Integrated Water Resources Management in Myanmar Ecology of Rivers, Lakes, and Reservoirs

Abstract

This is the final report from output 1 of the IWRM project 2015-2024. The goal of the project was to implement a classification system for the ecological status of rivers and lakes in Myanmar like the EU Water Framework Directive. As the project was ended in 2021 due to the military coup in Myanmar, planned activities could not be finished. This report presents a summary of the ecological surveys and ecological status assessments in selected water bodies in Myanmar achieved within the project. The report should be read in conjunction with the other comprehensive publications from the project. Although the current political situation in Myanmar put a halt to our activities, the reports and scientific papers comprised in this project, in addition to transferred knowledge about freshwater ecology to selected staff and to one PhD student from Myanmar, have led to a set of recommendations that hopefully will be an impetus for future river and lake biomonitoring in Myanmar. As knowledge about the ecology of most of the many water bodies in Myanmar is still poor a much bigger number of freshwater ecologists need to be educated to achieve the goal of classifying their status and to find solutions for their improvement.