IWRM in Myanmar by Prof. Dr. Khin Ni Ni Thein

1. IWRM in Myanmar
Prof. Dr. Khin Ni Ni Thein
Visiting Professor, Civil Engineering Department, YTU
~~~
Secretary of Advisory Group,
National Water Resources Committee
~~~
Steering Committee Member, Global Water Partnership

2. Local, Regional, National, Fluvial, Global
Ancient
1200 AD
1900
1900s
Future
Communities
Basic management
of water quantity
Sectoral management of water quantity &
quality; institutional fragmentation;
spatial fragmentation, local co-ordination
Integrated multi-functional use
River Basin as Unit; Institutionalized
Cooperation
Multi-level Comprehensive Governance
Reforms in Myanmar – including Water Reform2011 ---- 2015

3. Basis of IWRM – from GWP Tool Box
and what we are doing in Myanmar
• The basis of IWRM is that different uses of water are
interdependent
• Integrated management means that all the different
uses of water resources are considered together
• If we were to summarize the numerous efforts of the
National Water Resources Committee and its Advisory
Group in only one word, it can be said as “Integration”,
i.e. integration of many isolated water resources
managements in Myanmar to become IWRM – means to
achieve Sustainable Development in Myanmar.

4. WATER CYCLE

5. Driving forces on water resources
• Population growth: demands for more water and producing more waste
water and pollution
• Urbanization: migration from rural to urban areas which increases the
current level of difficulty in water delivery and waste water treatment
• Economic growth: mainly in developing countries with large populations
contributes to increased demand for economic activities
• Globalization of trade: production is relocated to “labor-cheap” areas that
takes place without consideration for water resources
• In Myanmar, especially in YTU, our postgraduate level water
engineering courses include IWRM and Water Footprint. . .& Climate
Change
• Climate variability: more intense floods and droughts increase vulnerability
of people
• Climate change: increase uncertainty about water cycle regimes

6. IWRM concept is
• an empirical concept which is built up from the on-the-ground experience of
practitioners,
• a flexible approach to water management that can adapt to diverse national
and local contexts,
• thus
• it is not a scientific theory that needs to be proved or disproved by scholars.
• and (but)
• it requires policy-makers to make judgments about which set of suggestions,
reform measures, management tools and institutional arrangements are
most appropriate in a particular cultural, social, political, economic and
environmental context.
In Myanmar – IWRM has been introduced theoretically since 2003.
But gaining Political Will only in 2011.

7. President H.E. U Thein Sein’s quotation
for National Water Policy Book, 3rd
Edition, Aug 2015
“The smooth transition to democracy is the government’s first priority among
its reforms. The second priority is far-reaching reforms in politics,
administration, economy and further encouragement to the private sector. The
success of these reforms relies on good water governance and implementation
of the Integrated Water Resources Management. The National Water Policy is
the first step in making water reform happens in Myanmar. It will eventually
lead to sustainable economic development without taxing the environmental
sustainability while ensuring people's participation as genuine social
inclusiveness.”

8. IWRM definition
IWRM is a process which promotes the
coordinated development and
management of water, land and related
resources, in order to maximize the
resultant economic and social welfare
in an equitable manner without
compromising the sustainability of vital
ecosystems.
GWP, TEC Background Paper No. 4:
Integrated Water Resources
Management

9. Water is a natural Legacy, we received from
our ancestors. We must also leave behind us
natural Legacy to our future generations,
clean and potable water guarded by National
Water Policies and Lawful practices.
U Ohn Myint, Chairperson of Advisory Group (AG)
Former Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation (MOAI)

10. IWRM:
What does it really mean?
• More coordinated development and management of:
– Land and water
– Surface water and ground water
– Upstream and downstream interests
Discussion questions in Myanmar under current floods
Who should propose measures to protect against floods?
Who should bear a cost to implement measures to mitigate
floods?

11. Key water resources management functions
• Water allocation
• Pollution control
• Monitoring
• Financial management
• Flood and drought management
• Information management
• Basin planning
• Stakeholder participation
IWRM

12. Three pillars of IWRM
• Implementing IWRM process is a question of getting the “three
pillars” right:
1. Moving towards enabling environment of appropriate policies, strategies and
legislation
2. Putting in place the institutional framework (through which policies can be
implemented)
3. Setting up the management instruments required by these institutions to do
their job

13. Areas of Change
A. Enabling environment
A1. Policies
A2. Legislation
A3. Financing & incentive structures
B. Institutional roles
B1. Creating an organization frameworks
B2. Institutional capacity building
C. Management instruments
C1. Water resources assessment
C2. Plans for IWRM
C3. Demand management
C4. Social change instrument
C5. Conflict resolution
C6. Regulatory instruments
C7. Economic instruments
C8. Information management

14. CHANGE AREAS
Environmental
Sustainability
Economic
Efficiency
Social Equity
CHANGES ARE MADE TO SEEK
TO REACH
SUSTAINABILITY

15. Managing competing uses
Water for
people
Water for
food
Water for
nature
Water for
other
uses
Cross-sectoral integration
• Enabling
environment
• Institutions
• Management
instruments
Myanmar: Thematic Working Groups 1 to 6, which include
Climate Change Mititation and Adaptation

16. Integrating across levels and sectors
National
Basin
Local
Fisheries
Environ
ment
Tourism Industry
Finance
Agriculture
Energy
Water

17. IWRM PRINCIPLES
• Fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain
life, development and the environment.
• Water development and management should be based on a
participatory approach, involving users, planners and policymakers
at all levels.
• Women play a central part in the provision, management and safe-
guarding of water.
• Water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should
be recognized as an economic good as well as social good.
Dublin, 1992

18. IWRM Principles
• Fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource, essential to sustain
life, development and the environment.

19. Respecting the basin

20. IWRM Principles
• Water development and management should be based on a
participatory approach, involving users, planners and policymakers
at all levels.

21. Difficult to ensure “active involvement”
50 decision
200 work
2 000 participation
200 000 information
2 500 000population
How
to
make it?

22. Pitfalls in putting IWRM into practice
Trying to establish management relations between too many
variables risks getting mired in complexity at the expense of
effectiveness.
When putting IWRM into
practice it’s important to
think strategically about
where and to what degree
coordination and new
management instruments
are necessary.

23. IWRM Principles
• Women play a central part
in the provision,
management and safe-
guarding of water

24. ေေေေေေေေေေေေေေေေ
WaterMothers Organization
Putting Principle into Practice:
Women play a central part in the provision,
management and safe-guarding of water

25. IWRM Principles
• Water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should be
recognized as an economic good as well as social good
– Water is becoming scarcer and its value rising
– Recognition that costs should be borne by those who benefit
Source: The Economist

26. Putting Principle into Practice:
Multi-stakeholders platforms
Creating the Culture of River Basin Organisations in Myanmar
River Basin Organizations are
needed to be established
In order to enable the active
participation of all peoples of
Myanmar in the implementation
process of Integrated Water
Resources Management (IWRM).
U Htun Lwin Oo,
Secretary of the National Water
Resources Commiittee (NWRC)

27. …in order to understand better “integrated” approach…
• Traditional approach
– One sector
– Limited institutions involved
– Decision making at one sector
– Specific issues addressed
– Specific interests solved
– Sectoral allocation of funds
• Integrated approach
– Multi sectors
– Various institutions involved
– “collective” decision making
– Complex issues addressed
– Overriding interests solved
– National allocation of funds

28. In order to understand better “integrated” approach
Traditional approach:
• Hydrological/hydraulic
– What is expected yield of the
catchment?
• Engineering
– How much water leaks from
the system?
– How can leakage be reduced?
• Management
– What is the economic level of
leakage?
Integrated approach:
• How will new investment be agreed
upon?
• How can local management
structures balance competing
uses?
• How will stakeholders negotiate
water rights in different conditions
of water availability (scarcity)?
• How will consumers respond to
periodic water shortages or to
increasing environmental
concerns?

29. Lessons learnt

30. IWRM is not a fixed prescription but an iterative process.
This means that the specific form
IWRM takes will vary from country to
country and from region to region.
It also means that IWRM is an
inherently adaptive approach
– one that can accommodate
emerging challenges,
constraints and changing
social priorities.

31. What tools from the IWRM are appropriate in our
context of Democratising Myanmar and its Water
Sector: context-specific.
Tools such as water pricing and
river basin organisations have
come to be seen as pillars of
IWRM, they are needed and
appropriate in every situation
and many of the successful
examples of IWRM in practice do
not include either.

32. The nature of IWRM: Lessons from IWRM in practice
How water is developed and managed must reflect country
priorities (including environmental standards) and governance
approaches.
Water management will not
be successful if it is set up as
a stand-alone system of
governance and
administration, separate to
the rest of government.

33. The nature of IWRM: Lessons from IWRM in practice
: the infrastructure
ect from droughts
ventions needed
d the ecosystems
sers and uses.

34. IWRM is linked to
key development issues in Myanmar (also elsewhere)
Key development issue How IWRM helps Example
Securing food production Assists the efficient production of
food crops in irrigated
agriculture
FAO round table (2003, Rome)
agreed that all African
countries should improve
efficiency in irrigated
agriculture for food production
by adopting IWRM approach
Reducing health risks Better management of water
quality
UNECE Protocol on Water and
Health (2007) requires to set
health targets. Progress
towards IWRM has been
chosen as an indicator for
improved water management
Freshwater and coastal water IWRM recognizes freshwater and
coastal zone as a continuum
Integrated Coastal Area and River
Basin Management (ICARM)
is endorsed by GWP as a basic
concept for the GEF projects
portfolio

35. Critical elements for successful IWRM
approach
• Political will (at highest possible level)
• Knowledge (not science alone, but through multi-sector sources
of information and expertise)
• Institutional arrangements (start with existing institutions, but
(re)-define mandates clearly)
• Community involvement (it takes time to put it in place and it is
a long-term, investment)
• Economic prosperity (difficult to manage without financial
support; it is not only direct project funding; it is about
mobilization of whole range of economic and financial
incentives)

36. Lessons from IWRM in practice
IWRM is a means not an end. None of the successful case studies
analysed set out to achieve IWRM. Rather they set out to solve
particular water-related problems or achieve development goals by
looking at water holistically within larger physical and development
contexts.
IWRM
Equity
Sustainability
Efficiency
Myanmar Water Framework Directive (NWRC)
National Water Policy (NWRC)
IWRM Strategic Study (NL Gov. support)(NWRC)
Water Law drafting process (WB support)(NWRC)