Participatory water use in industry Sustainable participatory water use in the coffee industry on the Bolaven plateau in Southern Laos.

The abundant rainfall and fertile soil makes the plateau very well suited to coffee production. Over 90% of the national crop (30,000 tons of green coffee beans) is produced in two districts (Paksong and Thatheng). Production is largely through smallholder, family owned plantations. In a country which remains heavily dependent of foreign aid, coffee makes an important contribution to the market economy. Coffee is Laos# largest agricultural export and there is a growing demand internationally for premium coffee products. Coffee is also an important livelihood and source of income, especially for women in rural communities.
Attention to sound environmental management has increased significantly in coffee producing countries over the past few years. Several studies have revealed that untreated waste from varying scales of coffee processing entrepreneurs are affecting the quality of surface waters worldwide and more severely in developing countries. This also is the case in Laos. The Arabica coffee wet-processing method requires a huge amount of water to produce the end product of clean green coffee beans, e.g. in Laos ~2-10 m3,  Vietnam 4-15 m3/ a ton of fresh cherry. It is estimated that 23 million litres of untreated coffee processing effluent flows into rivers on the Bolaven each year.
The waste water produced via the wet-process has high sugar content and depletes the value of biological oxygen demand (BOD) and dissolved oxygen (DO). Without wastewater management, it can pollute water resources, damage aquatic ecosystems and pose a threat to the health of nearby communities. This represents a drawback in the coffee production industry and undermines the economic benefits this production can bring to communities.
Thenow-famous Bolaven Plateau is the most important coffee-growing place in Laos. It is made of an ancient volcano on the west of Pakse, Champassak in the south of the country. Extensive volcanic basaltic rocks with fertile Ferralsol and Vertisol soil content are found and associated with high mineral content which is good for agriculture activities. When these factors are added to the elevated geography of the Bolaven Plateau, which is greater than 1,000 metres above mean sea level, the conditions for growing superior quality Arabica coffee (Coffea arabica) beans are nearly perfect.
Coffee is one of the main agro-industries of the Lao PDR, being the sixth largest agricultural commodity of the country. This puts Laos at the 32nd spot (all type of coffee products 87,330 tons) of the world#s coffee producers in 2012. The underlying trend of Laos coffee exports is that it has grown in the last decade from approximately 13,000 tons in 2002 to 30,000 tons in 2013. The strategy of the Lao Government is to massively increase this production, which highlights the needs for better production standards, including water management.

WWF Laos and Oxfam Novib are currently engaged in a partnership around water governance and broader natural resources management in the Mekong Region, looking in particular at the synergies of livelihood improvement and conservation, with a focus on gender. As part of this partnership, a project is being considered that would target the coffee processing industry and its impact on water and broader natural resources on the Bolaven plateau. A feasibility study was conducted in late 2014 and early 2015, and this 6-month project is intended as a short follow-up to disseminate the results of the study, conducting more research, building the capacity of local stakeholders and exploring engagement strategies.