The High Level meeting builds on the multi-stakeholder panel that GWP organized at the invitation of the High Level Experts and Leaders Panel on Water and Disasters (HELP) during the Second UN Thematic Session on Water and Disasters. The High Level event in Yangon is designed to be a milestone in the new democracy of Myanmar, accelerating the already consolidated IWRM, DRR and WASH activities ongoing under the guidance of the Government of Myanmar and the World Bank.
"It is most fitting and timely for the country to express its capability and keen interest under the new democratic government," said Prof. Dr. Khin Ni Ni Thein, a GWP SC member and Secretary of the Myanmar Water Think Tank. "The High Level Round Table meeting seeks to identify possible challenges to address the inherited impacts from past governments on the water sector. It may contribute to the reforms which the new government, led by the Nobel Peace Prize Winner Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who at present undertaking the duties of the State Counselor and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, would like to carry out. This High Level event would bridge the past with the present as well as help building a meaningful work plan for the future not only for Myanmar but also for the ASEAN members."
The meeting is expected to benefit from the experience and strategic vision of several key Regional Organizations with which GWP collaborates in Asia and that have knowledge on water security and SDGs.
Myanmar is currently undergoing an important water sector reform. The country has frequently suffered from destructive earthquakes, water-related extreme weathers such as cyclones, periodic flooding, as well as droughts, which resulted in many losses and damages including landslides, with major challenges in terms water quality control and wastewater management, quite similar in fact to the challenges that other countries in the South East Asian region are facing.
In the past years, Myanmar has shown impressive strides towards integrated and sustainable water resources management, supported by the core of Myanmar’s academia and civil society leaders locally and from abroad. Myanmar’s water activities are recognized by its neighbors in South East Asia as well as by UN Agencies.
Photo: Fisherman in Myanmar