Department of Rural Engineering (GRU) organized the Dissemination Workshop on Climate Change and Wat

Department of Rural Engineering, Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC), organized the “Dissemination Workshop on Climate Change and Water Governance in Cambodia” at ITC, Phnom Penh, on 26 March 2016. The main objective of this workshop is to disseminate research findings from the IDRC funded project “Climate Change and Water Governance in Cambodia” to university students. The Climate Change and Water Governance in Cambodia project (CCAWG) was funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and is being completed by CDRI in collaboration with the Ministry of Water Resources and Meteorology (MOWRAM), Ministry of Environment (MoE), Tonle Sap Authority (TSA), Institute of Technology of Cambodia (ITC), Royal University of Agriculture (RUA), and Mekong Programme on Water, Environment and Resilience (M-POWER).

There were in total 316 people, from 19 different organizations, attending the workshop (see table below).

The workshop was divided into three main sessions: opening and introduction session, plenary session, and main session. In the opening and introduction session, Dr. Chunhieng Thavarith, Deputy Director General of ITC, opened the workshop. He remarked that the workshop is relevant to Cambodian society which is confirmed affected by climate change. Students and all participants are expected to get knowledge on impacts of climate change on people’s livelihoods in rural areas of Cambodia and adaptation practices. After the opening remark, Dr. Chem Phalla, Acting Research Director of Cambodia Development Resources Institute (CDRI), gave a brief introduction to the project: Climate Change and Water Governance in Cambodia funded by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC).

There were two presentations in the plenary session. The first one was provided Dr. Heng Chanthoeun, Deputy Director of Department of Climate Change, Ministry of Environment. He talked about “Historical Climate Trends and Climate Change Projections for Cambodia”. His analysis showed that the change in annual rainfall in Cambodia is 0.03-0.11% under the emission scenario: RCP 4.5 and 0.02-012% under the emission scenario: RCP 8.5. The second presentation was given by Dr. Oeurng Chantha, Deputy Head of Department of Rural Engineering and Senior Researcher of ITC. The title of his presentation is “Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change: Examples from Two Rural Affected Communities due to Floods and Drought.”