Minister of Public Works on a working visit to Japan to strengthen national capacity in flood control and natural disaster prevention
The Minister of Public Works, Samuel Marçal, made a working visit to Japan between January 13th to 19th, 2026 to strengthen the national response to flood control and natural disaster prevention through technical and institutional exchanges with Japanese entities specialising in these areas. 
The visit included a delegation comprising the Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Public Works, Cristóvão Fausto Guterres; the Director-General of Roads, Bridges, and Flood Control, Nene Lobato; and the Coordinator of the Inspection, Verification, and Payment Unit, Aleixo Amaral do Carmo. It was accompanied by the Ambassador of Timor-Leste in Tokyo, Maria Terezinha da Silva Viegas.
On January 13th, the delegation visited the headquarters of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and met with Yoshifumi Yoshikawa, the organisation's Senior Vice President. The meeting included a technical presentation on Japan's experience in flood control and integrated watershed management, as well as an exchange of views on potential areas of technical cooperation to support the strengthening of Timor-Leste's institutional capacities in this field.
In the context of disaster risk reduction, the Minister also met with representatives of the Japan BOSAI Platform, who presented technologies, strategies, and best practices developed by Japanese entities to prevent and mitigate natural disasters. The main challenges facing Timor-Leste were also discussed.
The programme continued on January 14th with a visit to Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT), where the delegation participated in a technical session on Japan's historical evolution and current policies on flood control, sediment management and flood disaster response. On the same day, a meeting was held between the Minister of Public Works of Timor-Leste and the Japanese Minister responsible for MLIT, Sasaki Hajime, to discuss technical cooperation on flood and sediment control projects.
On January 15th, January, the Minister paid a courtesy visit to the Hyōgo Prefectural Government headquarters, where he attended a technical session at the Prefectural Disaster Management Center and was briefed on flood-control measures for rivers with characteristics similar to those in Dili, as well as initiatives to mitigate landslide risks.
On January 16th, the delegation visited the Rokko Sabo Office, a Japanese government service dedicated to sediment control and natural disaster prevention, particularly landslides, debris flows, and flash floods. The visit included a presentation on mitigation systems and technical visits to infrastructure, including retention dams designed to reduce the impact of natural disasters.
On January 19th, technical meetings were held within the scope of MLIT, including visits to the Arakawa Floodway system, an artificial canal built in the early 20th century to divert the Arakawa River from central Tokyo to Tokyo Bay, protecting the city from flooding, as well as other water flow control infrastructure. A working session was also held with JICA experts to set priorities for interventions on rivers with a history of recurrent flooding in Timor-Leste.
This working visit allowed the Ministry of Public Works to deepen its technical and institutional knowledge of models and solutions applied in Japan and to discuss possibilities for technical and institutional cooperation with the entities visited, with a view to strengthening national capacities in flood control and natural disaster prevention.
