Regional Exchange on IWRM experiences
in the Mekong River Basin
Regional workshop on 15-16-17 October 2014– Vientiane, Lao PDR
Preparation of the 7th World Water Forum of Daegu (South Korea)
Meeting Presentation Paper
The Mekong river basin context
Transboundary Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is based on the principle
that river basins are the most accurate and coherent scale to organise water management. 276
rivers and lakes, as well as hundreds of groundwater tables, are shared by different states,
covering around 50% of the total land area of the planet. There is a need to develop specific
agreements, harmonised methods and management tools for the monitoring, management and
protection of water resources between the countries sharing the same river basins in order to
deal with the issues related to these transboundary basins.
Transboundary IWRM promotes cooperation between sovereign riparian countries and
implementation of planned investments at river basin scale in the respect of the common
interest of an healthy environment for sustainable development.
The Mekong river is the longest river of South
East Asia (around 4800 km from the Tibetan
plateau to the delta) with a transboundary
basin covering around 800 000 km2 and 6
countries (China, Myanmar, Lao PDR,
Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam), and with a
mean annual flow of 15 000 m3/s.
The four riparian countries of the lower
Mekong basin (Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia
and Vietnam) signed the Mekong Agreement,
or "Agreement on the Cooperation for the
Sustainable Development of the Mekong River
Basin", in 1995, which establishes the Mekong
River Commission (MRC) and sets
institutional rules and mechanisms for the
cooperation in all the fields of sustainable
development,
use,
management
and
conservation of water resources and associated
resources of the Mekong River Basin. China
and Myanmar are "dialogue partners" with the
MRC members.
Water resources of the Mekong River Basin are facing increasing anthropogenic pressures
(increase of demand, of pollution, etc) due to fast economic and demographic development,
which is jeopardizing the fragile balance of the basin.
To tackle these issues, the water resources management of the Mekong River Basin has to be
strengthened at international scale, with the development at national scale of "good practices"
by the riparian countries including tools and methods in line with the national institutional and
legislative frameworks.
The Water Agencies’ cooperation projects in the region
The regional workshop presented in this paper is part of the French Water Agencies’
cooperation projects in the water sector in Asia. These projects aim at bringing a support to
the national and local authorities in order to better implement IWRM, mainly through
capacity building activities. These programme were initiated in 2009 with a project in
Vietnam (Dong Nai basin) and then pursued in Lao PDR (Nam Ngum basin) and finally in
Cambodia (Stung Sen basin) in 2012. These three projects, financially and technical
supported by Loire-Brittany Water Agency, Rhine-Meuse Water Agency and SeineNormandy Water Agency, are all still ongoing and already achieved some results.
They notably helped to implement tools and methods for participative river basin
management planning and funding, as well as water information system.
The proposed regional meeting will be an occasion to contribute sharing the progresses made
for IWRM by the different Mekong countries in order to better capitalize experiences and
harmonise actions.
Preparation of the 7th World Water Forum of Daegu and Gyeongju (South
Korea)
7th World Water Forum of Daegu and Gyeongju will take place in Asia (South Korea) in April
2015. The Regional Workshop that will take place in Vientiane (Lao PDR) from 15 to 17
October 2014 was designed to be used as a stepping stone in the preparation process. To this
end the workshop will be used as a contribution to identify key messages of the countries on
IWRM in the Mekong River Basin for the 7th World Water Forum;
In addition, will attend representatives of the World Youth Parliament for Water from the
Mekong River Basin as the regional meeting is organised back to back with the Youth Forum
(see Nota Bene at the end of the document).
Regional workshop objectives
-
Sharing on the latest progresses made in the different countries concerning IWRM, at
regional, national and sub-basin scale
-
Exchanging on the experiences at regional, national and sub-basin scale on main
IWRM pillars i.e. legal and institutional organisation, participative River Basin
Management Plan preparation, measures funding and collaborative data management
-
Identifying the key messages of the countries on IWRM in the Mekong River Basin
for the 7th World Water Forum
Organisation partners and participants to the event
The workshop will be hosted and organized by the Laotian Ministry of Natural Resources and
Environment (MoNRE), under the patronage of the French Ambassador in Vientiane. The
Loire-Brittany Water Agency offers the main contribution to the organisation of the event.
The delegation attending the regional workshop will be headed by Jacques Oudin, Honorary
Senator and President of the international Commission of the Loire Brittany Basin committee.
Extra support is provided by the Rhine Meuse Water Agency supporting various cooperation
projects in the region.
The technical support for the organisation is undertaken by the International Office for Water
(IOWater) and International Network of Basin Organisations (INBO) represented at the
meeting by Jean-François Donzier, permanent technical secretary.
The youth forum taking place before the workshop and the activities of the youth during the
workshop are being coordinated by the International Secretariat for Water and Solidarity
Water Europe.
The workshop will gather the main competent authorities of IWRM policy of the Mekong
Basin countries (China, Myanmar, Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam), the Mekong
River Commission, as well as the technical and funding partners of projects run at national
and regional scales in the region and up to all the interested parties involved in aiming at
tackling Mekong countries’ sustainable development objectives.
Milestones for the preparation of the regional workshop
This event will be held in Vientiane (Lao PDR) from 15 to 17 October. The main milestones
for the preparation are as follow:
•
•
•
•
•
February 2014: preparatory mission of the Loire-Brittany Water Agency, technical and
funding partner for 3 pilot projects for IWRM in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
8-9 May 2014: participation to the Rhine-Mekong symposium in Koblenz.
March-October 2014: Preparatory work for the organisation of the Regional Exchange
Workshop. Preparation of the framework of the key messages for the 7th World Water
Forum.
From 15 to 17 October 2014: Regional Exchange Workshop in Vientiane.
October 2014 - March 2015: Last run for the preparation the 7th World Water Forum. Provisional content and programme
This workshop is designed to participate to the dissemination of hand-on practices on how to
concretely implement a sustainable development policy.
English will be used as main communication language.
The discussions will be structured around three main topics related to integrated water
resources management:
1 – Legal and institutional framework. This item will be the occasion to exchange on the
different organisation for Participative River Basin Management Planning (from the
International districts to national and local scales) as well as to address the challenge of
horizontal and vertical coordination (i.e. between the different sectors and between the
different scales).
2 – Funding. This key aspect is often seen as the most problematic for the countries trying to
implement IWRM. The workshop will be the occasion to highlight lesson learned from
experiences developed in the region and identify solution to overcome this challenge.
3 –Data management in order to insure building a collaborative data management system to
best use existing data and benefiting from their on-line improvement. This data administration
action is a key allowing a constant and sustainable increase of knowledge for participative
river basin management planning and efficient water resources management.
The challenge of training and capacity building will also be addressed as a cross-cutting issue.
The experts and decision-makers from each country will have the possibility to intervene on
pre-selected topics, depending on their own experience and the issues they are facing, by
presenting specific examples of the work done, tools developed, encountered difficulties and
successes at the national or basin scale. The agenda of the workshop will be structured in
order to keep time for discussions and exchanges between each intervention.
The logic of the workshop is not to go deeply into each technical issue, but to bring forward
the main challenges and prepare recommendations as well as common key messages, which
will help the different countries to deal in depth with their specific problems afterwards.
A preliminary draft agenda is as follow:
TIME
ACTIVITIES
15 October
08:30 - 09:00
Welcome of the participants
09:00 - 09:30
- Welcoming words by the DWR-MoNRE
- Speech by the French Embassy / Loire-Brittany Water Agency
- Opening speech by the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment
09:3 – 10:00
Presentation of the objectives of the seminar
10:30 – 11:50
Coffee break
Presentation of participative RBMPlaning experiences in the Mekong countries, including the 3 French cooperation projects in South-east
Asia: Nam Ngum project (Lao PDR), Stung Sen project (Cambodia), Dong Nai project (Vietnam)
11:50 – 12:10
Intervention of international actors (donors, UNECE, etc.)
12:10 – 12:30
Discussions on the presentations of the morning
14:00 – 15:15
Lunch break
Plenary thematic workshop - legal and institutional organisation
15:30 – 16:15
Coffee break
Discussions and preparation of the key messages for the 7th WWForum
16:15 – 16:30
Synthesis and conclusions of the day
16 October
09:00 – 10:15
Conference room A
Thematic workshop – Planning & funding
Conference room B
Thematic workshop – Data management
10 :15 – 11:00
Discussions and preparation of the key messages for the WWForum
Discussions and preparation of the key messages for the WWForum
11:15 – 12:15
Coffee break
Synthesis and reports on the conclusions and recommendations of the 3 workshops
14:00 – 14:30
Lunch break
Intervention of the MRC : global vision for the Mekong river
15:15 – 15:30
15:30 – 16:00
- Presentation of the 6 youth who will attend the 3rd General Assembly of the World Youth Parliament for Water during the 7th WWForum
- Presentation of the youth declaration
- Presentation of the Blue Passports
Group photo
Closing ceremony
Whole day
17 October
- Visit related to water in the Nam Ngum Basin (to be defined)
14:30 – 15:15
NB:
Will take place in parallel the youth activities in Vientiane to prepare the 7th World Water
Forum (11-14 October 2014) organised by International Secretariat for Water /Solidarity
Water Europe, including:
è Youth forum with the 12 selected participants (3days)
§ Field visit organise with ADB GMS-EOC program (1day)
§ Workshop with experts on the stakes of the Mekong integrated management of water
resources with EDF, ADB, WWF (to be confirmed)
§ Development of a strategy of implementation of youth projects linked with the
integrated management of water resources.
§ Workshop to determine a flag, an anthem and a Moto for the Mekong river basin
§ Cultural evening
The conclusion of the two events will be shared at the regional workshop on Wednesday 15
afternoon including:
• Presentation of the Youth declaration and delegation for the 3rd World Youth
Parliament of Water that will take place during the 7th World Water Forum.
• Presentation of the key messages and recommendations identified by the youth during
the previous days.
• Presentation of the Blue Passports