Sediment Behaviour in Yangon Estuary & Water Injection Dredging Workshop at Novotel Yangon Max Hotel

Introduction

Partners for International Business (PIB) project was developed since 2018 in Myanmar and it was about the collaborating for water and climate resilient Yangon between the Dutch government and Myanmar government. The workshop is part of a program of Dutch Partnership for Urban Water and Water Logistics and it mainly focused on water logistics for creating a resilient logistics centre in a multi-model transport system.

The Dutch Partnership for Urban Water and Water Logistics aims to collaborate with Myanmar businesses, knowledge institutions and authorities to;

• Develop alternative (master) plans and feasibility for the city and its port and waterways
• Deliver urban, port and waterway design
• Maintain ports and waterways with state-of-the-art dredging techniques
• Give advice on project finance

Aim

In this workshop, representatives from Myanmar Port Authority (MPA), Myanmar Maritime University, Private Companies and some stakeholders from the Dutch Partnership participated and the workshop aims to;

• Get better engagement between various stakeholder
• Give knowledge sharing and
• Get a better understanding of the current conditions of Myanmar's waterways.

Workshop Day 1 (13 /Jan/20: 9 AM – 5 PM)

In the first day, the workshop was opened by Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and by Van Oord: one of the stakeholders from the Dutch Partnership. Then, objectives and aims of the workshop were introduced by organizers and all participating institutes, ministry/departments introduced to each other.

After that, three presentations from different participating parties were given.

Firstly, a representative from Myanmar Maritime University shared the information about 'Sediment Behaviour in Yangon Estuary' and it included researches on;

• General information on the Yangon Estuary and river systems
• History of the Yangon Estuary
• Sediment Behaviour
• Challenges
• Sustainable future of the estuary

Secondly, Myanmar Port Authority (MPA) gave the presentation about 'Maintenance Dredging in the Yangon River' and it consisted of the current project and conditions of the Yangon port and waterway system such as;

• Layout of the navigation channels and ports
• Maintenance dredging scope ( volumes and locations)
• Current dredging approach

Thirdly, Mr. Marcel from Van Oord presented about the 'Introduction to Water Injection Dredging (WID) and it was about the,

• History of WID
• Basics of the WID technology
• WID Vessel layout
• Dredging with Nature.

After the presentation session, participants were divided by three groups and did a refreshing activity and in that activity, they discussed the stakeholders/concerns/issues on sediment in the Yangon Estuary according to the following topics;

• What have we learned today?
• What are the main issues related to sediment in the Yangon Estuary?
• What are the environmental issues?
• Who are the stakeholders?
• What are the concerns of these stakeholders?
• What is currently going well/ not well?

Workshop Day-2 (14/Jan/20 : 9 AM – 1:30 PM)

On the 2nd day of the workshop, two representatives from Van Oord gave presentations of the three WID Maintenance Projects and Environmental aspects of WID. In the first presentation, they briefly expressed

• Liverpool Maintenance Project, UK
• Itajai Maintenance Project, Brazil and
• Mumbai Maintenance Project, India.

The second presentation which is about the Environmental aspects of WID included

• Environmental aspects of WID
• Monitoring of WID projects
• Building with Nature concept.

After the presentation session, participants were divided into two groups and they discussed and shared their opinions on 'How can WID contribute to a sustainable Yangon Estuary?' under the categories of Activities, Benefits, Concerns, Information and Actions according to the following questions;

• What are the environmental issues in Yangon Estuary?
• What is currently being done?
• What needs to be done?
• How can we work towards a sustainable estuary in Yangon?
• What can WID do for the Yangon Estuary?

Finally, each group presented actively about the results of their discussion and many valuable outcomes are attained.

Benefits

In conclusion, we could say that the workshop could create the better engagement within stakeholders, institutions and department of the ministry of Myanmar and the Dutch partnership and also get invaluable knowledge and precious and important information for creating a resilient logistics centre in a multi-model transport system in Yangon Estuary.

Written by Thandar from Yangon Technological University