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Summary Report of
Project Kick-off Meeting
Connecting climate change, hydrology and fisheries for energy and food
security in Lower Mekong Basin
07 – 08 February 2018
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
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Project Kick off Meeting Report
Connecting climate change, hydrology and
fisheries for energy and food security in
Lower Mekong Basin
Meeting date:7th to 8th February 2018,
Meeting venue: Hotel Cambodiana, Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT)
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Authors:
Sangam Shrestha │ Associate Professor, Chair-Water Engineering and Management, AIT
Vilas Nitivattananon │ Associate Professor, Environmental Engineering and Management, AIT
Thanapon Piman │Research Fellow, Stockholm Environmental Institute, SEI
Binod Bhatta │ Research Associate
Project Supported by:
United States Agency for International Development (USAID), USA
Grant agreement number: 436
Project acronym: CC_HYDRO
Project title: Connecting climate change, hydrology and fisheries for energy and food security in
Lower Mekong Basin
Funding scheme: In three Installment
Project covered: from December, 2017 to November, 2020
Project budget: US$ 300,000
Name and title of partners’ organization:
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand
Stockholm Environmental Institute (SEI), Thailand
Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute (IFReDI), Cambodia
Support partner: Prof. John Sabo, Arizona State University, USA
Project website: will release soon
Email address of PI: [email protected]
Email address of Co-PI: [email protected]
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Overview of the project
The Sesan, Srepok and Sekong rivers, referred to as the 3S river basin are shared by three countries
and constitute a significant part of Lower Mekong river basin. The project “Connecting climate
change, hydrology and fisheries for energy and food security in Lower Mekong Basin” working
in 3S transboundary basins will build strong intra country (Cambodia, Vietnam, and Lao PDR)
relationship for water governance for energy and food security in the region. The 3S river basin
contains the only transboundary tributaries of the Mekong covering over 79,000 square kilometers
area. Rapid development of hydropower and mining which has prompt renewed efforts to improve
coordination, challenged by the fact that the three countries it is shared between have vastly
different political and institutional arrangements. The river basin of Sesan, Srepok and Sekong
covering the parts of Cambodia (33% of total basin area), Lao PDR (29%) and Vietnam (38%) and
3S rivers of LMB provides food security for millions of people, and it covers only 10% of the
entire Mekong Basin but it contributes 23% of mean annual Mekong water volume. Agriculture
and fisheries are the main sources of income for the community living in the 3S. Fisheries is the
main source of protein for the people living in 3S regions. Many past study shows that climate of
this region is changing with increasing trend in temperature and no any significant trend in rainfall,
which will have direct impact of 3S flows which will have lower energy production from the
hydropower dams and threaten the timing, frequency and magnitude of flood plush. The 3S
tributaries are dammed to produce hydropower. Rapid economic growth if forcing the region to
construct more dams, and having more dams in the river will have direct impact on fisheries and
fish migration which caused direct impacts on people livelihood. Therefore, we must now access
climate change impacts on river flows, dam development and operations, and fish habitat in the
LMB to reduce future risk on energy production and food security.
The project develops and evaluate dam operation scenarios that optimize both hydropower
production and total fish catch in the context of proposed and buildout hydropower facilities under
climate change scenarios within 3S basin. A modelling based approach, driven by scientific
understanding of climate change, its potential impacts on river flows, and on subsequent fish
production, will allow us to arrive at the optimum dam operation scenarios. The project also will
develop the capacity of young professionals who are working in relevant government agencies and
are responsible for dam operations, water resources management, and fisheries in Cambodia, Lao
PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam. This project has four work package and which are listed here:
Develop high resolution climate data using state-of-the-art Regional Climate Models, and
employ the associated downscaling/bias correction techniques. We will use recent sophisticated datasets (e.g. CMIP5) to develop the new RCP scenarios and hydrological models.
Assess the climate change impact on river flows and fish production by coupling discharge estimates generated by a physically based hydrological model like the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), and a data-driven fish production model that translates discharge variation into fish futures (e.g. Multivariate Autoregressive State Space (MARSS) model).
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Evaluate dam operation scenarios that optimize hydropower production and total fish harvest. This will be done using operations algorithms (control theory) that deliver optimal flow for fish harvests under climate change scenarios (using multi-objective optimization).
Cohost annual workshops targeting young professionals working in water and fisheries
departments from LMB countries and analyze historical hydrological, dam operation, and
fish catch data in the basin.
Fig.1. Methodological Framework to achieve each Work Packages
Introduction of kick off meeting The project kick off meeting on “Connecting climate change, hydrology and fisheries for energy
and food security in Lower Mekong Basin” was organized in Hotel Cambodiana Phnom Penh,
Cambodia. The meeting was organized by one of our project partner IFReDI. The meeting had
two modules one is closed meeting to discuss about project work packages, data availability for
the project, historical and existing information of the basin, stakeholder mapping and capacity
building framework. And another module was field visit to ‘dai fisheries’ in the Tonle Sap River
to see the current situation of fish catch in the river. The kick off meeting marks the start of a
project journey that intends to bring water resources, climate, fisheries, reservoir operation, energy
production, food production, stakeholder mapping, and capacity building the attention it deserve.
It also serves as official start off the project. The kick-off meeting provides an initial sampling of
the issues that should be addressed during the project duration and some of them are technical
issues and some are social and economic issues which should be addressed based on interactive
discussion. This kick off meeting also represents the first stakeholder consultation processes.
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The kick-off meeting is of utmost importance because its results provide valuable input to design
of the three-year project work packages and scheduling of the project regarding the technical and
social issues. As an initial multi-stakeholder platform event, its participation at earliest stage of the
project methodology formulation processes helps to design and develop the project scope together
with water, fisheries, dam operation experts from around the various parts of the regions.
Fig.2. Banner used in Kick-off meeting
Meeting objectives and format The main Objectives of the kick-off meeting were to discuss and contribute to Agenda, attached
as Annex 1.
Introduce project objective and activities
Development of meteorological, hydrological, dam operation, fisheries data policy in the
3S river basin
Improvement of the existing data exchange system for the 3S river basin
Coordination and introduction of all project partners and stakeholders
Upgrading of existing data for hydrologic, dam operation and fish modelling for the 3S
basin
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Knowledge sharing of existing and historical situation of the basin
Stakeholder mapping
Field visit to analyze the current status of fish catch
Receive inputs from relevant stakeholder for successful operation and completion of
project
To identify the topic and target stakeholder for capacity building
Opening ceremony Attended by 23 stakeholders including project partners from Cambodia, the kick-off meeting was
facilitated by Dr. Thanapon Piman, Research Fellow from SEI. Dr. Vilas Nitivattananon,
Associated professor from AIT and PI of this project, welcomed the participants on behalf of AIT
and started to explain about the project in brief. He has mentioned about project donner, project
duration, project partners and project fund. He includes about the challenges associated with
project in terms of climate, flood, drought, food security and hydropower development and its
impacts on fisheries in the regions. He believed that AIT has been serving in the similar field since
50 years back in diverse region so this team would complete the project successfully. Dr. Vilas
strongly requested to all the participants and stakeholder to share their past knowledge so that we
can get some fruitful tips and ideas for our project. He thanked to all the project partners and team
for being with him and supports all the time. Dr. Vilas gave big thangs to Dr. Phen for organizing
meeting in well planned order, without Dr. Phen dedication this meeting would have been not
possible in that short time period. Finally, he wished successful completion of kick-off meeting
and concluded his opening remarks.
Dr. Chheng Phen also welcomed the participants and addressed the opening session by introducing
the project and its scope. He was the main kick off meeting organizer so he gave big thangs to all
partners ‘and participants for their presence on behalf of IFReDI and himself. As Dr. Phen
specializes on fisheries he talked more about fisheries and its current situation in the basin. He
focused about Tonle Sap river as this river has contributing high fish migration to Lower Mekong
river. Mekong is home to 800 fish species and 3S is important for biodiversity and home for more
than 100 fish species, out of this 31 species are commercially important to enhance the country
economy and people livelihood. All are familiar with 3S basin so he believes on successful
completion of project on time, and will have high pay off for Cambodia for management and
planning for future. At last he thinking to the donner agency (USAID) and all project partner (AIT
and SEI) and he concluded his opening remarks.
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Fig.3. Dr. Thanapon facilitating the opening session
Participants introduction: Dr. Thanapon requested to all the participants to introduce themselves. Over 23 participants from
diverse fields like water, fisheries, dam operation, policy maker and planner explained their
experience, situation of 3S basin and they have suggested some guidelines for project and finally
they greet to participants enclosed in meeting and wished for successful completion of project.
Name of Participants is attached in Annex 2.
Remarks from project PI Dr. Sangam Shrestha, Associated professor from Asian Institute of Technology, welcomed to all
participants addressed the opening session by introducing objectives of kick off meeting and
project introduction. He mentioned overall scope of the projects during three years. The project is
funded by USAID and implemented by Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Stockholm
Environmental Institute (SEI), and Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute (IFReDI)
and Arizona State University (ASU) in three years’ period. 3S contributes 20% of Mekong Basin
flow are crucial to food security and livelihood through the inland harvest - in Cambodia 80%
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protein from fish and also crucial to energy security. Dr. Shrestha mentioned the issues of current
development on the basin as Hydropower development and its impact on hydrology and fisheries,
Climate change on hydrology and hydropower, tradeoff between food security and energy under
climate change making problem to basin hydrology, fish migration and energy production. He
presented the research questions of the project and methodology to achieve the project work
packages under the various scenarios. Project has four work packages out of these first three are
modelling base technical packages and fourth one is more about capacity building program for
young professionals. The detail methodology for each work packages is presented in above figure
1. This project will help the mission of USAID RDMA (USAIDD Regional Development Mission
for Asia). Dr. Shrestha endorse more to collaborators with SERVIR Mekong (ADPC), MRC,
Vietnam Academy of Water Resources, ITC, National University of Laos to complete this project
successfully. Dr. Shrestha has presented following research questions:
What are the scenarios of hydropower production and fish harvest under current climatic
conditions?
How will the climate of the 3S river basin change in the near (2030s), mid (2050s), and
distant (2080s) future?
What impact will future climate have on river flow, dam operations, hydropower, and
fish habitats?
How to optimize hydropower production and fish harvest under climate change and
hydropower development scenarios?
What capacity development at which level is necessary for optimum hydropower
production and fisheries production under climate change and hydropower development
scenarios?
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Fig.4. Project PI Dr. Sangam addressing the kick off meeting and delivering the project
introduction
After Dr. Sangam’ s presentation floor was open for discussion:
Following questions were raised as questions and suggestion during the discussion session,
Dr. Chantha Oeurng, ITC – He is doing several research in (1S, 2S, and 3S) basins and
he knows well about the basin current situation, so he mentioned the problem what he faced
during his modelling works and modelling results. He mentions lot of agriculture activities
on upper part of basin are going on. Vietnam extracts water for agriculture | Vietnam uses
lot of pesticides and fertilizer to increase the agricultural productivity which impacting
downstream |Landuse change impact. How will this project address this?
Dr. Sangam Shrestha, AIT answered to Dr. Oeurng question- These issues are not
under the scope of this project as the assumption was the water extraction is low but will
try to incorporate during modeling. We can incorporate nutrient loading also.
Me. Le,Oxfam Question – 30% of project fund is divided for capacity building program,
who will be those people? Who do you plan to use the output from this issue to convince
policy maker?
Dr. Sangam Answer to Le - We can organize forum and invite policy makers to reach
them. Taring packages and paper will also be product to reach others. Training topic will
be finalizing based on stakeholders’ suggestions.
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Dr. Thanapon Request – To provide platform to deliver out research’s output
Mr. Por (Oxfam) Suggestion - Civil society should also be engaged for capacity building
during training
Ms Sopagna Suggestion - Should connect hydropower developer of the basin
Dr Sobhakar Question- How will you perform trade-off?
Dr Sangam Answer to Dr. Sobhakar - Optimization techniques – control theory for
power and fish catch optimization under different scenarios will be use. But this technique
is still in review.
Mr Chhuk Question– What model will you use in this project and what is the difference
between this project and MRC?
Dr. Sangam Answer to Chhuk: Hydrology SWAT || Hydropower HEC-ResSim ||
Fisheries MARR ||. MRC only does impact assessment but his project does the optimization
of fish and hydropower development (trade-off).
Dr. Sangam was asking about pesticide and fertilizer data of the basin but participants from
meeting were not aware about those data so we decided to go in deeper after meeting for
data availability.
Suggestion from Participant: In addition, with capacity building program we can
organized some forum so that we can have in depth ideas about basin from government
agencies. And they have suggested to make involvement of private sectors to strengthen
the research. And some participants requested to make involvement to Hydropower
Developer which could be good for reservoir optimization of the basin.
Group photo session and coffee break: The opening and introduction session was ended after group photo. Thirty-minute time was
allocated for coffee, and after coffee break meeting was resumed as updating knowledge in the 3S
river basin in session two.
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Fig.5. Group photograph
Updating knowledge in the 3S river basin
Dr. Chantha Oeurng, ITC, Shared Knowledge of Climate Change: past
and future in 3S river basin
Dr. Chantha shared his past knowledge of climate change and nitrate yield of the 3S basin. He had
conducted one researched entitled climate change impacts on nitrate yield in the basin and he
presented results of that research. He has requested to project team to consider the irrigation water
withdrawal and pollutants loading from fertilizer and pesticide. His result shows nitrate has been
significantly changing due to demand of food and energy consumption and that increased nitrate
have impact on drinking water and fish production and eco system in the lower Mekong region.
He suggested to consider the future landuse change using some modeling tools, 3S is the largest
tributary of lower Mekong so climate, landuse and other water infrastructures are the great
concerns in the LMB regions. Agricultural, ecological, and fish productivity in the lower Mekong,
particularly in the Tonle Sap lake in Cambodia and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, are attributed
to the seasonal delivery of water, sediments, and nutrients. Drastic changes in land use, climate,
and water infrastructure development occurring in the key Sesan, Srepok, and Sekong (3S)
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tributaries of the Mekong are of great concern because these rivers’ significant contribution of
sediments, nutrients, water flows, and fish diversity to the downstream of Tonle Sap Lake and
Mekong Delta. Booming agriculture area in the upper area of the basin is being great threat to the
water environment to the downstream. His result shows that there is no any distinct trend on
rainfall but temperature is getting warmer and warmer during the passage of time and will
increased by 4ºC at the end of century. Agriculture area is the main source of Nitrate in the basin.
He had compared the nitrate yield of 3S basin to other basin of the world and 3S produces less
nitrate than others diverse basin of the word.
Fig.6. Dr. Chantha Oeurng addressing the meeting and shearing his past knowledge in 3S river
basin
Dr. Chheng Phen, IFReDI, Shared Knowledge of: Fisheries monitoring
and harvesting
Mostly Dr. Phen focused on fisheries and its current situation in Cambodia on his presentation.
22% of Cambodia total area is covered by floodplain, and fisheries has high contribution to country
economy, so Cambodia government to be more aware about fisheries and its current and future
situation. Dr. Phen believes this project would have high impacts to cover those things so that
government and other private agencies can come up with some adaptation strategies. Cambodia
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ranks number 4 in inland fisheries around 648829 tons (527795 fresh water 121025 marine water)
so to conserve the food security we have to have clear ideas not to disturb fish migration in the
basin. In Cambodia fish is providing 81.5% of total animal protein - values 1.25 billion (fish
consumption 52.4kg/person/year). Migratory fish abundant in Cambodia interconnected with
another ecosystem of upstream side and Vietnam is using more fertilizer and pesticide so that fish
production and migration having problem in downstream side. In the regions we can see the rapid
development of dams, development (like dams, other water structure) can have impact on
migratory path and can have an impact on Cambodia fisheries. In context of Cambodia inland
fisheries is nearly 4 time higher than marines and aquaculture fisheries, so we should have focused
to conserved the inland fisheries. During the recent past big fish is replaced by small fishes even
though bio mass is same because of lack of big fish in water. In Cambodia 63% inland, 22%
Aquaculture and 15% from marine fish is harvesting per year. He emphasized on factors affecting
inland production and which are Hydrology, flood plain environment, migration. Land use is
another crucial factors that effects on fisheries and its production and floodplain is changing to
agriculture land in day by day. Cambodia has a well policy and plan for fisheries development as
8-9% of GDP contributing from fisheries but still that policy is not well enough. IFReDI monitors
larva drift and catch by individual fisherman countrywide from 2007 onwards, and also focusing
on “dai fisheries” and promoting dai fisheries stations. Fish biomass is correlated to water
availability so future hydrology, water quality and future development of the region will have
direct impacts on fisheries. Aquaculture is promoted by government so is increasing since 2013.
After his presentation floor was opened for question and answer. There was only one question
about data availability. One participants asked about asked about reservoir operation data, and dr.
Phen has replied on that question. He said we do not have any problem regarding the data from
Cambodia side. But he is not assuring on Lao PDR and Vietnam side.
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Fig.7. Dr. Phen (one of the project partner, IFReDI) sharing the knowledge on fisheries monitoring
and harvesting in Cambodia
Dr. Thanapon Piman, SEI, Shared Knowledge of: Assessing knowledge
of climate change and hydropower on hydrology and consequences
impacts on fisheries in the 3S river basin
Dr. Piman has presented how the climate is changing in the region and how it impacting on basin
hydrology, water quality and sediment yield. He was presenting the results from previous studies
in the same basin and all studies are agreed that temperature in future will increase in the basin
higher in later periods. There is no significant trend in annual rainfall but rainfall will decrease
during the dry season in the 3S River basin. Dr. Piman has presented the uncertainties associated
with high and low flows, and all climate model shows high uncertainties in high and low flow.
Because of several development works and changing climate basin hydrology has been complex
in present. The total hydropower potential in 3S basin is 6,400 MW according to MRC 2009 report.
As of 2013 nine operating dams and 11 projects under construction with a total installed capacity
of 3,643 Mw (approximately 60% of the potential). Twenty-one other projects are at various levels
of planning stages in the region. Total live storage capacity is 6,196 × 106 m3. As flow has
unpredictable trend, energy production at 3S outlet also complex. As his analysis was types of
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energy quantified study with baseline production and as compare to past future production is low.
The nutrient loading in the 3S outlet will be increase during future under both RCPs scenarios with
higher in later period, but as compared to others basin from worlds 3S nitrate level is still fine.
After Dr. Thanapon’ s presentation floor was open for discussion:
Most of the participants focused to consider landuse change in this project. In the lower
Mekong region floodplain has changing to agriculture land and rapid development works
can be clearly seen so we should not overlook the landuse change impacts on hydrology,
water quality and fisheries.
Participants were focusing to do cost benefit analysis of this projects in depth. And project
PI Dr. Sangam reply on that: C/B analysis is beyond the project scope but project team will
try to consider this comment/suggestion to make project more viable for implementation.
One/two participants were from policy levels so they might not aware about technical
things and they were asking how do you consider climate change impacts on food and
energy. And Dr. Sanga replied to them and try to make them understand technically. And
finally participants agreed and understood how climate will have impacts on food and
energy.
Some participants requested to quantify the impacts of small and high dams’ construction.
Remote sensing to estimate water yield in 3S River Basin (suggestion)
1985-2008 MRC baseline period. Will you follow the same or different baseline for this
study? Same CC scenario? How to get Cascade dam data in the upper part of the basin.
On behalf or project team Dr. Sangam gave response on that question and he said project
will use updated baseline data up to 2016 or more depends on availability and will use
different and many climate change scenarios.
Depends on fishery data for baseline, Plan to use SSP scenarios. Get data from Laos and
Vietnam else use MRC old data. Use discharge data to estimate rule curve of dam.
Cooperate with WB to get data (suggestions)
Scenario should be developed based on stakeholder consultation (suggestions)
Suggested to make at least 15 to 20 climate change scenarios
Will you consider all the dam in 3S basin?
Its depends on data availability. Project will try to consider more dam as far as possible.
Suggested to considered irrigation water demand in the region so that it would be easy for
water demand management in dry season.
Suggested to classified crop and its water requirements in the Lower Mekong region.
Stakeholders were worried about data from Lao PDR and Vietnam sides, and Dr. Sangam
make assure to conduct meeting with Lao and Vietnam stakeholder so that it would make
easy to communicate and data collection.
They suggested to compare the fish production and its economic value in future.
In quarry of optimization, project team replied, project will use newly developed
optimization technique and this will facilitate by prof. Jonh Sabo from USA.
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Fig.8. Dr. Thanapon Piman (project partner, SEI) is sharing knowledge of basin climate,
hydrology and nitrate yield
Reviewing the existing information:
Project in 3S basin
According to the participant information as far as they know following projects are recently
working in the 3S basin.
In 3S basin world bank has (MIWS) 5 years’ project and this project is just started and it
cover four province of Cambodia
Project will covers
o Fisheries management
o Water resource management
Tread boundary project for fishery management in 2S (Sekong and Srepok), funded by
MRC and World Bank
Regional water management program – OXFAM
o 9 NGOs are working under this project
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o Working for capacity building
o Working for sustainable development
Fish Migration survey – IUCN
Share resource, joint program between IUCN and WWF
Existing data
Fish harvest locations: IFReDI can provide enough information about fish catch data, need
to consult with Lao and Vietnam for other 2S
Hydro Met data: Available in each 3S levels (2 time per day), measure by department of
meteorology (DOM) Cambodia, world bank project set up 15 hydro-met station recently
in the basin, IUCN also installed
Landuse data: CNMC and NMC (2015)
Irrigation data: CISIS,
Form Cambodia project can get all required data set but further care is needed for other 2S (Lao
and Vietnam)
Capacity building:
Capacity need
Following topics, target groups and training modules are suggested by participants. The final topic,
target group, and training modules will be finalized by project team based on kick-off meeting
suggestions.
Key topics:
Climate change and its projection
Water resources modeling (intermediate level)
Gender and hydropower
Data analysis on impacts of climate change on hydrology, fish and hydropower
Tread off/optimization
Economic, cost benefit analysis, value of fisheries and hydropower
Reservoir operation
Target audiences:
From policy level and highly technical person (brainstorming)
From civil society, Hydropower developer
Water Resources
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Fisheries
Universities student
Approach of capacity building:
Class room lecture/and demonstration
Field visits
First training on basic and second on advance
¾ days classroom training and 1-day field visit
Simple model run
Involve local experts throughout the project duration (data collection and running model)
Based on above suggestions project team will finalized the training (capacity building) modules
for 40 professional from diverse field.
Field Visit: In second day (8 February) project team from AIT and SET visited to ‘dai fisheries’ in Tonle Sap
River basin Cambodia. Team analyzed the current situation of hydrology and fisheries and they
talked more about connecting hydrology and fisheries during future. Flood pulse hydrology drives
the fisheries in Tonle Sap River. Higher magnitude and longer duration of flood pulses are
considered to be good for fisheries in Tonle Sap River. In this season (February) fish migrates
from Tonle Sap Lake to Mekong River via Tonle Sap River. Flood pulse alterations as a result of
expected hydropower development and climate change threaten the connection between the flood-
pulse, fish production and sustainable livelihoods. On the same day team visits to IFReDI
laboratory to see how they check fish health and many more. Dr. Sangam gave thanks to Inland
Fisheries Research and Development Institute (IFReDI) for organizing that visit.
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Fig.9 Project team visited to ‘dai fisheries’ and IFReDI laboratory
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Annex1: Program Agenda
Project Kick off Meeting on
“Connecting climate change, hydrology and fisheries for energy and food
security in Lower Mekong Basin”
07 February 2018,
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
‘Connecting climate change, hydrology and fisheries for energy and food security in Lower
Mekong Basin’ is a three-year project funded by the United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) and implemented by Asian Institute (AIT), Stockholm Environmental
Institute (SEI) and Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute (IFReDI).
Lower Mekong Basin is providing home and food for millions of people from Cambodia, Vietnam,
and Laos. The 3S rivers (Sekong, Sesan and Srepok) are the biggest tributary of Mekong river and
provide almost a quarter of Mekong’s total discharge. Many dams are constructed to generate
electricity in the 3S river network, which is impacting seasonal flows, sediment transport, fish
migration and fish harvest. Increasing water demand in agricultural and other sectors in 3S basin,
particularly in dry season, putting additional pressure on water resources management.
Furthermore, climate change in the 3S basin could have significant impacts on hydrology of 3S
basin and hydropower production, fish harvest and agricultural production. Ongoing and future
development of 42 dams in the 3S basin is of particular concern, due to its impacts on natural flows
and the wellbeing of local communities and climate change is another key to impact on flow
regime, and fish harvest. Therefore, the project aims to develop and evaluate dam operation
scenarios that optimize both hydropower production and total fish catch in the context of proposed
and buildout hydropower facilities under climate change scenarios within the 3S Basin. The project
also will develop the capacity of young professionals who are working in relevant government
agencies and are responsible for dam operations, water resources management, and fisheries in
Cambodia, Lao PDR, Thailand, and Vietnam.
The aim of this kick off meeting is to disseminate project’s objectives and activities to all
stakeholders and knowledge sharing of existing situation of water resources management, dam
operation for hydropower production, fish harvesting in 3S river basin. Similarly, the kick meeting
also aims to identify the key stakeholders and discuss the need of capacity building (training) for
improved water resources management, hydropower dam operation and fish harvest under climate
change scenarios.
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Agenda
7 February
Time Activity Speaker
Session 1: Opening and introduction
8:30 – 9:00 Registration
9:00 – 9:10 Opening Remarks USAID, Cambodia Office (TBC)
9:10 – 9:20 Opening Remarks Dr. Vilas Nitivattananon, AIT
9:20 – 9:30 Opening Remarks Dr. Chheng Phen, IFReDI
9:30 – 9:50 Objectives of Kick off meeting and Project
Introduction
Dr. Sangam Shrestha, AIT
9:50 – 10:00 Q&A
10:00 – 10:30 Coffee Break
Session 2: Updating knowledge in the 3S River Basin
10:30 – 10:50 Climate change: past and future Dr. Chantha Oeurng, ITC
10:50 – 11:10 Hydropower development: demand and
supply
Department of hydroelectricity
(TBC)
11:10 – 11:30 Fisheries monitoring and harvesting Chheng Phen, IFReDI
11:30 – 12:00 Discussion SEI facilitation
12:00 – 13:00 Lunch
13:00 – 13:20
Assessing impacts of climate change and
hydropower on hydrology and consequence
impacts on fisheries in the 3S river basin
Dr. Thanapon Piman, SEI
13:20 – 13:30 Q&A
Session 3: Reviewing existing information and capacity building
13:30 – 14:30
Discussion on
Existing information/projects from
different agencies
Use of the expected outputs from
the project
Linkage with other existing projects
All
SEI facilitation
14:30 – 15:00 Coffee Break
Session 4: Capacity need assessment
15:00 – 16:00
Discussion on
Stakeholder engagement
Capacity needs
Target groups for capacity building
All
AIT facilitation
16:00 – 16:15 Wrap up Dr. Sangam Shrestha, AIT
16:15 – 16:30 Closing Remarks Dr. Vilas Nitivattananon, AIT
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Annex 2: Participants in project kick-off meeting
List of Participants on
Project Kick off Meeting
“Connecting climate change, hydrology and fisheries for energy and food security in Lower
Mekong Basin”
Hotel Cambodiana, Phnom Penh
Date: 07 February 2018
SN
Name and
Surname
Title
Organizatio
n
E-mail Address
1 Dr. Sangam
Shrestha
Associate Professor & Chair
Water Engineering and
Management (WEM)
2 Dr. Vilas
Nitivattananon
Associate Professor Urban
Environmental Management
(UEM)
3 Mr. Binod Bhatta
Research Associate Water
Engineering and Management
(WEM)
AIT binodbhatta40@gmail.
com
4 Ms. Sopagna Set
Regional Technical Advisor,
Mekong River Commission-
GIZ Cooperation Programme,
Deutsche Gesellschaft für
Internationale Zusammenarbeit
(GIZ) GmbH
sopagna.set@gizde
5 HE. Kol Vathana Deputy Secretary General CNMC [email protected]
m
6 Dr. Oeurng
Chantha
Deputy Head of Department
of Rural Engineering ITC [email protected]
7 Dr. Heng
Sokchhay
Lecturer/Researcher,
Department of Rural
Engineering
ITC -
8 Dr. Thanapon
Piman
Research fellow, water and
climate change specialist SEI
thanapon.piman@sei-
international.org
21 | P a g e
9 Mr. Chheng Phen Deputy Director General FiA [email protected]
10 Mr. Tes Sopharith Hydrology modeler MOWRAM tes.sopharith.ta7610@
gmail.com
11 Dr. Shobhakar
Dhakal
Associate Professor & Chair
(Energy) AIT [email protected]
12 Mr. Chhuk Borin Dean of Fisheries Department RUA -
13 Dr. Touch
Bunthang Acting Director IFReDI
bunthangtouch@gmail
.com
14 Mr. Chhuon La Regional Advisor, Water
Governant OXFAM [email protected]
15 Mr. Uy Sophorn Head of Genetic Lab IFReDI [email protected]
m
16 Mr. Im Setha Vice Chief of Administrative
Division IFReDI
m
17 Mr. Putrea Solyda Vice Chief of Biological
Division IFReDI [email protected]
18 Mr. Por Soknak Water Governance Coordinator OXFAM [email protected]
g
19 Manish Shrestha Research Associate SEI manish.shrestha@sei-
international.org
20 Mr. Thach
Phanara Chief of Lab IFReDI
thachphanara@yahoo.
com
21 Mr. Chum
Kimleang Student ITC
kimleangchum18@gm
ail.com
22 | P a g e
22 Mr. Heng
Bunmanut Student ITC
bunmanutheng@gmail
.com
23 Mr. Thieng Seyha Logistic IFReDI [email protected]
m
