Mekong River Commission-27 Oct 2017
Joint research and training, hydro-meteorological data exchange and new bilateral working groups between border provinces of Cambodia and Viet Nam are some of the ideas water specialists from the two countries shared during a workshop held in Cao Lanh, Vietnam to solve long-standing transboundary water issues.
About 15 specialists joined the workshop held on 27 October to discuss how the two countries could develop better water cooperation at a provincial level to address transboundary water management issues in the Mekong Delta and the Sesan-Srepok river basins. The two countries have engaged in two bilateral water resources management projects in both geographic areas, in order to establish new mechanisms to solve cross-border water issues, in the face of impacts of hydro-development, intensive irrigation and climate change.
“We have made important achievements under the transboundary projects. We now have identified priority issues within Viet Nam and Cambodia, and challenges to share benefits from the Mekong’s valuable resources at the provincial level,” said Director-General of the Vietnamese National Mekong Committee Le Duc Trung during the workshop’s opening remarks.
The two countries have named six priority issues in the Mekong Delta, including lack of coordinated flood management planning, while the Sesan–Srepok basin has identified six issues as priority, including limited hydro-meteorological data and basin-wide assessment of impacts.
The workshop was held to brainstorm ideas on transboundary cooperation schemes at the provincial level to address some of those identified issues, taking into consideration what water specialists observed on the ground during the preceding field visits that took place in the Mekong Delta from 23 to 26 October.
