Technical Guidance on Natural Capital Accounting in Lao PDR: Technical Report Accounting for Water resources- 2019 and 2020-Basin data and 2023, 2024 and 2025-Modelling data

Overview & Synopsis

Water is a valuable resource with a range of connection to economic and social activity in all countries. In Lao PDR the economic activities of agriculture, mining and electricity production are all expected to increase, and each has a high dependency on water, as well as different impacts on downstream ecological health. Beyond economic activities, there is ongoing need to facilitate access to suitable quality water for households and to manage risks associated with, for example, flooding, occurrences of which are expected to be increasing due to climate change. In Lao PDR there is an additional challenge of securing water supply during the dry season, which are becoming less predictable. All these issues indicate that robust information about water resources and the connection to usage by economic units including households can underpin a range of polices. The water resource asset accounts presented in this report provide an initial step towards this information set.