India

Partners working on Australia’s contribution to India’s National Hydrology Project are active in both India and Australia. A River Basin Planning (RBP) team comprised of Access Water Management, Alluvium and the University of Technology Sydney continues to collaborate with Indian Ministry of Water Resources and the Central Water Commission of India to develop a User Guide for River Basin Planning and Implementation.

The RBP team is working with ICE WaRM to organise an “exposure visit” to the Murray–Darling Basin for a high-level delegation from Indian State and National Agencies, to showcase Australia’s approach to river basin planning and management. This tour is tentatively scheduled for January. It serves to both inform development of the User Guide and a scoping activity by ICEWaRM about the requirements for capacity building in the National Hydrology Project in India. During the visit, delegates will participate in a series of meetings and workshops around the key themes of the draft User Guide, and meet Australians with expertise in river basin planning processes, conflict resolution, community engagement, and the politics, policies and practices of water sharing agreements.

Separately, Access Water Management is participating in a Water Management Policy Development workshop in Mumbai, Maharashtra on 6-7 December. This workshop has arisen from an MoU between the the Government of Maharashtra (GoM) and the New South Wales state government to exchange experts and expertise to help come up with improved policies for sharing water arrangements within the Godavari basin. NSW has in turn engaged eWater to model the system so they can evaluate the performance of various policy options. From a RBP team perspective, this activity may provide a use case for inclusion as a case study in the user guide.

Myanmar

State of the (Ayeyarwady) Basin Assessment (SOBA) Review & MDB Twinning Engagement
A quality review of the draft SOBA Reports has been completed following a workshop held in Yangon, where project teams presented on their work. The final SOBA Review Report will be completed in early November and the results presented at the Asia Pacific Water Forum, in Yangon on 11-12 December. Two senior MDBA technical specialists continue to support the production of the SOBA Review Report, as part of the MDB–Ayeyarwady Twinning Engagement.

SOBA Synthesis
A  synthesis writer from Sustineo is supporting the Hydro-Informatics Centre to prepare Volume 1 of the SOBA Report, consolidating the SOBA Reports into synthesis paper that provides a strategic and informative summary of the work.

STATUS OF PROJECTS

  • Hydrological Data Audit: Completed
  • Surface Water Baseline Assessment: Finalising SOBA report
  • Groundwater Review for Central Dry Zone: Completed SOBA report. Undertook a book launch for ‘Hydrogeology of the Dry Zone’.
  • Basin Water Pollution Survey: Finalising SOBA report.
  • Basin Ecosystems Services Evaluation: Finalising SOBA report

Nepal

Kathmandu Water Operator Partnership
The third reciprocal capacity building mission has been completed. The team provided asset management training to Kathmandu Upatyaka Khanepani Limited (KUKL), which is responsible for the operation and management of water and wastewater services in the Kathmandu Valley.

Pacific

Pacific Water and Wastewater Association Capacity Building
HunterH2O and AWP are collaborating with PWWA to confirm a work plan to deliver the 2017-18 PWWA Capacity Development Program, which was developed at the PWWA AGM during the Pacific Water Annual Conference and Expo (Apia, Samoa 7-11 August) and in subsequent meetings. The following initiatives were identified as focus areas for 2017/18:

  • Strategic plan development involving PWWA Board members, Council (Pacific utility member CEO’s) and Secretariat
  • Young Water Professionals
  • Communication support

The first activities are to support the Board to formulate a 5-year strategy at meetings in Brisbane in late November.

XDI-Waterlinks inundation risk
Climate Risk is working with the Water Authority of Fiji and The Samoa Water Authority to convert existing high-value coastal inundation data from CSIRO to statistical probability distributions. These will then be used in the well-regarded AdaptWater tool (provided by Sydney Water and Climate Risk) to predict hazard risk.

China

Indo-Pacific Water Stewardship Project
Water Stewardship Australia is currently preparing a 2nd (2017/18) phase of a pilot for catchment / regional program to boost local uptake of good water stewardship.

Technology Park Stewardship
Water Stewardship Australia is developing a Good Water Stewards recognition scheme and working to identify opportunities for AWP Partners to engage with WSA in water stewardship projects.

Vietnam

Water Efficiency Improvement in Drought Affected Provinces (WEIDAP) Study Tour
A study tour of technical experts and local officials from Vietnam, organised by RMCG and AWA, was just completed. The tour of irrigation schemes in southeast Australia was tailored to inform the designs for proposed WEIDAP schemes.

VietWater
The AWP is participating in Vietwater’17 to showcase the shared Channeling Change and Vietnam – Australia Water Utility Twinning programs. The Australian Water Association (AWA) will host the Australian delegation to Vietwater’17 to connect Australian and Vietnamese water sectors.

Irrigation Law for Vietnam
As per Vietnam’s identified need for modernised irrigation systems, AWP Partner RMCG will travel to Vietnam in November to meet with government officials to prepare a project proposal for advice on irrigation law, for consideration by AWP. As Vietnam looks to modernise its irrigation sector there is an inherent need to address current irrigation law to allow for new institutional arrangements that accommodate new mechanisms for water allocations, entitlements and charges.