Creating a national water policy for Timor-Leste

News Release No. 006/03 13 January 2003
MANILA, PHILIPPINES (13 January 2003) - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has approved a US$600,000 technical assistance grant to create a national water resource management policy in Timor-Leste.

The policy will focus on integrated water resource management (IWRM) and draw up guiding principles for institutional, legal, water assessment, water sharing and allocation, and environmental issues.

Timor-Leste is poorly endowed with water, and competition for this resource will intensify with economic development. The absence of dispute resolution procedures could also cause difficulties for water users.

The project will assess water availability and demand, supported by a network of inexpensive, simple rainfall gauges as a precursor to establishing a national meteorological network.

The project will also construct up to four basic river gauging stations to establish elementary trend monitoring and to improve the calibration of hydrological models. In addition, the project will establish a plan for data collection and an information management system.

The total cost of the project is US$706,000 equivalent, with the balance to be shouldered by the Government.

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