NARBO

NARBO secretariat visits ARBRO in Myanmar
Kenji Someya, Vice Secretary General of NARBO

 

  NARBO secretariat visited ARBRO, Ayeyarwaddy River Basin Research Organisation, in Myanmar from 31 August to 2 September, 2013. ARBRO is the very new member and only one NARBO member from Myanmar so far, and was introduced in the 5th NARBO General Meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand.

 

  During the three days, NARBO secretariat had the opportunities to see Ayeyarwaddy River and exchange the ideas with stakeholders in Pyay and ARBRO members.

 

  Observing Ayeyarwaddy River, NARBO secretariat headed for Pyay City. Pyay city, which is famous for its history and ancient statue of Buddha, is located along the east side of Ayeyarwaddy River and 260km northwest of Yangon. Ayeyarwaddy River was very large and showed its magnificent view with the abundant water flow because of the rainy season. The secretariat members observed from the ship the views of Ayeyarwaddy River such as a big bridge over the Ayeyarwaddy River, Shwesandaw Pagoda, water intake pomp stations for irrigation and sugar factory besides the river itself. After that, they were explained how the hydrological observation and transmission of the data were conducted at the hydrological observation station by the persons in charge. They fully understood the hydrological observation and hydrological transmission were being done in a very careful and reliable manner, although they found that the facilities and technology were rather old-fashioned. Moreover, they also found that the special technique was applied in transmitting data to prevent miscommunication.

 

  On 1 September, meeting between NARBO secretariat and stakeholders in Pyay took place. The engineers and staff members of Irrigation, Agriculture, Forestry, Fishery, Navigation and Hydrologic Observation kindly joined the meeting for several hours in spite of the early Sunday morning. Stakeholder meeting in regional base was said to be held often to exchange views. NARBO secretariat found a part of IWRM had already started.

 

  On 2 September, the meeting between ARBRO and NARBO secretariat members was carried out in Yangon. Dr. Daw Swe Swe Aye, the chairperson of ARBRO and eight persons from ARBRO kindly attended the meeting. Following the introduction of NARBO and ARBRO and the report of the study visit to Pyay last two days and the transition of the Ayeyarwaddy River by using GIS, the views and ideas were exchanged among the participants. ARBRO and NARBO secretariat agreed that capacity development in IWRM was necessary and technology and facility including hydrological observation and transmission should be modernized to promote IWRM in Myanmar, where the new development stage had just started recently. Particularly, it was recognized that NARBO was expected to cooperate in capacity development for IWRM.

 

  Being established in 2012, ARBRO is the organization established voluntarily with persons from administration, academy, consulting sectors and so on, to enhance the IWRM in Ayeyarwaddy River, the soul of Myanmar people. Since Myanmar is expected to make further development toward a new stage as a nation, the significant effort of ARBRO is very important in order to promote IWRM in Myanmar and the relationship between ARBRO and the government is expected to be tightened for capacity development in IWRM. NARBO secretariat hopes Myanmar could achieve sustainable development by adopting the IWRM.

 

  At last but not the least, NARBO secretariat expresses sincere appreciation to ARBRO for their cooperation in accepting the visit and arranging various opportunities.