News
On September 11th, the 18th World Water Congress held in Beijing. The congress takes “Water for All Harmony between Humans and Nature” as the theme, builds global communication platform, discusses water management strategies, and pursues cooperation and development. This current session was hosted by the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) and International Water Resource Association (IWRA), Minister of Water Resources Li Guoying attended the opening ceremony and delivered the keynote report, while Vice Minister Liu Weiping presided over the opening ceremony. Nearly 1300 representatives from over 60 countries and regions and over 30 international organizations attended this session. As a member of the organizing committee and academic committee, China institute of water resources and hydropower research (IWHR) engages in the comprehensive management of conference planning and execution. Dean Peng Jing, Vice Dean Wang Jianhua, and Ding Liuqian attended the opening ceremony.
In the keynote report, Li Guoying systematically and profoundly elaborated on General Secretary Xi Jingping’s water control ideas of “prioritizing water conservation, spatial balance, systematic governance, and using both hands” and introduced China’s historic achievements in water control and the historic changes that have taken place, and the significant progress made in advancing the water-related goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. LI Guoying pointed out that it is necessary to jointly promote the reform and development of global water governance and promote the harmonious coexistence of human and nature. First, adhere to water conservation first and comprehensively improve the capacity and level of intensive use of water resources. Second, adhere to spatial balance and improve the adaptability of water resource condition and the layout of economic and social development. Third, adhere to systematic governance and promote the integrated protection and restoration of landscape, forest, lake, grass and sand, maintain the health of rivers and realize the harmonious coexistence of human and rivers. Fourth, adhere to two-handed approach, fully understand the water governance is not only the main responsibility of the government, but also needs to make good use of the market mechanism.
Liu Weiping expressed that with the growth of world population and global warming, global water security is facing increasingly severe challenges and the progress of realizing the UN Sustainable Development Goals related to water is seriously lagging behind. He calls on all countries to respect, adapt, and protect nature, and find solutions to global water challenges through this conference, so as to promote the harmonious coexistence of human and nature.
IWHR deeply participated in conference communication, hosted the first conference after the opening ceremony with the theme of “Water-Economy (Agriculture, Industry, City…) Ecology Nexus Under Changing Environment”, hosted nearly 10 special sessions and side meetings, actively organized foreign professors and overseas friends to accept interviews from mainstream media such as Xinhua News Agency, CCTV News and The Paper, promoted China’s water governance concepts and achievements, cognition and technology, practice and experience to the international community, and made full use of the conference platform to enhance the international influence of China’s water science and technology.
The conference also held water technology products exhibition. IWHR actively organized exhibition and set up the main hall. Through display panels, videos, physical models and other ways, we showcased our scientific research achievements, technical products, and application practice to the guests from all over the world in an all-round and multi-angle way.
