Progress Report 2004

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Basin Development Plan

The Basin Development Plan (BDP) aims at identifying, categorising and prioritising projects and programmes which will benefit the sustainable economic development of the basin. It aims to assist member countries in seeking assistance for these projects so they can implement them at basin level.

The BDP is gradually moving into its second phase through the formulation of a BDP Phase II document in close consultation with the member countries, the donor community and investment banks.

During 2004 the MRC's Basin Development planners put strong emphasis on consultation and public participation by stakeholders in the basin's "sub-areas" (or clusters of catchments). Forums held in Cambodia and Lao PDR involved international organisations, local NGOs, local communities and those involved in fisheries, forestry and agriculture. Their input helped produce outcomes to be used in national planning through the identification of key development issues for the future regarding needs, concerns, trends and risks relating to water issues.

Five sub-area transboundary meetings have been conducted successfully and a number of project proposals were identified.

Using different sources and information, the BDP team has developed options for an Integrated Water Resources Development Strategy which will promote a series of sustainable development interventions and investment opportunities for the Lower Mekong Basin. Priority projects identified respond to the needs of the poor in the river basin and ensure economic growth and development that is in harmony with the environment. See story

Achievements for 2004 include:

• The production of the draft of an Integrated Water Resources Development Strategy for the Lower Mekong Basin Development Strategy; a BDP Planning Cycle guideline (with selection criteria) and a portfolio of potential projects which are now incorporated in a new BDP project database.
  
• Assessment of basinwide development scenarios, using the Decision Support Framework (a powerful mathematical tool). Subsequently the MRC Secretariat tested a sequence of six scenarios. These scenarios lay the groundwork for the World Bank's own development of a Mekong Region Water Resources Assistance Strategy.
  
• The development of a number of analytical support tools like the Social Impact Assessment identification of social effects in the early phase of planning and the Strategic Environmental Assessment identification of potential environmental problems in the early planning phase.
  

During 2004 the third and fourth modules of the BDP training programme under the Murray-Darling Basin Commission and the MRC Strategic Liaison Programme were conducted successfully. The third module concentrated on applied scenario-based planning using the DSF developed under the Water Utilisation Programme and the fourth module was a study tour of the four MRC member countries.

For the rest of Phase I the BDP will upgrade the Mekong Basin Geographic Information System (GIS) and general knowledge base to provide enhanced information of development needs and options for strategic planning and scenario development. Simulation of development scenarios is continuing to be a priority and will progress further to stabilise and improve the predictive capacity of the BDP.

Collaboration between the MRC Secretariat BDP team and the teams at the National Mekong Committees has tightened and will develop during Phase II. In stages the BDP team at MRCS (supported by the NMCs) is bringing together all elements of a Transboundary Planning Framework for the Lower Mekong Basin, as originally envisaged for Phase I of the project.

The production of a Planning Atlas for the Lower Mekong Basin (based on the MRC’s GIS) is also in preparation and should be available in mid-2005.