Regional Workshop
Flood Preparedness Programs in the Lower Mekong Basin 

Date: 29 April 2008,

Venue: Hotel Windsor Suites, Bangkok, Thailand 

Jointly Organised Mekong River Commission Secretariat (MRCS) Asian Disaster Preparedness Centre (ADPC) Department of Water Resources of Thailand 

With financial support from European Commission Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO) Under its DIPECHO 5^th Action Plan for South East Asia project 

C4P4: “Support to Implementation of Flood Preparedness Programs at Provincial, District and Commune Levels in the Lower Mekong Basin (Phase III)”,

Sub-component of Flood Emergency Management Strengthening, Component 4 of MRC Flood Management and Mitigation Program

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Please download related documents

• Welcome Letter Regional Workshop

• Regional Lesson Learnt Workshop - Agenda

Background  

The annual Mekong floods are an accepted part of the lives of communities living in the lower Mekong Basin countries namely Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam. The Mekong not only provides a rich variety of fish to its approximate 53 million basin inhabitants but during the annual floods also deposits fertile topsoil onto downstream flood plains, creating favourable conditions for farming and food production. However, recent severe floods in 2000, 2001 and 2002 have lost the lives of many people including the children, caused damage to transport routes and reduced agricultural output. 

The Mekong River Commission (MRC) understands the benefits of flooding, while recognizing the need to minimize disruption to Mekong Basin communities. Therefore, their Flood Management and Mitigation Program (FMMP) sets out to pursue sustainable development using the principle of integrated flood risk management in reaching its objective to reduce and mitigate people’s suffering and economic losses, whilst preserving the environmental benefits of floods. The program started in September 2004 and its implementation will continue until 2010. The FMMP comprises of five components:  

1. Establishment of a Regional Flood Management and Mitigation Center at Phnom Penh, Cambodia

2. Structural and Flood Proofing Measures

3. Enhancing Cooperation in Addressing Trans-boundary Flood Issues

4. Flood Emergency Management Strengthening

5. Land Management.

FMMP’s Component 4, Flood Emergency Management Strengthening (FEMS), is being implemented by MRC with support from the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) and funding support from Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) GmbH and the European Commission Humanitarian Aid department (ECHO). 

The Mekong River Commission Secretariat (MRCS) and the National Mekong Committees in the four riparian countries assign great significance to the European Commission (EC) contributions in the overall development of the Mekong River Basin. Since 2003, ECHO has supported the MRCS in implementing a flood preparedness program in the three riparian countries of Cambodia, Vietnam and Lao PDR, through its Disaster Preparedness programme (DIPECHO). EC support has contributed to the overall objective of FEMS, to ensure emergency management systems in the riparian countries are dealing more effectively with floods in the Mekong. 

The ECHO supported projects have helped the MRCS and the National Mekong Committees in enhancing capacities of relevant line agencies and local authorities for preparation and implementation of Flood Preparedness Programs at the provincial, district and commune level.  The project activities have assisted various stakeholders and beneficiaries to better implement flood preparedness measures, raise public awareness on flood risk reduction and promote province- to- province and national knowledge sharing. Recently three national level Flood Forums were organised in Cambodia, Lao PDR and Vietnam to encourage dissemination of their experiences in strengthening the capacities of provinces and districts in flood risk reduction.     

In the past decade remarkable initiatives have been carried out on flood risk reduction in communities at risk, by government agencies such as: NDMOs, hydro- meteorological services, ministry of natural resources; and by other stakeholders including UN agencies, international and local civil society organizations, with the common objective to enhance local government and communities capacity and resilience, through preparedness and mitigation of flood risks.   

Regional Workshop  

The Regional Workshop on Flood Preparedness Programs in the Lower Mekong Basin

is being organized by MRCS with support from ADPC under the DIPECHO funded program. The Workshop provides an opportunity for practitioners in the Mekong countries to share experiences, lessons learned and issues as well as to develop partnerships to promote flood risk reduction. The objectives of the workshop are to:

• Disseminate the experiences and best practices of FMMP in implementation of Flood Preparedness Programs in the region

• Seek inputs on how to expand and up- scale these practices in Lower Mekong Basin, both independently and with technical support from MRC and its partners.

• Discuss regional cooperation on national and sub national partnerships in FMMP and the role of national partners

Participants  

The participants of the workshop are the  key players and policy maker from Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand and Vietnam including the NMCs, NDMOS, DIPECHO partner NGOs, regional offices of the bilateral and multilateral agencies.