Pakse City, Champasack Province, November 20, 2020 – Department of Public Works and Transport, Champasack province, and the Global Green Growth Institute (GGGI) jointly hosted a consultation workshop to draft a wastewater management strategy for Paske city. The objective of the workshop was to get inputs from the village authorities and other stakeholders on the proposed nature of interventions in Pakse city, to develop a vision for the Pakse city wastewater management sector, and arrive at an agreed list of priority interventions.

The workshop was co-chaired by Mr. Khamsoy Pathoumthong, Deputy Director General of Department of Public Works and Transport in Champasack province, and Mr. Ankit Bhatt, Senior Analyst from GGGI, and was attended by 60 participants from the key stakeholders of the sanitation sector such as Provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment, Provincial Department of Health, Provincial Nam Papa (water utility), PCOMS, Pakse City Government and village authorities.

The city wastewater management strategy received useful inputs from various stakeholders. Linkages between sanitation infrastructure and health, groundwater pollution and community hygiene were highlighted by stakeholders. The village authorities gave detailed feedback on the sanitation related issues in their villages and identified priority clusters that need to be addressed. The stakeholders agreed to a series of decentralized and low-cost interventions toward ensuring community hygiene and addressing the issue of open drains in the city.

With support from KOICA, GGGI is assisting Pakse city in developing a city-wide sanitation/wastewater management strategy. The strategy is being developed with a bottom-up approach with significant inputs from the village authorities and the communities. The strategy aims at building consensus with various stakeholders on the priority interventions in the city required to meet the SDG targets by 2030.