I started in 2017 as sr. Water Resources Specialist at the World Bank office in Hanoi, Vietnam, from where I contributed to various water related projects in the region. In 2019 I moved to Bulgaria to lead the preparation of the EU Flood Risk Management Plan for Bulgaria. Since 2020 I am a short-term consultant at the World Bank focusing on projects in Myanmar, Lao P.D.R. and Cambodia in the field of Water Resources Management, Delta Planning, Riverine Plastic Pollution, Flood Risk Management and Climate Resilience.
In FY22 (2021/2022) amongst other opportunities, my work for the World Bank will concentrate on leading the Urban Flood Resilience Technical Assistance program linked to the Lao and Cambodia Disaster Risk Management Projects, supervision of the Ayeyarwady Integrated River Basin Management Project (AIRBM) in Myanmar and I will start as technical advisor for the Assam Integrated River Basin Management Project, also named AIRBMP.
A selection of my projects:
As a World Bank sr. Water Resources Specialist & Consultant I have worked on a number of impactful projects mainly in the Southeast Asian Region. Below find a selection of my most prestigious projects:
The Assam Integrated River Basin Management Program (AIRBMP), responds to the Government of Assam’s (GoA) request to support improved water resources management for economic growth and prosperity, including addressing flood and river erosion risks. The Project Development Objective (PDO) of the first phase is: To strengthen institutional capacity for integrated water resources planning and management, and to enhance preparedness for flood and river erosion
risks in Assam.
The project aims at: i) reducing flood and river erosion risks in the Assam parts of the Beki and Buridehing sub-basins; ii) enhance the resilience of local communities to flood and river erosion in selected locations; and iii) prepare integrated water resource management plans in the Beki, Buridehing, and Jiadhal sub-basins to support future investments
in subsequent program phases.
In my role as World Bank sr. WRM specialist I am coordinating the supervision of Component 2 activities (river bank erosion and flood risk management) and provide overall project management support.
The Myanmar Government has received a US$100 million credit from the Word Bank for the Ayeyarwady Integrated River Basin Management (AIRBM) Project. The objective of the AIRBM Project is to help Myanmar develop the institutions and tools needed to enable informed decision making in the management of Myanmar’s water resources and to implement integrated river basin management of the Ayeyarwady Basin. The AIRBM Project includes three components: i) Water Resources Management Institutions, Decision Support System, and Capacity Building; ii) Hydro-Meteorological Observation and Information Systems Modernization; and iii) Navigation Enhancement of the Ayeyarwady River.
In 2017 I started in this project as World Bank technical advisor, and in 2018 I became co-Task Team Leader for the project. Since 2020 I am tasked with the overall project implementation supervision, of which the preparation of a US$50 million Additional Financing to the AIRBM project.
The Mekong Integrated Climate Resilient and Sustainable Livelihood project aims to strengthen research capacity, and encourage innovation to build climate resilience of agriculture and aquaculture livelihoods, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions for selected provinces in Vietnam’s Mekong Delta. This project involved the restoration of mangroves along the coast of provinces such as Bac Lieu, Ca Mau and Soc Trang.
My role in the project was World Bank task team member responsible for the technical supervision of preparatory work done by the Provincial Project Management Units, amongst others the review of feasibility studies for the engineering design of coastal defenses, sluice gates, dike sections and mangrove restoration.
Ninh Thuan Province in Vietnam has considerable water resources and has worked hard to develop and use this precious asset. However, risks because of uncontrolled water use have worsened in recent years under influence of drought and floods. Extreme drought and flood events in the period 2014 -2016 have caused severe production losses and have highlighted the need for a better management model using integrated and basin level approaches to become more climate resilient in future. Ninh Thuan PPC Chairman has requested the World Bank to provide Technical Assistance to help the province in becoming more resilient against future dry periods.
I was Task Team Leader for this project between 2017 and 2018.
The World Bank provided Technical Assistance to the Government of Myanmar (Yangon City Development Committee, YCDC) to support the formulation of an Integrated Flood Resilience Strategy for Yangon and associated multi-annual Investment Program (Program of Measures) of priority measures that may qualify for implementation under a next generation World Bank (or other IFI) lending operation. The Technical Assistance aims to enhance Yangon’s flood resilience in the face of impacts from climate change, urbanization, and in particular targeting vulnerable communities who are often disproportionately affected by floods.
The Technical Assistance is related to the Urban Flood Risk Management component (Component 2) of the Myanmar South-East Asia Disaster Risk Management Project, implemented by the Yangon City Development Committee (YCDC). Further Project information are available online.
Between 2018 and 2019 I was Lead for the preparation of the 2nd cycle EU Flood Risk Management Plans for Bulgaria.
