Project for Capacity Development in Basic Water Environment Management and EIA System

"The Project for Capacity Development in Basic Water Environmental Management and EIA System in Myanmar", will be implemented by Environmental Conservation Department (ECD), Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC) and Mandalay City Development Committee (MCDC) in cooperation with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). The project activities in Myanmar started in June 2015, and will last until May 2018.

The purposes of the Project are to obtain enough capacity for developing basic water pollution control measures based on the acquired and analyzed information, and to establish institutional framework of the EIA review. Five (5) Japanese Experts will be dispatched to ECD to work in close cooperation with its staff both in office and on site. The team of Experts will also work closely with the officials of Pollution Control and Cleansing Department and Water and Sanitation Department of YCDC and Water Supply and Sanitation Department of MCDC.

The project activities are divided into two components: namely (i) the water environment management component and (ii) the EIA component. Among the six outputs of the project, the water environment management component covers standardization of environmental inspection (Output 1), water quality survey (Output 2), development of databases of pollution sources and river water quality (Output 3), and interpretation of information for water pollution control measures (Output 4).

Activities of the water environment management component of the project are being implemented in three cities in Myanmar, namely Yangon, Mandalay and Nay Pyi Taw. The water quality component has two target areas, Hlaing River basin in Yangon and Doke Hta Waddy River basin in Mandalay. These areas were selected to investigate the impact of industrial effluent from industrial zones on water quality of rivers.