Ms. Maria Theresa Medialdia, Director of MI’s Agricultural Development and Commercialization (ADC) Department, and Ms. Ratna Devi Nadarajan, ADC Program Specialist, visited national agencies in P.R. China on March 6-7, 2019 as part of the project on “Transboundary Cooperation Mechanism on Adaptation to Climate Change and Hydropower Development Project.” The team met with experts from the Changjiang Institute of Survey, Planning, Design and Research Co. Ltd. (CISPDR) in Wuhan, Hubei on March 7, and the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Centre (LMWRCC) in Beijing on March 8.
The visit was the last in a series of scoping visits carried out in Thailand, Lao PDR and P.R. China as part of the project’s broad objective of creating a transboundary cooperation mechanism in water resource management and climate change adaptation in the Mekong River Basin. Together with members of the Stockholm Environment Institute, MI’s partner technical support agency, the group discussed the objectives of the project and the role of national experts, while the CISPDR team, headed by its deputy director, Dr. LI Hao, shared best practices and information on transboundary cooperation with other countries.
In Beijing, the group was welcomed by Mr. ZHONG Yong, Secretary-General of the LMWRCC. In addition to presenting their five-year action plan and the agency’s cooperation areas, LMWRCC experts also shared the results of an assessment study on flood prevention and drought relief in the Mekong River Basin.
Capping off the meetings was a visit to the South to North Water Diversion project site where the team was briefed about the project and shown the process of drawing water from the southern rivers and how it is supplied in the drier northern areas in the country including Beijing.
Following this, a regional consultation workshop is set to take place in April to further discuss outcomes of the three scoping visits and preliminary recommendations and strategies on data and information sharing mechanisms among Lancang – Mekong counties.
This one-year project is supported by the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Special Fund and in cooperation with Thailand’s Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.
