Articles About Water

Water News in South East Asia

Malaysia To Have National Water Resources And Environment Policy

KUALA LUMPUR, April 7 (Bernama) -- The Natural Resources and Environment Ministry will spearhead the formulation of the National Water Resources and Environment Policy, deputy minister Tan Sri Joseph Kurup said.

"The policy, among other things, will look into the establishment of new institutional arrangements and mechanisms to manage our water resources sustainably," he said when opening the Water Resource Management Seminar 2010, themed "Towards Environment Friendly Water Resource Management", here Wednesday.

Apart from that, he said the government needed to review the entire spectrum of water resources management including preserving the resources and ensuring appropriate policy and legislation were in place and institutional set-up streamlined.

"We will study the possibility of establishing new institutional arrangements to manage and coordinate all initiatives towards the preservation and restoration of our degrading water resources.

"As well as reforming the policy, the emphasis will also be placed on meeting people's need so that water is made more accessible and affordable," he said.

Kurup said the government was also actively implementing programmes on Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) to ensure water sustainability was attainable.

He said the Economic Planning Unit of the Prime Minister's Department and Department of Irrigation and Drainage (DID) had also completed a study on effective implementation of integrated water resources in Malaysia.

"The DID has commenced the implementations of nine best management practices to enhance public awareness and capacity-building under various themes of IWRM," he said.

At a news conference later, Kurup said the DID had appointed Ranhill Consulting Services Sdn Bhd as the consultant for the Review of the National Water Resources Study (2000-2050) and Formulation of National Water Resources Policy.

DID Director-General Datuk Ahmad Husaini Sulaiman said the study, costing RM6.8 million, would be completed in October.

-- BERNAMA

LINK: http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v5/newsgeneral.php?id=488620

Laos, Vientiane: water supply to meet 2015 consumption demand

March 31, 2010 ·

The water supply in Vientiane Capital will be sufficient to meet demand in the next five years, said a high-ranking official.

The next five-year plan of the Water Supply Enterprise increase the production capacity of water supply by more than half of the current capacity to 335,000 cubic metres per day, from 160,000. The plan was unveiled on 29 March 2010 by the Director General of the Vientiane Capital Water Supply Enterprise, Mr Duangphet Bouapha.

Under the plan, he said that some pumping floats were placed at the Kaoliao water supply plant to help pump water from the Mekong River and there will also be a plan for upgrading production of Dong Mark Khai plant by laying out a 12-km water pipeline which water will be pumped up from the Nam Ngum River to the plant. The investment is expected to be US$4 million. The plan will also concentrate on increasing the daily production capacity of water supply of the Dong Mark Khai plant to 60,000 cubic metres, which is expected to cost US$20 million.

The Vientiane Capital Water Supply Enterprise plans to build new water supply plants in the capital. The plans include a new water supply plant at Senedinh village or Nam Suan area with the initial production capacity of 20,000 cubic metres, valued at US$12 million; one in Hardsaifong district with production capacity of 15,000 cubic metres, valued at US$8 million; and another one at Hard Kieng village with production capacity of 20,000 cubic metres, valued at US$12 million. One more new water supply plant in That Gnone area with installation capacity of 60,000 cubic metres per day costing US$66 million, will be also built in 2012, according to a study of JICA project. So far, there is any survey to be conducted. “If all construction projects are achieved, local residents of the capital will enjoy sufficient water supply by 2015″, claimed Mr Duangphet.

Between February and March 2010, the two main plants of Kaoliao and Chinaimo suffered the insufficient supply of raw water for the production of tap water because of the unprecedentedly low Mekong River.

To cope with the problem, the Vientiane Capital Water Supply Enterprise made a decision to install additional water pumps, which have now been in operation. As a result, the production of water is now back to normal. At present, the capital relies on the service of water supply from three main water supply plants of Kaoliao, Chinaimo and Dong Mark Khai with a total production capacity of about 165,000 cubic metres per day.

Source: Lao News Agency, 30 March 2010

Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)

LINK: http://washasia.wordpress.com/2010/03/31/laos-vientiane/