2013

Following the successful implementation of the National Integrated Flood Management (IFM) Programme - Role of Community 2012 last year in Kuala Lumpur, which was attended by participants from the states of Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Johor, the same programme was again planned for this year, but held only at the State of Pahang on 7^th September 2013.

The 2013 event, aimed at raising awareness and disseminating information to communities living in flood-proned areas in the State of Pahang, was organised by the Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) Malaysia and MyWP Capacity Building Network (MyCBNet) in collaboration with Malaysian Water Partnership (MyWP) and MyCWP.

Nine countries of Southeast Asia sit together in a workshop to share and discussed about water financing in region.This workshop took place in Yangon, Myanmar on 3^rd October 2013.

The goals of the workshop are to understand the financing frameworks for water resources management and development, to generate information regarding the level of public investments for WRM initiatives, and to propose potential financing schemes and mechanisms to increase the level of WRM financing.

There have been many dialogues and seminars on river pollution in the past 20 years or so. Generally everyone agrees that as a country, we desperately need to do something about the sad state of our rivers, especially when we hope to achieve developed nation status by 2020. However, we have not been successful in translating consensus at these forums into changes on the ground.

As an implementation of cooperation between GWP and UNDP, Indonesia Water Partnership held a National Consultations on Water in Post-2015 Development Agenda on 4 March 2013 in Ministry of Public Work Building, Jakarta .

The thematic consultation was focused on water have three defined subsets for water: (1) Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), (2) Wastewater/Water Quality (WW/Q) and (3) Water Resources  Management (WRM).

GWP-SEA further actions to the global event started with joining in Korean Water Forum.
GWP–SEA Steering Committee met Korea Water Forum in Discovery Suite, Manila,on 12 March 2013, to receive a briefing regarding the program of the 7th World Water Forum which will be held in Daegu-Gyeongbuk, Republic of Korea in 2015, and discuss possible areas for playing roles in this important global event.
GWP Chair, Ms. Ursula Schaefer Preuss and the Chair of GWP TEC, Dr. Muhammed Ait Kadi,  attended the meeting shortly.

On 31 March 2013 (Sunday), Water Association of Selangor Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya (SWAn) together with Rotary International District 3300 and Institution of Engineers Malaysia (IEM) and event supported by Majlis Bandaraya Petaling Jaya (MBPJ) and Malaysian Water Partnership (MyWP) had successfully organised the “Walk for Water 2013” at Dataran Petaling Jaya.

World Water Day is a major event celebrated and observed by the Philippine water sector.

This year’s WWD theme:“International Year of Water Cooperation” was translated into local slogan of  “Tubig Para sa Lahat, Lahat Para sa Tubig”  (“Water for all, all for Water”)   and served as the core message for the celebration participated by multi-stakeholders coming from the government sector, private sector and non-government organizations (NGOs).

There are no formal categorizations of floods in Malaysia but is often broadly categorized as monsoonal, flash or tidal floods. In addition, floods are also described based on its location, characteristics, the cause, the timing as to when it occurs and its duration. (Department of Drainage Malaysia information)

For the very first time, Southeast Asian countries have prepared an overall overview on WRM Financing, where it is linked to the GWP message: finance and good water governance are inextricably linked.

Currently, water resources management in irrigation and drought, flood management are effecting greatly by climate change.  Learning and disseminating of related information systematically will help facilitate the adjustment of water resources management of responsible agencies in time and responsive to the changing situation.  Evidences from climate change on watershed ecosystem are obvious and diversified, for example, irrigated water insufficiency, disasters from floods, landslide, and drought.  Data and information about these are available with consulting firms or line agencies.  To be more effective in dealing with these problems, local stakeholders and the RBC should have sufficient knowledge to fully and equally participate in the process.  Thus the RBC and local stakeholders’ capacity will be strengthened in monitoring of the IWRM, especially in the critical river basins.