TU Delft | Water for Impact at the UN Water Conference in New York
On Thursday 16th of March the official closing ceremony of the Nuffic funded OKP project “Climate Proof Vietnam” took place at one of our partner universities, the Hanoi University of Natural Resources and the Environment (HUNRE). In this ceremony a wide variety of high-level guests, important stakeholders and partners were present to look back on all the achievements and activities of the last 4 years.
The Dutch ambassador, Kees van Baar, held a very inspiring speech in which he reflected on his own water education. He ensured us all that although this project is officially closing, the Netherlands and Vietnam are very strong partners in the field of water and will remain so in the future. These words were repeated by the deputy-minister of the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MoNRE), Dr. Vo Tuan Nhan. As TU Delft, we are very honoured and proud that emeritus Professor Marcel Stive, who has more than 20 years of experience in Vietnam and has supervised more than 15 Vietnamese PhD’s in the field of coastal engineering, was present to give a keynote speech. In his keynote speech, he defended the hypothesis that education and capacity building need similar time-scales to settle, mature and become effective, just like physical ecosystems. This was key to the success and results of the OKP project: that it could build on an existing and trustful partnership of more than 30 years. And it is important to build further on this and continue – and for this to happen we need the future generation of professionals. That is why some of the highlights of the past 4 years were presented by two young researchers of both HUNRE and Thuy Loi University: mr. Thi Van Le Khoa (HUNRE, PhD candidate at Wageningen University)) and ms. Dr. Knanh Linh Phanh (Thuy Loi University, PhD degree of TU Delft). They shared their personal stories on what the OKP project has brought to them, for example the library improvements and access to international journals that was supported by our partner ITC Twente University. But also the network that was developed with Dutch and Vietnamese companies, like Royal Haskoning DHV and Deltares.
Last but certainly not least, closing remarks were given by Marieke Nieuwendijk, the Vietnam country manager of NUFFIC. She reflected on the past days in which she visited both HUNRE and Thuy Loi University and met with many of the people involved in the OKP project. She expressed her sincere compliments to all involved and stated that she has seldom seen such a strong and effective partnership, that is truly based on reciprocity and creating sustainable results.
On behalf of all partners involved, we would like to thank everyone that has contributed to the impact of the project and the strong cooperation. As TU Delft we are confident that in the future, we will work together with Thuy Loi University and HUNRE on many exciting projects!
