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New innovation integrates water resources management in Cambodia`s Tonle Sap floodplain and Mekong delta
Thursday, 2024/12/19 | 08:01:38
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CGIAR December 13 2024
Written by Sanjiv De Silva (IWMI), Mak Sithirith (WorldFIsh) and Sok Sao (WorldFish).
A new short film from the CGIAR Initiative on Asian Mega-Deltas and the CGIAR Initiative on Aquatic Foods documents work to support efforts in Cambodia to delegate the management of water, land, agriculture, fisheries and the environment to the district level.
WorldFish and the International Water Management Institute (IWMI) – working closely with Cambodia’s Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute (IFReDI) – piloted the institutional innovation, which supports the implementation of a decision by the Royal Government of Cambodia in 2019.
It is a departure from the strongly sectoral approach to natural resources management in the country and represents a fundamental policy shift that can enable natural resources planning to better reflect the shared nature of water and land resources across multiple food production systems.
The pilot institution, a District Technical Working Group (D-TWG), was established in May 2024 to facilitate the integrated management of the water resources of Beung Sneh Lake, Prey Veng Province, in Cambodia’s Tonle Sap floodplain and Mekong delta. Representing all relevant levels of local government, environment, water, agriculture and fisheries sectors, and Community Based Organizations (CBOs) mandated to manage local fisheries, agriculture and environmental assets, the D-TWG responds to the multi-scale and multi-sector characteristics of water resources management.
The previous sectoral approach to manage shared water resources was causing significant trade-offs between key food production systems such as rice and inland fisheries. Over the years, this has led to a decline in fishery productivity, undermined livelihoods – especially amongst landless households, and created social tensions. The issue, was that as long as the water in Beung Sneh Lake was viewed through the interests of a single sector, the compromise needed on how much water could be extracted for irrigation without undermining the lake’s fishery could not emerge. Consequently, the lake’s water level would drop drastically in the dry season, beyond the threshold needed to maintain a healthy fishery and functional ecosystem.
The impacts of uncontrolled water extraction for irrigating rice are also felt by women in the 44 villages across four districts that rely on the lake. As water levels in household wells follow the decline in the lake’s water level, women must make difficult choices about which of their many water needs to prioritize – from those of the household to those of homestead food production systems such as livestock and home gardens. When women prioritized bathing and food preparation, the productivity of home gardens and livestock declined in the season when such production systems are most needed. These gendered impacts also include the loss of income generation opportunities for women as the primary post-harvest actors in the fishery sector. For example, lower fish catches mean reduced scope for making value-added products for household consumption and sale. In fact, products such as prohoc (fermented fish) with a shelf-life of several years represent important buffers in times of food shortages. Declining fish supplies therefore risk undermining these stores of nutrition for lean times.
Field research in 2023 by WorldFish, IWMI and IFReDI led to the conclusion that an institutional mechanism capable of bridging sectoral divides was essential if the status quo in Beung Sneh, the largest lake in Prey Veng province, which also acts as a nationally significant bird habitat, was to change. Consequently, following provincial and national dialogs in late 2023 to validate these conclusions, the D-TWG was established with the approval of provincial and district administrations. In the months that followed, regular D-TWG meetings and consultations with the broader community members generated a Management Plan for the Beung Sneh lake. This reflects a deliberative and co-creative process between hitherto disconnected stakeholders. Consensus was achieved on 15 challenges faced by the lake and their root causes, including five priority issues on which the Management Plan focuses, where resolving conflicts over water lies at the center.
WorldFish, IWMI and IFReDI remain committed to working with the Cambodian government and other stakeholders to support the D-TWG move from planning to plan implementation in 2025.
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