Purpose

Develop methods for monitoring and a classification system for assessment of ecological status, and implications on human health. A system will be developed that enables setting class boundaries between acceptable/not acceptable status classes based on ecological quality ratios for chemistry, biological elements (phytoplankton, macrophytes and macroinvertebrates) and hydromorphology for rivers, lakes and reservoirs.

To implement a National Water Framework Directive (NWFD) for Myanmar, technical work is needed to develop indices and ways to assess ecological status. This effort was initiated in the first phase of the project and results from this work indicate that it is feasible to develop relevant indices and that the fundamental principles of the EU WFD are applicable in Myanmar. In this project period, a classification system of ecological status in Myanmar freshwaters (rivers and lakes) should be based on indices and boundaries developed exclusively for Myanmar. Knowledge of species diversity in freshwater in Myanmar is relatively under-surveyed and additional sampling of biological quality elements in more rivers, lakes and reservoirs are needed. A focus on involving master students and increase collaboration with the relevant universities in Myanmar, as well as extended training of staff in the Department of Forestry, will be keys to achieve taxonomic competence in the new project.

Activities

• Monitoring of rivers and lakes to build capacity and knowledge to be used in the project, with focus on sampling methods, recording of data in the field, sampling equipment maintenance.  
• Development of a macroinvertebrate indicator system (multi-metric) to assess ecological status of rives and phytoplankton/ macrophyte indicator system (index) to assess ecological status in lakes and reservoirs.
• Hydromorphological assessment system for rivers, lakes and reservoirs.
• Establish a system to monitor e-coli and identify risk for human water use and assessing toxic compounds in freshwater biota
• Install, train and implement ecological water quality measurements at the new laboratory.
• Support of master students