Forum tackles challenges facing rivers
Print Edition
Global participants gathered in Shanghai last week to explore the challenges and opportunities confronting river basins, deltas and estuaries, with a view to achieving sustainable development, by addressing the many environmental challenges through cooperation in Yangtze-Rhine-Danube Regional Dialogue.
“As a link between the drainage areas and the oceans, rivers have played a major role in the existence and development of human society. As a school situated by the Yangtze River, East China Normal University has developed a deep emotive nexus with the estuary, and the Yangtze River that nurtures it,” said Qian Xuhong, president of East China Normal University.
The dialogue, themed “Basins and deltas: communications and collaborations,” was hosted by the university.
Qian cited the university’s stellar contribution to China’s river and coastal projects, ecological protection and green development.
“Today, we could turn our attention to the Rhine and the Danube, the two mighty streams that dazzle on the European continent,” he said.
Qian said that while the well-developed navigation network of the Rhine testifies to European industry and trade development, and is the repository of unique European history and memory, the Danube, like a brilliantly colorful chain, links up a host of European countries in a harmonious melody.
“Although the three rivers are located in different regions, they are confronted with the same issue of water conservation, management of water environment and the restoration of the ecological system,” Qian said.
He expressed the hope that relevant experts, officials and business people, in jointly exploring solutions for sustainable development, would be able to provide substantial intellectual support for quality development in the three regions.
In her speech, Cornelia-Elena Micicoi, a representative of the president of Timis County Council, Romania, which lies in the lower reaches of the Danube, also pointed to the importance of exchanges. The Danube, after flowing through 10 countries, empties into the Black Sea in Romania.
“Our commitment to external collaboration and exchanges is at the core of our development, driving remarkable progress in our cultural, economic and social landscape and enhancing the quality of life for citizens,” Micicoi said.
She believed that exchange programs between Romania and China foster mutual understanding and create connections among young people, laying a solid foundation of friendship and shared experience for the future.
Anik Bhaduri, co-chair of Future Earth-Asia and executive director of the Sustainable Future Programme of Future Earth, shared his views on the importance of evidence-based science in addressing climate changes.
“Dynamic climate changes and their higher degree of uncertainty make it difficult for traditional scientific methods to provide socially robust predictions, hence the need for evidence-based science and advanced physical tools in addressing the myriad environmental challenges,” Bhaduri said.
He added that China has played a major role in developing such advanced tools.
Hao Zhongwei, director-general of the Department of European and Asian Affairs of the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, cited the importance of cooperation between China and Europe in meeting the many common challenges.
“In tackling global challenges, China and Europe, given their similarities in standing and strategies in addressing climate changes and promoting green transition, enjoy significant room for exchanges and cooperation,” Hao said.
With ecological civilization now provided for in China’s constitution, ecological civilization has become an integral part in the country’s master plan for overall development, Hao said.
Hao also cited China’s achievement in supporting 20 percent of the global population with only 6 percent of global freshwater resources, adding that currently China is trying to achieve long-term clean-up of its rivers and lakes by adopting innovative methods.
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