From October 7-22, 2018, in partnership with the Irrigation Department (ID) of the Government of Sindh (GoS), the Public Works Research Institute (PWRI) Japan, World Bank Water Global Practice and the Tokyo Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Hub organized a 14-day workshop and training program held at Tsukuba, Sapporo and Tokyo on sediment monitoring and analysis of the lower Indus River. The objective of the workshop and training was to develop a baseline survey methodology and a monitoring plan as well as better understand sediment transportation models in the lower Indus River. This collaboration will directly contribute to the implementation of the Sindh Barrage Improvement Program implemented through financial support from the World Bank.
This workshop was attended by ten experts from the government and academia of Sindh, Pakistan, who are working to strengthening disaster and climate change resilience through improved barrage operation, sedimentation monitoring and management, and integrated water resource management along the Indus River.
During the program’s first week at PWRI in Tsukuba, participants learned of the various approaches to river basin monitoring and management and discussed the appropriate design of sediment monitoring plans and initial conceptual model for sediment transport and river morphology that would best suit the context of the lower Indus River and GoS Irrigation Department.
The second week of the program was a field-based training held in Ishikari River near Sapporo City. The barrage engineers were introduced to various sedimentation monitoring methods and equipments including Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP), multi-beam sonar, bed material sampler, and water/suspended-sediment sampler. A wrap up session was held at the World Bank Office in Tokyo, where GoS experts shared various takeaways and key lessons that they envision to apply in their work to strengthen resilient water resource management, particularly on the methodology of sedimentation monitoring, analysis, and evidence-based river and barrage management and planning. GoS, PWRI, World Bank Water Global Practice and Tokyo DRM Hub teams expressed their strong interest and commitment to further this partnership and discussed next steps for future collaboration.
