The Mekong is the longest river in Southeast Asia, beginning its 4,200 km journey in the mountains of the Tibetan Plateau, passing six countries and reaching the South China Sea. Policy reforms to adopt integrated water resources management had been initiated and water related laws had been developed. However, there were still major gaps in the supporting knowledge and information. IUCN and its program Water &Nature Initiative (WANI) supported to scale up so called Tai Baan research (villagers’ research) that enabled local communities to represent their own social reality and through media and public forum, this knowledge can be mainstreamed into water management research and implementation.
IUCN China Office launched a new pilot project on protecting drinking water source with Danone Ecosystem Fund and Danone Waters China on January 20, 2014 in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province. The Launch event was sponsored by IUCN, International Forestry Cooperation Center of State Forestry Administration, Guangdong Provincial Forestry Department, and Danone Waters China, and co-supported by South China Agriculture University and Guangdong Provincial Academy of Forestry.
Today water stress is a major concern in many urban areas. The core aspect of urbanisation is the rapid urban population growth together with inadequate planning, pollution, poverty, competing demands on the resource, all contribute to water stress: and consequently the urban water consumption is likely to double by 2025. Climate change is expected to cause significant changes as well in precipitation patterns which will affect the availability of water and induce water related disasters.