Pangare, Ganesh

The Sesan, Sre Pok, and Sekong rivers, referred to as the 3S river basin, are shared by three countries and constitute a significant part of the Lower Mekong river basin. The BRIDGE project implements water diplomacy in transboundary basins, and is working in the 3S to build and strengthen water governance capacity. The 3S river basin contains the only transboundary tributaries of the Mekong covering over 78,650 square kilometres.

Drawing on a cross-section of 43 case studies prepared specially for this book, WaterWealth explains the challenges to improving water governance and management across Asia and the Pacific region. It illustrates many examples of new approaches and practices already being applied by basin managers to secure water for all. The solutions it presents are local ones—homegrown measures that build on international experience rather than transplants from elsewhere.

The Water and Nature Initiate’s (WANI) activities in the Mekong followed a strategy of mobilizing grass-roots engagement of local stakeholders in decision making, while facilitating high-level dialogues. This helped to build networked, multi-stakeholder processes which could begin to bridge local to national and regional decision making in the basin to support improved transboundary basin management. This case study describes the situation, activities taken, and results achieved during this process.

With a large percentage of the world’s population moving to urban areas, clean, affordable and timely supply of drinking and domestic water to its residents has become a priority. In most cities of the world, the primary responsibility of supplying drinking and domestic water lies with public utilities that often suffer from a series of ailments like poor cost recovery, poor and intermittent supply, and deficit budgets. In recent times significant efforts have been made to reform water utilities.

Siphandone or Four Thousand Islands encompasses a fascinating 50 Km stretch of the Mekong River consisting of the maze of extensively braided channels, islands and seasonally flooded riverine habitats and the largest complex of waterfalls in Asia.