Regional Conference for Southeast Asia on Rainwater Harvesting in Integrated Water Resources Management:
"An Exchange of Practices and Learnings"
25-26 November 2008 Davao City, Philippines

Background 

Because, Southeast Asia is situated within the Intertropical Convergence (ITC) zone receiving precipitation more than 200 days a year, water is an abundant resource. Water being the most valuable resource needs to be optimized, utilized, integrated and managed. The Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) is a process required to manage the various facets of water and its uses, within the contexts of national and state policies and laws to achieve economic, social and environmental sustainable goals. Utilizing the framework of IWRM to mitigate areas that can alleviate the effects of climate change, Rainwater Harvesting system is highlighted to be a pro-active solution to water concerns throughout the world. Providing supplemental domestic water use, mitigate urban flooding, and improve the quality of the groundwater table are just some reasons why rainwater harvesting can be adopted in the urban cities.

Countries from the Southeast Asia region are most vulnerable to the adverse effects brought about by climate change. The rising sea levels, increasing temperatures, intensity of storms, floods and droughts, greater frequency of heat waves, more rapid spread of diseases and hasten loss of biodiversity, all contributes to the impact of reducing economic growth and exacerbate poverty. Various mitigating measures have been multisector and interdisciplinary in nature to address development needs and survival of humanity coming from all parts of the world.

Hence, it is in this light that the conference on Regional Conference for Southeast Asia on Rainwater Harvesting in IWRM: An Exchange of Practices and Learnings shall combine the past and the present experiences to aid in setting directions for adoption and adaptation efforts of national and international organizations and agencies for sustainable and quality living. It will attempt to optimize learnings on the application of rainwater harvesting systems in the context of IWRM through sharing of experiences and building networks.

The proposed regional workshop will be designed for the participation of the member countries of the SEA region. The workshop will be of a semi-technical type, considering that the participants will not all be "water professionals", engineers, or river basin/ watershed managers.

There will be series of paper presentations from the both the host and the country representatives. There will be brief lectures and discussions on the basic concepts and overview on Rainwater Harvesting in IWRM context. There will be inter-active open discussions with the resource persons and experience-sharers on Rainwater Harvesting in IWRM context and Climate Change. Building on upon the lessons learned from various member countries of the SEA region, there will be sub-workshops to in order to come up with country-level action plans relative to addressing their respective concerns on Rainwater Harvesting in IWRM context.

Organisation and contact details: 

Planning, management and implementation of the proposed Regional Workshop on Rainwater Harvesting in IWRM Context will be hosted and organized by PhilCapNet, PWMC, and KSPFI, in-coordination with the CapNet, AGUAJARING, CKNet-Ina.

The Secretariat will consist of selected members of the PhilCapnet and PWMC, AguaJaring with logistical support from the Davao City Water District (DCWD) of the Philippines.

The 2-day workshop will be held in Davao City, Philippines on Nov 25-26, 2008.

Contact: Rodora Gamboa rng4163@yahoo.com