Community Water Quality Monitoring

In 2012, in partnership with the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment and National University of Laos, The Asia Foundation- Laos launched a Community Water Quality Monitoring (WQM) initiative in Bolikhamxay and Vientiane provinces. Communities were trained on a low-cost biomonitoring approach using macroinvertebrates. As different macroinvertebrates have various degrees of sensitivity to pollution in the water, their presence or lack thereof can function as an indicator to help determine the quality of the water and river health. In 2015, The Asia Foundation refined the approach and began applying it more strategically to an integrated watershed area (Xe Bang Fai River Basin). Ultimately, The Asia Foundation aims to empower communities to understand and take ownership over the management of community water resources and ecosystem health. Macroinvertebrate monitoring can also play an important role as part of local government authorities' watershed monitoring program since it is a low-cost technique that can be completed in the field and does not require lab analysis.