Researchers from the FutureDAMS consortia recently returned from a very successful team visit to Myanmar, where they engaged in partnership building with research, civil society and government bodies in Yangon.
Myanmar is a leading partner in the GCRF-funded FutureDAMS research and capacity development programme. The country has enormous water resources, which creates great opportunities for agriculture, energy generation and stabilisation, domestic consumption, environmental conservation, tourism and industrialisation. Carefully analysing the trade-offs between these different uses and trying to optimise outcomes across different goals, is a great national challenge.
Highlights of the visit included:
- The signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by Professor Zaw Wai Soe, President of the Rectors’ Committee of the National Education Policy Commission, Myanmar and Professor David Hulme, Executive Director of the Global Development Institute, University of Manchester. The Rectors’ Committee coordinates the work of Myanmar’s 161 public universities.
- The delivery of two, two-day workshops on ‘The integrated modelling of water resources and energy resource management’ by Professor Julien Harou, Dr Evgenii Matrosov, Dr Eduardo Cesena and others. More than 50 participants attended the courses from Myanmar universities, technical staff at Myanmar Government Ministries and scientific agencies.
- Meetings and presentations with research colleagues from Yangon Technological University, Yangon University and Yangon University of Economics.
- Meetings with Prof Ni Ni Thein, Director of the Hydro-Informatics Centre, Yangon and Member of the National Water Resources Committee Technical Advisory Group.
We are looking forward to continuing to build a collaborative and mutually beneficial partnership around the FutureDAMS research project with colleagues in Myanmar.
