The UNESCO Jakarta Regional Sciences Bureau for Asia and the Pacific is implementing the project "Upscaling water security to meet local, regional, and global challenges" with the support of Malaysia. "A Water Management Curriculum using Ecohydrology principles and Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM)" has been published by the Regional Humid Tropics Hydrology and Water Resources Centre for Southeast Asia and The Pacific (HTC KL), a Category 2 Centre under the auspices of UNESCO under the above mentioned project. The curriculum focuses on watershed management especially for river basins and includes recommendations on innovative storm water and water quality management technologies, best management practices and policy options to address negative impacts of urbanization. This curriculum provides the necessary background for understanding ecohydrology and IWRM practices in Malaysia in order to improve watershed management from various angles – through technical, management and policy coordination and integration processes. You can download it at the website of the following UNESCO document sections:
There are various approaches to disseminate and implement ecohydrology and IWRM. To promote broader application, understanding the water education practices in the region is indispensable for upscaling water security. However, approaches and technologies differ from country to country. Therefore, understanding the different approaches as well as their ranges and variations will enable us to strengthen regional collaboration and the establishment of a pathway towards new and improved water education curricula. To realize this pathway, UNESCO Jakarta Regional Sciences Bureau for Asia and the Pacific, in partnership with River Engineering and Urban Drainage Research Centre (REDAC), Universiti Sains Malaysia, organized the "Regional Workshop: Pathway towards Improved Water Education Curricula" as part of the project "Upscaling water security to meet local, regional, and global challenges" from 27 to 28 November, 2017, in Penang, Malaysia supported by the Government of Malaysia through Malaysia Funds-in-Trust. Objectives of the workshop was to share experiences and practices on water education among countries in Asia and the Pacific and Africa, and to establish pathways towards improved water education curricula in addition to discussing Water Management Curriculum by the Regional Humid Tropics Hydrology and Water Resources Center for Southeast Asia and the Pacific (HTC-KL) and creation of a platform of collaboration among category 2 centers of UNESCO.
Mr. Tadashige KAWASAKI, secretariat of NARBO, joined the workshop through Skype and talked about new IWRM Guidelines by focusing on appropriate and applicable approach by showing the collected good practices of NARBO member organizations and emphasized the importance of translation of the documents into local language and of visualized and concise document for effective dissemination. It was well received among the participants as lessons learnt of NARBO.
You can get the program and presentation materials at the following website:Now, NARBO is developing "IWRM Guidelines for Practitioners" as a part 3 of the series of UNESCO' s "IWRM Guidelines at River Basin Level". This collaborative action is one of the actions on customizing IWRM at River Basin Level to enhance implementation and improvement of IWRM. In this way, NARBO is closely working with UNESCO and contributing to UNESCO' s actions in the region for achieving 2030 Agenda as a network of practitioners on IWRM in the field.