16-18 January 2014. A delegation from UTM led by DVC (Student Affairs and Alumni) Prof Mohd Ismail Abdul Aziz visited Laos to initiate a community water challenge project. This is part of the CLMV grant provided by MOE to enhance Malaysia’s visibility in empowering nations within the region.
Laos was chosen as our presence has not been very visible in that country. This aligns with the Malaysian National Higher Education Strategic Plan 2: Global Reach “Sharing and caring, world presence, heart to heart”. In addition, for the ASEAN community, this project contributes to the ASEAN Community Roadmap 2009-2015 in “Promoting sustainability of water resources to ensure equitable accessibility and sufficient water quantity of acceptable quality to meet the needs of the people of ASEAN”.
In the initial stage, four strategic meetings were held to discuss issues of concerns where UTM’s expertise can be leveraged. Engagement began with the representative of the Malaysian Consulate in Laos represented by Mr. Mohd Zhakir. He welcomed the initiative by UTM as Malaysia has yet to engage in a more meaningful way with Laos through UTM’s collaborative innovation community empowerment approach. Another meeting with the Ministry of Health highlights priorities of Laos in improving water quality, accessibility and sanitation.
At the University of Health Sciences, Vice Rector Assoc. Prof. Dr. Vanliem Bouaravong, and members of the University board strongly supported the initial engagement and suggested UTM to conduct a community kick-off on the 22nd March 2014 in Laos in conjunction with the World Water Day 2014.
Prof. Mohd Ismail, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nur Naha Abu Mansor, and Prof. Masputeriah Hamzah had the opportunity of visiting a village in Vientiane Province accompanied by Dr. Bouakeo Suvanthong, Deputy Director of Nam Saat Center (National Center for Environmental Health and Water Supply) where a few community members were interviewed and initial engagement of UTM was welcomed by the Laos communities.
Nam Saat Center is given the responsibility to initiate, implement, monitor and report on environmental, water and sanitation projects in collaboration with other developmental agents such as NGOs, industry, international communities, and government offices for the development of accessible and quality water of identified areas in Laos.
It was found that most of the bore water holes are untreated and contaminated with heavy metals. The Ministry of Health Laos strongly hopes that UTM could leverage across its Water Research Alliance and other priority areas such as capacity building to aid the existing efforts through their planned actions for sustainable development on water related issues.
The Laos National Plan of Action for Rural Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene (WaSH) was also disseminated to the team to enable UTM to get a deeper insight of the water challenges in rural Laos. He stated that Laos aims to move further from a ‘less developed’ nation state by 2020 and would like to leverage on UTM’s capacity for reaching out to the communities in Laos.
The last visit by the delegates was to the Ministry of Health where they were received by Dr. Bounfeng Phoummalaysith, Deputy Director General, Ministry of Health Cabinet Lao PDR. The ministry focused on improving the wellbeing of maternal and child (reproductive health) to rural villages. Water safety is one of key elements where Laos has reported a high mortality rate and this mostly constitute children below the age of five years old.
There are definitely opportunities for engagement programmes that could assist Laos’ directions in improving water quality in its related areas. Dr. Phath Keungsaneth, Director General of Department of Hygiene and Health Promotion applauded Malaysia’s policy on drinking water quality standardization and hope to learn more on how it could be implemented by the Laos Ministry of Health.
Other development efforts also emphasized included capacity building on nurse’s professional development through improvements in English language proficiency. It is the hope of our Laos partners that UTM’s expertise can be leveraged via structured and sustainable community engagement initiatives for greater impact to the Laos communities.
As a follow-up to this initiative, it is hoped that In March 2014, twenty (20) of UTM students and staff identified will be joining the community kick-off meeting in the identified village in Laos. In addition, a move forward is planned through the CLMV grant to develop more opportunities for UTM researchers and communities as a whole within the next cycle of CLMV bidding to assist Laos towards the ASEAN Integration Roadmap 2009-2015.
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