Asean Water Plaftorm 2019
National University of Management (NUM)
WATER AND ITS MANY ISSUES.
METHODS AND CROSS-CUTTING ANALYSIS (2)
Phnom Penh, July 05th-13th
AWP 2019:
The first goal of the Annual ASEAN Water Platform (AWP) is to build capacity in research into water natural resource management (WNRM) within the partner countries’ institutions, by means of gathering researchers from different backgrounds for multidisciplinary methodological approaches related to the analysis of WNRM sector.
The second objective is to disseminate knowledge on WNRM and enhance collaboration between the participants. The platform must be able to increase the research collaboration between participants and to set the basis future long-term partnership between the representatives of different institutions in EU and in ASEAN. Then, the institutions partners must be able to set up and run projects on a bigger international scale.
This year, NUM will hold a Summer School of two Erasmus+ Capacity-building projects coordinated by University of Nantes, named DOCKSIDE and WANASEA, with the participation of more than 100 Asian young researchers and Europeans visiting scholars. In addition, a number of places will be given to candidates outside WANASEA consortium, mainly from Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar, thanks to co-fundings from AUF, IRD and University of Nantes.
In order to achieve those goals, AWP relies on the following working principles:
- Transfer of methodological tools;
- Multidisciplinary approaches (social sciences, sciences);
- Good balance between theories and practical work;
- Interactivity among participants;
- Disseminate knowledge;
- Build a collaborative network (academic and non-academic);
- Intercultural exchanges.
AWP 2019 PLENARY SESSIONS (Sunway Hotel, Phnom Penh)
Friday, July 5th
What Role for a Development Bank in the Improvement of the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Services? The Case of AFD in ASEAN, French Development Agency (Phnom Penh)
At the heart of sustainable development issues, access to water and sanitation is recognized as a human right by the United Nations since 2010. It is also a key driver for a greener growth. In the context of accelerated urban growth and demographics in many developing countries, ensuring access to water and sanitation is a significant challenge. In response, the Agence Française de Développement (AFD) finances the construction and the rehabilitation of drinking water production and distribution infrastructures, as well as the construction of infrastructures that improve and extend sanitation services. Particularly vigilant to the sustainability of the infrastructures it finances, AFD works in close collaboration with its partners to ensure the quality and sustainability of water and sanitation services. It also ensures that they are accessible to everyone, including the poor. This strategy will be described through the presentation of our interventions on concrete projects in the countries of the area.
Using Simulations to Design Evacuation Strategies in Case of Flooding, Alexis Drougoul, Kevin Chapuis (IRD)
Partial or total horizontal evacuation of populations in urban areas is an important protection measure against extreme and fast looding events (from the overflow of a river, for instance, or from tsunamis in coastal cities). However, casualties due to improvisation during massive displacement in a potentially degraded environment may be high due to non-compliance with instructions, accidents, traffic jams, incivilities, lack of preparation of civil security or increased exposure to hazards. Designing evacuation plans that can cover several scenarios in advance and take individual as well as collective behaviours into account is therefore fundamental. Since these plans can obviously not be evaluated in real conditions, we show how advanced simulation tools, using in particular agent-based modelling methodologies, can be used to assess their effectiveness.
Case studies taken from different projects in France and Vietnam, notably the ESCAPE ANR Project, will be used to illustrate this plenary session.
Knowing and Governing Water, Pierre-Yves Le Meur, Anthropologist, IRD-GRED
Water is everywhere; it is a primordial need and a component of all living beings. However, it is also a scarce resource, subject to competition, conflicts and various processes of appropriation and commoditization. Water has also become a sort of chemical abstraction (H2O) integrated – “disciplined” – in large-scale socio-technical networks and infrastructural apparatuses. However, beyond the abstraction, water has its own materiality made of fluidity and mobility, water crosses spatial and physical boundaries, conveys values, and establishes ties with various human and non-human entities. One can thus see water as endowed with agency, and even spirituality, or legal personality, as in the case of the Wanganui River in New Zealand. This contribution will explore these intricate dimensions and the different ways of knowing and governing water by drawing upon illustrations from the Asia-Pacific region.
Saturday, July 6th
Restitution of Research Programs:
- Valuation of ecosystem services of mangrove forests in Cambodia, Sophak Pok (Royal University of Agriculture), Pierre-Alexandre Mahieu (UN)
- Equitable, reasonable and sustainable use of water resources in Cambodia, Tob Chann Aun (IFReDI/MAFF), Laura Movilla (Vigo)
- Inland commercial fishing lot and mobile gear fishing in Tonle Sap Lake: an assessment of fisheries and fish community structure, Bunyeth Chan (UBB, Univ. Toulouse), Peng Bun Ngor (Fisheries Administration), Sovan Lek (Univ. Toulouse), Thomas Vallee (UN), Patrice Guillotreau (UN)
- Evaluating the success and sustainability of community fisheries in Tonle Sap Lake after fisheries reforms, Ratha Seng (UBB), Patrice Guillotreau (UN), Thomas Vallée (UN), Dewan Ahsan (SDU)
Knowledge and Development: From Principles to Practice, Benjamin Buclet, Center for Research and Education for Development (CREED)
In theory and in principle, the role of knowledge in development processes is well established: in its various forms, knowledge gives power to individuals and societies. It enables them to make informed choices about their future and, ideally, to realize their potential. For development institutions, as for most non-governmental organizations and think tanks, knowledge is one of the pillars of development – arguably the most important.
In practice, that is, in the implementation of development projects based on the production of knowledge, it is more complicated. First, the constraints related to the professional practice of research on the one hand and development on the other, are sometimes not very compatible. Secondly, the digital revolution and the profound changes in the knowledge market associated with it have led to a questioning of the legitimacy of traditional knowledge producers, higher education and research institutions in the foreground. Finally, the generalization of the market economy and its application to all sectors of activity have direct effects on the competition between those who promote knowledge and those whose economic, financial or political benefits are based, precisely, on ignorance.
