JWA accepted 3 Indonesian personnel under Twining Program - PJT I, PJT II -
1.What is Twining Program?
An agreement on Twining Program was signed in November 2004, between JWA and Indonesian NARBO*1,2. This personnel exchange program under Twining Program was agreed as part of NARBO activities to share knowledge and information among NARBO member organizations and enhance their capacity to implement IWRM (Integrated Water River Management). Since the agreement, personnel to/from JWA and Indonesia NARBO had been dispatched annually.
First personnel were exchanged in 2005 and this year marks its 3rd anniversary.
2. Experts from Indonesia NARBO
As the first activity of NARBO in 2007, JWA accepted 3 civil engineers, two from Perum Jasa Tirta I Public Corporation(hereinafter referred as PJT I) and one from Perum Jasa Tirta II Public Corporation (hereinafter referred as PJT II).
A courtesy call by President Aoyama (center in the back)
From left in the front:
Mr. Nugroho Adhi, from PJT I,
Ms. Mulianingsih from PJT I
Mr. Anton Mardiyono from PJT II
Program Schedule
In the LOI, ADB and JWA:
- - Type: Rock-fill dam
- - Height: 129m (elevation of crest: EL359m)
- - Crest length: 504m
- - Total reservoir capacity: around 40 million m3
- - Project cost: Yen 196 billion
- - Project period: March 2016
- - Objectives: Flood control, Water supply, maintenance of river environment and emergency water against severe drought
- - Location: Asakura City and Toho Village, Fukuoka pref. Japan (Chikugo River system)
3.Details of Program
●At field visits
(1) Gunma Canal, Naramata Dam, Yagisawa Dam
As proverb says “Seeing is believing,” we arranged a field visit to JWA’s facilities in the first week of the program, such as dams and canals. Indonesian experts learned about the overview of operations and management of those facilities and its daily tasks.
(2)Tokuyama Dam, Nagaragawa Estuary Barrage, Biwako Lake, and Kagawa Canal
In the fourth week, we organized a field visit to major project sites of JWA in the central and western part of Japan, and, I was given an opportunity to accompany them to those sites such as Tokuyama Dam where first filling being conducted, Nagaragawa Estuary Barrage, Biwako Lake, and Kagawa Canal.
They showed keen interests in any of those facilities, taking many photos. Also they asked many questions whenever they had, giving comparison between Japan and Indonesia. What impressed them most was about our automatic water quality monitoring system.
JWA staff and Indonesian counterparts exchanged information about each country’s system eagerly.
On a patrol ship of Lake Biwa Comprehensive operation and management office
●At JWA Headquarters
(1) Lectures
JWA staff conducted lectures in many fields including on JWA’s organization, completed and ongoing projects, and some examples of implementing IWRM in Japan
(2) Sharing information
JWA staff and Indonesian counterparts exchanged questions and answers about operation and management of water resources facilities between the two countries. This kind of information sharing was held in four occasions providing us useful information about Indonesia.
(3) Presentation
There were two sessions; first session was about explaining their operation and management of water resources facilities and second session was about summarizing what they had learned during the program. At the second session, they gave us some advice, saying, “I heard that JWA staff works very hard, I mean it is long hours every day. Don’t you think it’s too much?”
Indonesian personnel present their final report on the personnel exchange program
4.Conclusion
At a final stage of the program, I asked their impression about this exchange program. They said, “Everyday, we can discover new things. All technologies are interesting to us and we learned a lot from them.” As I involved in planning this program, it was happy to hear such a rewarding feedback from them, and I also assured that our technology were highly appreciated.
In the meantime, typhoon No. 9 hit the Kanto area in the wee hours of the morning on 7th, Sept., the last day of the program.
They told us that they had never experienced typhoon in their country and said, “It is precious experiences for us if we went through what is like a typhoon in the middle of the program but not on the departure date.” I was concerned whether their flight would leave as scheduled (11:00am on the date) due to the typhoon. However, it was lucky enough that they could arrive at the International Airport by bus without delay and flied to Indonesia. I was so relieved they could depart Japan safely.
From now on, JWA will continue to provide technical cooperation to developing countries with our accumulated know-how and technology of water resources development and management in Japan.
＊１ NARBO（Network of Asian River Basin Organization）
NARBO is a networking activity among Asian River Basin Organizations. NARB was established in Feb. 2004 for providing assistance to promote IWRM (Integrated Water Resources Management) in monsoonal areas of Asia by the initiatives of ADB （ADB: Asian Development Bank）and ADBI （ADBI: Asian Development Bank Institute.） RBO stands for River Basin Organization, an organization to implement comprehensive development and management in one or multi river basin areas. JWA is one of RBOs. NARBO’s goals and objectives are; 1) Strengthen the capacity and effectiveness of RBO in promoting IWRM and improving water governance, through training and the exchange of information and experience among RBOs and their associated water sector agencies and knowledge partner organizations in Asia and to advise on the establishment of RBOs in Asia. (Excerpts from the NARBO charter) Currently, NARBO has 56 member organizations from 12 countries in monsoonal Asian nations.
＊２ Indonesian NARBO
Indonesian NARBO is a network of NARBO member organizations in Indonesia.