Review of Phase 1 – 4 of WEPA activities(Changes in governance/policies inmember countries)
Pankaj Kumar
WEPA secretariat

International Workshop
31 January 2024

1Background
Geographical distribution of current water scarcity and level ofchallenges for policies addressing future changea) Number of months per year with severe water scarcityb) Local levels of policy challenges for addressing water
scarcity by 2050
(IPCC AR6, 2023)

Average per capita
water availability is
sufficient enoughbutspatiotemporal
asymmetry is great,
which is a matter ofconcern for policymakers.

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Background

Climate change

Land use change

Population increase

Development plan

• In lieu of triple
planetary crisis(climate change,biodiversity loss,and pollution) andland degradation,
freshwater plays alimiting factor forhuman well-being.
• Importance ofholistic
management ofpolicies andgovernance forachieving longterm sustainability
in any region or
country neverbeen greater.
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Background
Environmental changes and its impact on water
resource and livelihood

FLOODING

POLLUTION

VULNERABILITY

Fig. Earth reaches beyond six of nine planetary
boundaries (Richardson et al., 2023)
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Vulnerability refers to the inability (of a system) towithstand the effects of a hostile environment.

Key objectives of WEPA

• Knowledgefor
problem
identification, policy planning
andimplementation,
monitoring, and evaluation,organizing dialogues onwater environmental issues
and its management aspects
in the partner countries• WEPA database• WEPA Outlook/Policy Brief• Annual report

Knowledge
sharing

Capacity building

Data andoutreachEnhancebilateral/multilateral constructive
cooperation

Capacity building of relevant
key
officials/stakeholders
usingstateofartknowledge/techniques about
monitoring and assessment
ofwaterenvironment;
proven best practices about
implementation, evaluation
and rectification of policy
elements for water policies
and governance• Enhance cooperation within
WEPA partner countries andwithinternationalorganizations and donor
agencies to resolve existingwater environmental issues
and to improve water
environmental governance5Main issues related to poor water
environment in WEPA countries
Institutional issues

Policy related

All WEPA partner countries gave
similar examples of challenges for
institutional issues and policy
related issues, but had different
capacity-related challenges.

 Overlapping roles among
government ministries/
agencies Lack of coordination andlegal arrangement
 Multiple ministries
enforce water-pollution
Capacity related
related legislation

 Conflicting interests among diversified
stakeholders as well as between differentlaws
 Uncertainty of introducing a new policy (dueto lack of feasibility analysis) Lack of environmental centric policies
 Lack of policies balancing economic
development and environment Necessity of comprehensive planningconsidering multi disciplines
 Facing opposition to environmental policies
by agencies responsible for economicdevelopment

 Lack of budget, human resources,
public awareness, monitoring andanalysis systems, proper technologies inindustries to treat wastewater,awareness and skills of employees atthe subnational level, enforcement
officers, willingness to comply, andtraining opportunities
 Limited laboratories and experts interms of technical capacity
 Low interest in environment

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Changes in governance/policies inmember countries• In the last 20 years, WEPA has initiated several activities and acted as acatalyst, which directly or indirectly helped to improve the waterenvironment by strengthening governance in the partner countries.
• To track these changes, we have analyzed its critical vehicle (i.e. changes
in national or regional policies or ordinances) while considering new
drivers and pressures with time to make it more robust for managing its
water environment.
• We have assessed the change in water environment governancethrough following four elements:
1.

Legal framework

2.

Monitoring framework

3.

Enforcement framework

4.

Institutional framework7Changes in governance/policies inWEPA partner countries
1. Regulatory framework- Status (its first enactment and amendment) of basic legislation on
environmental protection- 10 out of 13 WEPA countries had enacted basic environmental legislation
before 2004 (WEPA established), while three countries enacted it after 2004.
- Many WEPA countries (10 out of 13 countries) have amended legislationaccording to the situation of water environment.
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Changes in governance/policies inmember countries
Before 2004

1160
1353

10000

In 2019

6625

10263

11888

100000

350
375

500

1000

1241711101827100

8Number of water quality monitoring points

2. Monitoring framework and enforcement mechanism

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

*

WEPA member countries- 12 out of 13 countries, have water quality monitoring frameworks where six ofthem established their framework before 2004.
- With a collaborative efforts, WEPA countries have also strengthened their efforts tomonitor water quality by increasing the number of water quality monitoringstations.
- As of 2020, China has the highest number of monitoring stations (11,888).
- Frequency of monitoring varies from twice in year in Indonesia to 24 times in a9 year
in Sri Lanka.

Changes in governance/policies inmember countries
3. Institutional framework- Effective institutional arrangements is one of the key factors for achievingsound water environment governance.
- For WEPA partner countries, number of key ministries or agencies
responsible for water governance ranges from one agency (Republic ofKorea, Lao PDR, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Vietnam) to many (remaining eightcountries).
- The scope of responsibilities among these key ministries also varies and ismainly based on local environmental and socio-economic conditions. For
example, Cambodia mandates its ministries to take care of environmental
impact assessment, inventory development for pollution, development ofsub-decrees to prevent and reduce pollution, executing management andconservation plans and so on.

10Summary
WEPA activities mainly revolves around the different global goals like
MDGs and SDGs which has a clear mandate on healthy water environment.
Striving towards these goals, WEPA activities can be summarized as follows:
1. WEPA database of the 13 partner countries has been a vital source of
information and opened a new window for sharing information among
the stakeholders on water environment.
2. A strong human network, including policymakers, experts, andpractitioners dealing with water environmental management in theAsian region has been built.
3. Sharing regular updates on water environment management byorganizing regular meetings such as the annual meeting andworkshops, carrying out questionnaire surveys, and conducting expert
interviews helps to strengthen the database and network.

11Summary(continued…)
4. Publication of its flagship report “WEPA Outlook on Water
Environmental Management in Asia” has provided the most up-to-date
and useful information on the state of water environment, its
management, progresses and initiatives, and challenges in the 13
partner countries in Asia since 2009 (a target audience: policymakers,experts, and others in the water sector of the region).
5. Action Program (AP) was launched based on requests from WEPA
partner countries to resolve specific problems regarding the waterenvironment.
6. All WEPA countries have made every effort to renew and renovate theirpolicies, institutions, and other instruments, and thereby upgrade their
management strategies to deal with the complex and evolving issue ofsustainable management of water environment
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Thank you so much

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