Vientiane: The workshop brought together national and provincial Nam Papas (PNPs) from across the Lao People's Democratic Republic (Lao PDR), along with development partners and technical experts, to discuss the long-term sustainability, efficiency, and resilience of urban water services in the country.
According to Lao News Agency, the workshop was co-chaired by Ms Phouvanh Senebouttalath, Deputy Director General of the Department of Water Supply, MPWT, and Ms Neeta Pokhrel, Director of Water and Urban Development Sector, ADB. In her opening remarks, Ms Phouvanh emphasised the importance of cost-covering tariffs, reduction of non-revenue water, and stronger utility governance to ensure sustainable service delivery.
The water supply sector faces persistent challenges, including financial sustainability, high levels of non-revenue water, weak asset maintenance and life-cycle planning, limited provincial capacity, and growing climate- and shock-related risks, all of which undermine resilient service delivery. Ms Neeta noted in her remarks that ADB's engagement in the Lao PDR's urban water sector has been long-standing and evolving. Experience shows that infrastructure alone is not enough; financial sustainability, strong provincial capacity, and resilient systems are essential for delivering long-term urban water services in the country.
The workshop provided a practical platform to share lessons learned from past and ongoing projects - particularly ADB-supported initiatives - to highlight good practices among provincial water utilities and identify solutions to address existing challenges in strengthening financial and asset management. Discussions focused on practical measures to improve the financial stability of provincial water utilities in the Lao PDR, including tariff application, financial performance improvement, non-revenue water reduction, and the use of a whole-life costing approach to guide value-for-money infrastructure investments.
The programme also featured interactive investment planning exercises and updates on a study of the ADB-supported Technical Assistance on Institutional Strengthening and Capacity Development of the Urban Water Supply and Sanitation Sector, including scope, findings, and training plans. The study is being conducted by Ramboll (Denmark), in a joint venture with WorldWater Net (Netherlands), in close coordination with the Department of Water Supply (DWS), MPWT.
The workshop concluded with a commitment ceremony, reinforcing collective action towards building a more financially sustainable, efficient, and resilient urban water sector in the Lao PDR.
