Strengthening Water Quality
Governance throughRegional Partnership
Mitsumasa Okada
Professor, Open University of JapanWEPA (Water Environmental Partnership in Asia) Advisor

Water Environmental Partnership in Asia(WEPA)
Recognizing the improvement of water environmental governance isessential to solve water pollution problems in the Asian region, the Water Environmental
Partnership in Asia (WEPA) was launched in 2004 by the Ministry of the Environment, Japan.
WEPA conducts its activity on a 5-year cycle and the third phase started in April 2014

WEPA consists of partners in13 Asian countries

1. Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (Sri Lanka)
2. Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal (Nepal)
3. Japan (Japan)
4. Kingdom of Cambodia (Cambodia)
5. Kingdom of Thailand (Thailand)
6. Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR)
7. Malaysia (Malaysia)
8. People's Republic of China (China)
9. Republic of Indonesia (Indonesia)
10. Republic of Korea (Republic of Korea)
11. Republic of the Philippines (Philippines)
12. Socialist Republic of Viet Nam (Viet Nam)
13. Union of Myanmar (Myanmar)

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Purpose of WEPA (2004-2013)
1st Phase of WEPA：2nd Phase of WEPA：

Development of Information Platform ofWater Environmental Management

Knowledge Sharing for Solution Finding

Water Environmental
Management Review

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WEPA database www. wepa-db.net

Domestic
WastewaterTreatment

Climate Changeand Water
Environment

Identified Issue for 2nd Phase3

Purpose of WEPA (2014-)
3rd Phase of WEPA：Actions for Issue Solution
Identifying critical issues, supporting
resolution thereof and sharing
experiences related thereto

Facilitating knowledge exchange anddialogues, thereby building capacity
Group workshop

Annual Meetings

Bilateral Dialogues
Action program

Facilitating cooperation with international organizations and donor agencies

Outreach
Webdatabase

Outlook + OtherPublications
4Inputs to international conferencessuch as WWF

Organization of Workshop andBilateral Meeting

5Workshop(in Sri Lanka in 2015)

Bilateral Meeting(in Viet Nam in 2014)
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Contribution to World Water Forum
Official Session“Water Accounting and Information Platforms”
4th World Water Forum (March 2006, Mexico City)

Official Session“Data Integration and Dissemination: From Data toInformation”
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5th World Water Forum (March 2009, Istanbul)
Official Session“Water Environment Partnership for SustainableFuture””
6th World Water Forum (March 2012, Marseille)
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Publications

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WEPA Outlook

Policy Brief
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Review Points of Water Environmental
Management in WEPA
1. Legislation, policies and strategies for water
environmental management- Objectives of water environmental management, ambient water quality
standards as the administrative target, strategies or plans for water
environment

2. Monitoring of water environment- Ambient water quality monitoring, recording, maintenance, evaluation, anddisclosure of their results

3. Measures to ensure implementation and compliance,
focusing on wastewater management- Inventory data of pollution load, industrial and domestic wastewater
management 8Establishment of Water Environmental
Standard in WEPA Countries
Country

Surface Water

Water Quality Standards in Public
Water Areas
Environmental Quality Standards
Chinafor Surface Water
Water Quality Criteria
Indonesia
Environmental Quality Standards
Japanfor Water Pollution
Republic of Environmental Standards for Water
Quality and Aquatic Ecosystem
Korea

Cambodia

Lao PDR
Malaysia
Myanmar
Nepal
Philippines
Sri Lanka
Thailand
Vietnam

Surface Water Quality Standard

Groundwater

Marine Water

Water Quality Standards in Public Water Quality Standards in Public
Water Areas
Water Areas
Quality Standard for Ground Water Sea Water Quality Standard
Water Quality Criteria
EnvironmentalWater
QualityStandards of Groundwater
Environmental Standards for Water
Quality and Aquatic Ecosystem

Standard Quality of Seawater
Environmental Quality Standards
for Water Pollution
Environmental Standards for Water
Quality and Aquatic Ecosystem

Groundwater Quality Standard

National Water Quality Standards

Marine Water Quality Criteria andStandard

Water Quality Criteria for Fresh
Surface Waters

Water Quality Criteria for Coastaland Marine Waters

Surface Water Quality Standards
Groundwater Quality Standards
Marine Water Quality Standard
National Technical Regulation on National Technical Regulation on National Technical Regulation onSurface Water Quality
Ground Water Quality
Coastal Water Quality
9Implementation of Ambient Water Quality
Monitoring
Country
Cambodia
China

Indonesia
Japan
Republic
Korea
Malaysia
Philippines

Thailand
Viet Nam

No. of Monitoring Stations

Frequency

10 (rivers)
Monthly469 (rivers), 26 (main lakes andUnknown
reservoirs), 4 (Three Gorges Dam), 4100(Groundwater), 279,225 km2 (marinewater)
Unknown (40 rivers)
At least twice a month
4,550 (rivers), 475 (lakes and reservoirs), Monthly
2,044 (sea), 3,680 (Groundwater)of 697 (rivers), 185 (lakes), 2,499
Monthly for rivers and lakes (48(groundwater)times/year for key locations)
2 times/year for Groundwater
901 (rivers), 105 (groundwater), 321
Unknown(marine water)
192 (rivers), 4 (lakes), 88 (groundwater), Monthly or 4 times/year (rivers)
unknown (marine water)
unknown (groundwater, marinewater)
366 (rivers and lakes), 170 (marine
4 times/year (rivers and lakes)
waters), 620 stations (groundwater)
2 times/year (marine water)
248 (surface water)
4 times/year

Year
2011
2011

2011
2013
2008

2013
20012015
2012
2007
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Implementation of Ambient Water Quality Monitoringand Disclosure of the result11

Situation of Domestic Wastewater Treatment in Asia

Service coverage rates of sewerage treatment in WEPA countries
12Our Understanding on Water Environmental
Management in Asian countries• Basic water environmental management
framework such as legal systems, policy and strategies, hasalready been developed in most WEPA countries.
• In addition, most of WEPA Asian countries implement regularwater quality monitoring and disclose the results of themonitoring, although the level of the monitoring differs among
different countries.
• However, many counties face problems in enforcement ofwastewater management framework.
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Our Commitment for Sustainable Water
Environmental Management in Asia
• Scheme to promote actions within WEPA partnercountries (Action Programs) has been launched , with theaim of addressing critical barriers of implementation of pollution
control.
• Under this scheme, WEPA supports implementation of small but

relevant attempts to solve specific ‘bottleneck’ problems
that currently hinder sound planning and implementation of water
environment policy and management.
• In 2015, an action program will be implemented in Vietnam toimprove livestock (pig-farming) wastewatermanagement .
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Thank you for your listening

WEPA database www. wepa-db.net

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