The Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) with the Department of Groundwater Resources (DGR), Thailand, successfully concluded a “Twining Program on Strengthening Groundwater Governance in Rapidly Urbanizing Areas of the Lower Mekong Region” on April 10 – 11, 2023, at DGR’s Office in Bangkok Thailand. The program is one of the activities of the GIRA project. It is financially supported by the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) under the SUMERNET 4 All Programme, funded by the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). Senior government officials and researchers from Lao PDR, Thailand, Cambodia, & Vietnam shared experiences and ideas and learned about groundwater governance and good practices for groundwater management in Thailand. Furthermore, they also explored future collaboration pathways and visited groundwater development & management project sites in Suphan Buri Province, Thailand.
Mr. Thanya Netithammakun, Director–General of DGR, Thailand, welcomed experts from the Lower Mekong Region (LMR) and thanked the AIT for collaborating with DGR to co-host the critical meeting. He further stressed the protection of the hidden resource as a shared responsibility and emphasized that “strengthening cooperation between regions by sharing the best practice will benefit groundwater management for all countries.” Dr. Thanapon Piman, Senior Research Fellow, SEI Asia, congratulated AIT and DGR for jointly co-organizing the event and emphasized the importance of the event to bring prospects of future collaboration for sustainable groundwater development, governance, and management. The opening sessions consisted of final remarks from Prof. Sangam Shrestha, Co-Director of the Global Water & Sanitation Center (GWSC) at AIT and the Principal Investigator (PI) of the GIRA project. Prof. Shrestha provided a brief introduction to the GIRA project and highlighted the objectives of the twinning program. Furthermore, on behalf of the project team, he expressed appreciation to the DGR, Thailand, for co-hosting the program.
The first day of the twining program consisted of multiple co-learning sessions “Overview of Groundwater Management (all participating countries); Groundwater Exploration and Potential Assessment in Thailand; Innovations and Technologies on Groundwater Development; Groundwater Conservation and Restoration in Thailand; Groundwater Control” followed by experience and ideas sharing. Furthermore, the delegates discussed future collaboration pathways (Development and Implementation of Legal Framework and Policies; Future Research, Establishment of Joint Monitoring Network, and Strengthen Institutional Capacity) among participating institutes. The second day of the program consisted of an excursion to the projects at the Suphan Buri Province (A long-distant groundwater development project at Talingchan Village, Muang District, Suphan Buri Province, and Project of Groundwater Development by Using Reverse Circulation (RC) and Direct Circulation (DC) Techniques at Sriprachan District, Suphan Buri Province) in facilitation from the experts of DGR, Bureau of Groundwater Resources, Regional Center-2 and field staffs.
The twining program consisted of about 25 participants representing the Groundwater Management Division, Department of Water Resources (DWR), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Lao PDR; Northern Agriculture and Forestry College (NAFC), Lao PDR; Department of Water Supply and Sanitation (DWSS), Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology, Cambodia; Institute of Technology Cambodia (ITC), Cambodia; Department of Groundwater Resources (DGR), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment Thailand; Department of Water Resource Management (DWRC), Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, Vietnam; Department of Natural Resources and Environment (DONRE) of Can Tho City, Vietnam; Vietnam National University – Ho Chi Minh City (VNUHCM), Vietnam and researchers from the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand.
