SUMERNET Public Seminar on Listening to Voices on the Margins
The COVID-19 outbreak has been a disruptive crisis, including the impacts on systems of provision. What lessons can be learned from the COVID-19 crisis for reducing water insecurities in the Mekong Region, in the event of other disruptive crises, for instance disruption of clean water supplies arising from climate-related disasters?
This public seminar will highlight the study results from the project “Listening to voices on the margins: Lessons from the COVID-19 crisis for improving access to clean water for drinking and hygiene in the Mekong Region (VOICES)”. The purpose of this study was to understand the challenges and identify effective ways to improve access to clean water for drinking and hygiene, especially for vulnerable communities. The project attempted to engage with communities, documenting responses to the pandemic and the challenges they faced, comparing their perspectives with current practices and policy in the five countries of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam in the Mekong Region.
VOICES project was led by the Unit for Social and Environmental Research (USER) of Chiang Mai University, Thailand, and involved partners from University of Yangon, Myanmar, National University of Lao PDR (NOUL), Inland Fisheries Research and Development Institute (IFeDI), Cambodia and Western Highlands Agriculture and Forestry Science Institute (WASI), Vietnam.