FSM’s First National Water Task Force Meeting

[Patterson Shed]

Kaselehlie maingko all from Pohnpei Island in the FSM!

Firstly, please allow me to introduce myself. I’m Patterson Shed, the new IWRM Project Manager for the FSM project. Some of you may know me from my recent position as Director of the Conservation Society of Pohnpei. It is now great for me to be able to join this exciting project and I look forward to getting to know the Pacific IWRM network better over coming weeks and months.

I was just recently appointed along with our Community Liaison Officer, Mr. Peteriko Airens and over the past few weeks we have been active in progressing work on our national IWRM coordination and policy development and on the ground stress reduction activities in Nett Watershed. We have the important task ahead of us to guide the development of a national IWRM Plan for the FSM and we welcome the challenge of establishing this important planning tool for our country.

Over the next few months we will provide more updates and to get the ball rolling I include below some photos and narrative text from FSM’s First National Water Task Force Meeting convened a few weeks back. An important output of this first meeting was agreement amongst National Government agencies and representatives of the State Governments of Yap, Chuuk, Pohnpei, and Kosrae on the way forward to complete our: (1) National Water, Sanitation and Climate Outlook; (2) National Water and Sanitation Policy; and (3) National IWRM Plan. The preliminary work plan for our National IWRM Task Force and a copy of the Joint Resolution of our President and State Governors establishing our Task Force is also attached for your information – we welcome any comments.

All the best for now,

Patterson Shed

[Patterson Shed]

The First National Water Task Force Meeting took place at Palikir on Wednesday 23rd May. Representatives from various FSM Government Departments and delegates from the State Governments were joined by various stakeholders from outside of government.

The Task Force was set up as a forum for the planning of national policy, legislation, strategy and action to improve water resources management as an important part of national development planning and was coordinated through the FSM IWRM Programme. As mentioned above the Task Force was developed by a directive given as part of the Resolution that was signed at last year’s Water Summit on World Water Day by the President and all the State Governors and it called for the creation of the Task Force as the body that will develop a comprehensive National Water and Sanitation Policy and Investment Plan.

[Patterson Shed]

On Thursday 24th May, State delegates met at the Pohnpei State Government Offices to begin work on preparing inputs to the broader national initiatives. This enabled the States to identify common areas for collaboration and to discuss mechanisms to discuss communication between the four FSM States on water and sanitation issues.

[Patterson Shed]

The afternoon saw the state delegates also visit onground activities currently taking place as part of the FSM IWRM Demonstration Project in the Nett Watershed. This field trip highlighted work the various partners of PUC, CSP, EPA and the Nett Municipality Government are conducting and how they are working together in integrated water resource management.