Mekong - U.S. Partnership
The Water Smart Engagements (WiSE) Program paired U.S. and ASEAN cities, water districts, and utilities for collective capacity building and innovative technology familiarization. Three such cities were from the Mekong region, including Vientiane, Lao PDR which partnered with Hillsboro, Oregon; Phuket, Thailand with Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam with San Francisco, California. The program was a two-way exchange program that matches Mekong and U.S. urban water and sewerage entities to their counterparts for a “twinning”/technical city partnership. The overall purpose of the program was three-fold: 1) increase water security in partner cities through sustainable water management solutions; 2) establish long-term relationships between ASEAN, Mekong sub-regional, and U.S. utilities to foster communication and build capacity; 3) increase the exchange of services, goods, science, and technology.
The Mekong-U.S. Partnership is a multinational partnership among Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar, Thailand, Viet Nam, and the United States to create integrated cooperation among the five Lower Mekong countries. Learn more >