There are over 500,000 hectares of mangroves across the country in Myanmar, but the number is declining as many of the plants were cut down to be used as firewood, or to give way to fish farms.
To curb the degradation of the eco-system, forest reserves are being established in coastal areas of the southeast Asian country.
As part of its efforts in protecting local people living near the coastal areas from natural disaster, Myanmar is implementing a mangrove conservation project in Rakhine state’s Sittway and Kyaukpyu, and Tanintharyi region’s Myeik with the cooperation of local non-governmental organizations.
Meanwhile, the country is taking measures to improve management of water resources to prevent flooding and water scarcity.
It also called for fighting pollution of the Ayeyawaddy River that flows through the country from north to south.
The event will provide opportunities for the country to learn from international specialists about all-round management of water resources, response to natural disaster, new techniques and ideas on water resources management and achieving water sufficiency.
Moreover, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) is providing new farming techniques for Myanmar as part of a project to address climate change risk on water resources and food security in the dry zone.
The new techniques include crop spacing method, drought resistant crop selection, water conservation and environmentally sensitive livestock husbandry practices.
The four-year project worth 7.9 million U.S. dollars is the first of its kind in Myanmar to receive funding from the Adaptation Fund.

A t least 30% of Iran’s water and wastewater infrastructure, including a dilapidated supply network that is a major source of water loss due to leakages, require repairs, the caretaker energy minister, Sattar Mahmoudi, said this week.
Experts also underline the residential use of drinking water for other purposes as another reason behind the high wastage.
Stressing that Iran is located in one of the world’s most water-stressed regions, Mahmoudi added that subscribers should avoid the profligate use of water.
“Water reservoirs must be used based on the [prioritized] needs and no province should be sacrificed for the benefit of another,” he said without further elaboration.
Some environmentalists have proposed a scheme to import or desalinate water to address shortages, particularly in the central regions of Iran.
A plan to transfer water from the Caspian Sea in the north to the drought-stricken Semnan Province is reportedly awaiting the approval of the Department of Environment.
However, since its presentation, the proposal has raised environmental concerns. Mohammad Darvish, who heads the Public Participation Office at DOE, believes the project will result in large-scale deforestation in Hyrcanian Forest that borders the southern shores of Caspian Sea.
Another disputed plan that has been the cause of wide disagreement in Khuzestan and Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari provinces is the Beheshtabad scheme that aims to transfer water from a branch of Karoun River in Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari to Isfahan Province.
Officials and experts have warned about the adverse impact of the plan on groundwater resources and aquifers.

General Manager (Transition) Sindh Irrigation and Drainage Authority (SIDA) Nazeer A. Essani Memon said that water plays vital role in power dynamics of Pakistan, one who controls water is believed to be a powerful.
This he said while delivering a lecture on "Institutional Reforms in Irrigation and Sustainable Water Resources Management in Sindh" in the graduate seminar held in the lecture theater in the U.S.-Pakistan Center for Advanced Studies in Water (USPCAS-W) at Mehran University of Engineering and Technology (MUET) Jamshoro.
He said that Irrigation Management Transfer (IMT) reforms were being underway in the country to increase the water use efficiency, increase agricultural productivity, to improve the sustainability of irrigation system and reduce public sector’s financial burden.
Essani said that Indus River is flowing since millions of years and the Indus Civilization is the richest and one of the oldest in the world since then the communities of this region one or the other way had been engaged in the irrigation systems. He said that the politics of Direct Outlets (DOs) paved the way for the inequality in the water distribution in Sindh province, while he informed that present Sindh Government has banned on the DOs on SIDA’s request.
He said to ensure the fair distribution of water among all the stakeholders specially the tail-end small farmers, autonomous bodies like SIDA, Area Water Boards (AWBs) and Farmers’ Organizations (FOs) were established. He was of the view that the fair distribution of water can be materialized by institutional reforms in water sector of Pakistan while SIDA is doing its best by bringing such reforms at grass root level in the designated districts of Sindh Province.
He mentioned that country’s irrigation system is one of the best systems developed in British Colonial era, but it was poorly managed in our governance structure. He said that the present physical structure of barrages needs to be modified and modernized. He said Sindh has rain fed area equal to canal command where life is more miserable and average water table is more than 200 feet.

Rabat – Three days after King Mohammed VI instructed Head of Government Saad Eddine El Othmani to chair a committee to find solutions to water scarcity in the kingdom, El Othmani has promised that the group will “definitively resolve” the problem by 2018.
The ministerial committee appointed by the King to solve the problems of water scarcity in rural and mountainous areas “will soon begin its work,” said El Othmani at the Council of the Government held on October 5.
The committee, formed by the ministers of the sectors concerned, will meet next week, according to a statement read by the government spokesman Mustapha El Khalfi after the government council.
In recent months, residents of different regions, especially rural areas, have complained about an increasing scarcity of drinking and irrigation water. In cities like Ouazzane, Beni Melal, Zagora, Sefrou, and Azelal, Moroccans took to the streets to draw the government’s attention to the issue.
In rural areas, many groups organized long-distance marches to the regional government offices, sometimes facing blockades set up by the Gendarmerie.
The rate of access to drinking water in rural areas is expected to reach 96.5 percent by the end of 2017, with the state investing more than MAD 1 million in water supply projects, announced Secretary of State in charge of Water, Charafat Afilal, during the July 25 parliamentary session.

She travels approximately one to eight kilometres every day to fetch her share of water, and her body aches from carrying six to seven buckets of water daily for domestic needs. Even her pregnancy did not put an end to her ordeal since water is not a commodity one can live without.
This is not just Hazoora’s plight, but the plight of thousands of women living in this dry and barren land where fetching water for domestic needs is seen as the responsibility of women only.
This is not difficult to believe in light of the fact that they regularly lift 10 to 15 litres of water from the depth of approximately 40 feet.
Fetching water is a complicated task, but a greater complication is that water cannot be fetched where it is not available.
Providing water to the people of Pakistan is the responsibility of the government, but unfortunately, ours has failed miserably in that area.
The H2o wheel helps the women transport water easily, as they just have to drag the barrel back and forth instead of carrying it on their heads or back. Such projects will eventually bring about a marked improvement to the lives of the struggling locals, particularly the women who bear the brunt of water scarcity.
The suffering of the people as they struggle to find water is so gut-wrenching that a brief visit of this area will haunt you for days.

The villagers allege that taps have been running dry in the area for past two months, forcing them to fetch water from nearby streams. The water they said, is not fit for human consumption.
“We approached the officials of PHE department many times,but they are not understanding our problems and are not repairing their broken pipelines which are in bad condition from decades” Riyaz Ahmad a local resident said. The villagers said that if department does not repair their pipelines and restore the water supply “we will take to streets and department will be its responsible”.
Similarly, the people in many other areas of district complain that most areas are without proper water supply and people are forced to fetch and drink water from nearby streams and ponds.
Their car hit a tree around 03.30 am today at the Thati- Gharota area in Jammu district, they said.

“Now we just pump, fill the tank and we have water ready to use,” said the 30-year-old woman from the village of Los Corvera, in the rural municipality of Tepetitán, in El Salvador’s central department of San Vicente.
In 2013, GWP Central America had already promoted a water harvesting project in southern Honduras in communities suffering from drought, and this project is being replicated in El Salvador’s Jiboa Valley.
In this small country of 6.4 million people, eight rainwater harvesting systems have been installed so far in seven municipalities in the Jiboa valley in San Vicente. There is one in each municipality, except for Jerusalen, located in the department of La Paz, where two systems have been installed.
“We are the ones who do the housework and have to go looking for water… we are the ones who worry and suffer to find it for our families,” said 43-year-old Lorena Ramirez.
There, another 15 families are benefiting from the harvesting of rainwater.
During the May to October rainy season there is no problem keeping the polyethylene bag full, Ramirez said.
One of these systems is currently being installed in the Jerusalen neighborhood of El Progreso, and another in the village of Veracruz.
“We want to keep installing more systems, it’s not so costly, but the thing is that this year it was not included in the budget,” Alfaro told IPS.
And while the water collected is primarily for drinking, Lorena Ramírez, from Hacienda Nueva Oriente, said that because in the rainy season the bag fills up quickly and must be drained, she plans to capture that surplus in a small well and use it in her garden.

Thanks to official encouragement, the illiterate tribals in the newly-formed district proved that they are ahead of others in terms of sanitation.
The credit for every household having these structures goes to Self-Help Groups in the village.
The nondescript village has set an example for others to emulate in implementing Swachh Bharat and water harvesting structures.
Besides the two issues, the villagers took to organic cultivation of vegetables.
Sarpanch of the village Savalam Sujata said the State government financially supported the villagers in construction of rainwater harvesting pits, construction of individual toilets, compost pits and so on.
A resident of the village, Kaka Chimpiri, said the village was free from mosquito menace. According to DRDA Project Director Jagatkumar Reddy, the village is a complete tribal hamlet and never heard of even toilets.
Beyond imagination of officials, all households in the village have now individual toilets. Afterwards, the officials sensitised the villagers on prevention of water wastage and to conserve water through construction of rainwater harvesting structures.

The Mahaweli Water Control Committee and the Mahaweli Authority supply water to Nuwarawewa, Thuruwila and Tisawewa responding to the requests made by the Anuradhapura GA, Water Supply and Drainage Board (NCP) and the Irrigation Authorities, Chief Irrigation Engineer Jayantha Silva said.
of Mahaweli water to the Nachchaduwa tank. The tank will retain 5000 a.f and release the balance to the Nuwarawewa through a feeder canal," he said. "We have arranged to get 1,000 a.f of water from the Nachchaduwa to Nuwarawewa. Nuwarawewa water has gone down to 6,000 a.f where it should have been 36,050 a.f. It is hardly enough to supply drinking water to the city and its suburb," Anuradhapura Irrigation Engineer P.U.K. Tilakaratne said.
Plans are afoot to get water from the Malwathuoya anicut area if the drought continues. A spokesman of the board said water would be pumped to the Nuwarawewa Purifying Plant though a three km long pipe line.

Heritage Month celebrations have come and gone. But the most pertinent issue that was conspicuously absent in these celebrations was that of water as a critical aspect of our heritage.
This state of affairs is depressing given that water remains the mainstay of nearly every human endeavour.
It is always said that culture is not static and that it is always evolving.
Through it, we celebrate our past; reaffirm who we are and where we are headed.
One of the main features in the festivities that took place was the cooking of traditional food.
Our collective failure to infuse water issues into our culture is the very reason why we have not paid attention to the impending disaster that is caused by moving away from traditional agriculture to rapid industrialisation of the sector.
And, in some cases, where water is accessible, it is sometimes heavily polluted.
So, the cultures that we celebrate every year should provide all of us with the opportunity to stress the importance of water and what we should do to help conserve this life-giving resource.
To be specific, where water-related issues are concerned, we should make it part of our culture and work with the government, the private sector and civil society organisations to find solutions to water challenges.