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【JWF News Vol. 177】Hornourable Minister of Water, Land and Natural Resources of Malaysia visiting Japan
17 July 2019
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◇ Contents ◇
・Foreword Hornourable Minister of Water, Land and Natural Resources of Malaysia visiting Japan -Seeing groundwater-
・Report from the Japan Water Forum
– JWF Communication Lounge 2019
– Participation in the 9th World Water Forum Kick-Off Meeting
– AQUA PROGRAM 2018 Completed!
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・Foreword Hornourable Minister of Water, Land and Natural Resources of Malaysia visiting Japan -Seeing groundwater-
By Kotaro Takemura, Chair of the Japan Water Forum
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On the 23rd of June, Hon. YB. Dr. Xaier Jayakumar, Minister of Water, Land and Natural Resources and the delegation from Malaysia came to Japan. The purpose of their visit was to study good practices of groundwater management in Kumamoto City that will be of some help to solve water-related issues in Malaysia in the future, as well as to meet H.E. Mr. Keiichi Ishii, Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism of Japan, to reaffirm building a cooperative structure between Japan and Malaysia in promoting good water governance of Malaysia. I was honored to accompany with them, so I would like to report some of their trip and share my thoughts here.
Development of Malaysia in recent years has been impressively advanced. Under the leadership of Tun Dr. Mahathir Bin Mohamad, Prime Minister of Malaysia, the country is enjoying robust economic growth with swiftly rising population. Having said that, “water” is one of the challenges that Malaysia is facing in its course of sustainable development in the future.
In Malaysia, the drought and water pollution in rivers has often become social issues.
Currently, Malaysia relies mostly on surface water for domestic supply. The country will develop a plan to establish a sustainable water supply system with a well-balanced combination of surface water and groundwater.
Groundwater, however, has a certain disadvantage: it is invisible to human eyes no matter how abundant the natural resources may seem. Because of this, excessive groundwater extraction would occur and it exhausts the recharging capacity of groundwater in alluvial plains, causing land subsidence or water-table depression.
For sustainable management of groundwater extraction, a certain groundwater surveillance system must be in place, under which the quantity of water intake should be controlled to be within the extent of recharging capacity of groundwater.
Kumamoto City in this context shows a good example of the groundwater management where invisible groundwater is made to be visible. At the Groundwater Management Center of the city, a huge electric map-like board shows the amounts of intake and supply of water controlled by computers at various groundwater intake facilities. Anybody can see the entire movement of groundwater at a glance.
Furthermore, when visiting a groundwater intake site, there is a big well where you can see spring water vigorously flowing out at the bottom of the well 30-meter deep.
It was the first time for the Malaysian delegation to see groundwater in their eyes. In other words, it was the first step for them to overcome the barrier of groundwater being invisible: the foremost challenge of groundwater.
After the site-visit in Kumamoto City, the Honourable Minister and the delegation moved to Tokyo. Then they participated in the Communication Lounge organized by Japan Water Forum, managing a busy schedule including a courtesy call on Minister Ishii and a site-visit to one of the sewerage facilities in Tokyo.
During the Lounge 2019, the Honourable Minister, YB. Dr. Zavier, explained the difficult water-related circumstances in the country, and then coherently shared the future plan for sustainable water management of Malaysia with the audience. Following that, speakers from Japanese companies introduced some leading-edge technologies of Japan. In the Q&A session, discussions were held on the direction of how Japan’s experiences and technologies could contribute to Malaysia. With that the Lounge 2019 was successively concluded.
Malaysia neither suffers from earthquakes, nor is hit by big typhoons. But the country is facing some societal challenges due to rapidly growing economy as well as climatic threats caused by global warming.
There has long been a friendly relationship between Japan and Malaysia. I truly realized that the new cooperation around water between the two countries will go further in the future.
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・Report from the Japan Water Forum
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– JWF Communication Lounge 2019
Japan Water Forum has been holding the JWF Communication Lounge that provides meetup opportunities for JWF members and partner organizations, inviting special guests from Japan and abroad.
The first JWF Communication Lounge in 2019 welcomed Hon. YB. Dr. Xavier Jayakumar, Minister of Water, Land and Natural Resources Malaysia, as a keynote lecturer as well as the delegation from Malaysia on the occasion of their visiting Japan. The Lounge 2019 took place on Tuesday, 25 June 2019 supported by the Embassy of Malaysia in Japan. At the Lounge 2019, 2 Japanese companies including JWF’s member introduced their businesses in Malaysia.
▼Read more▼
https://www.waterforum.jp/all/transmitting_japanese/2019/0703/?p=11620?tag=en,rep_en
(Reported by Naomi Kato, Coordinator)
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– Participation in the 9th World Water Forum Kick-Off Meeting
JWF participated in the Kick-Off Meeting of the 9th World Water Forum which was organized in Senegal, 20th-21st June 2019.
World Water Forum, which is the biggest international event on water, held every three year, is to take place in Senegal in 2021 under the theme of “Water Security for Peace and Development”.
▼Please visit the following website for details▼
https://www.waterforum.jp/all/transmitting_japanese/wwf/2019/0717/?p=11717tag=en,rep_en
(Reported by Yumiko Asayama, Manager)
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– AQUA PROGRAM 2018 Completed!
AQUA PROGRAM is a joint project with a jewelry brand “4℃” and Japan Water Forum.
It aims to bring “beauty” and “inspire” the women of developing countries who face serious water and hygiene problems by supporting water issues.
As the eleventh-year program, aiming at freeing women from burden of fetching water as well as securing safe drinking water, we have carried out rainwater harvesting tanks installation to 40 households an training on operation and maintenance in a rural village, Morrelganj Upazila, Khulna Division, Bagerhat District, Bangladesh.
▼Please visit the following website for details▼
https://www.waterforum.jp/all/grass_roots_projects/yondoshi/2019/0712/?p=11663?tag=en,rep_en
(Reported by Sae Ishihara, Chief Manager)
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JWF News Vol. 177 / 17 July 2019
Japan Water Forum
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