 17th China-ASEAN Leaders’ meeting held in November of 2015, which aims to strengthen all-round and friendly cooperation among China and Mekong countries and promote regional overall development. The First Lancang-Mekong (LMC) Foreign Ministers Meeting held in Jinghong, Yunnan Province of China in November of 2015 formally announced the establishment of the LMC Mechanism.

United Nations Water (UN-Water) coordinates the efforts of United Nations entities and international organizations working on water and sanitation issues. The UN Regional Commissions are mandated to provide recommendations from all regions for a more efficient model for regional level coordination of UN-Water activities, in the context of the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable development and with a focus on SDG6.

Asia and the Pacific has made impressive progress towards achieving several sustainable development goals including poverty alleviation, education and economic growth. At the same time, the region needs to accelerate concerted efforts across all sectors to achieve the SDGs by 2030. In the face of transboundary challenges such as climate change and natural disasters, energy security and connectivity, ecosystem degradation on land and in our oceans, and promoting sustainable equitable trade, regional cooperation can support and complement the effectiveness of national mechanisms and be a link between global goals and country level commitments.

Water is the interconnector of all other sectors; Therefore, it is not possible to support sectors development without understanding the role of water as one of the important development foundation. As important as it is, water is still considered as social goods and do not have value by development actors. This condition has created a very complex challenge for the development of water sector itself. In Asia Pacific region, the complexities of water challenges then urged the establishment of The Asia-Pacific Water Forum (APWF) in Asia Pacific region.

Bangkok, Thailand (12/8/2017). Southeast Asia is particularly vulnerable to climate change for several reasons. First and foremost, in many of these countries large portions of the population live in poverty. The proportion of the population living below the poverty line ranges from the lowest in Thailand at 10.2% to 53% in Lao PDR (ADB 2008). The poor are particularly vulnerable to climate change, as they lack the resources necessary for many types of adaptive actions. With its extensive coastlines, Southeast Asia is also home to many millions of people living at low elevations that are at risk from sea level rise. Moreover, ongoing social and environmental challenges in the region – notably growing income inequality, rising food prices, and widespread deforestation – contribute to social vulnerability and make climate change more likely to bring significant harms.

The event tackled the roles of LGUs, water districts, and stakeholders in the watersheds, updates and best practices in watershed management as well as other ingredients to ensure protection of our valued watersheds, in the context of planning, collaboration and action.