At the 11th GWPSA Consulting Partners held in Pretoria from 12-13th November, 2015, GWPSA Partners elected a new Chair. In line with GWPSA’s Constitution, the Chair will serve for four years. The new Chair, Dr. Kuiri F. Tjipangandjara is from Namibia. He obtained his D Sci Eng Degree in 1991 in Mineral Engineering and Chemical Metallurgy, at the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences at Columbia University, New York City, USA.
Three-day AWC First General Assembly-Summary Report
Reported by HE Mr. Watt Botkosal
Regional Chair, GWPSEA on 30 March 2016
The 1st 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 7th 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.
Under Water and Climate Development Programme (WACDEP), Myanmar WACDEP activity title is Development of the National Water Policy and Water Law with Integrating Water Security and Climate Resilience Aspects into Investment Planning and Decision Making Process. Its goal is to point out the integration of water security and climate resilience aspects to be included in the national water policy and water law.
With aiming the goal of the activity, the works have been initiated with making two assessment studies: Assessment of the National Water Policy of Myanmar (NWPM) and Assessment of the Current Situation of Water Security and Climate Resilience Aspects in Myanmar. After that, identification of these aspects to be integrated in NWPM, how to implement the integration process by means of consultative meeting which will be held among multi-stakeholders from water sector. Finally, selecting and prioritizing the action plans for integrating water security and climate resilience aspects into the NWPM.
To implement the one of action plans as a pilot study which has been selected from already identified National Adaptation Programs of Actions (NAPA). It is selected from water resources sector according to the prioritization of NAPA action plans. Accordingly, selection has been done for a particular area region within the country for pilot study to develop regional rainfall-runoff relationships. For that, Magwe Region has been selected for pilot study and collecting available data including historic records for rainfall and runoff data of streams that are situated in the region. Based on these collected data, regional rainfall and runoff relationships will be developed and these relationships will be given as input to identify and support the country flood early warning system establishment to be able to ensure and making decision for sustainable water management
In December this year, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) will take place in Paris. Governments are supposed to come to a universal agreement regarding climate which will determine the future of our planet.