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Minister urges int'l cooperation on water resources

By Liang Chao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-07-30 17:04

China will work together with many other countries with worsening soil erosion, rising riverbeds, shrinking farmland and reservoirs resulted from silt deposit using research findings and experiences the country obtained from controlling the issue.

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Sedimentation has become one of the most pressing issues facing the world today, Chen Lei, minister of water resources, said Wednesday at the silver jubilee celebration of the Beijing-based International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation.

With the global climate change, many countries are now facing much severer challenges in their river harnessing, flood control and disaster mitigation, water resources utilization and consequent ecosystem protection due to the issue.

According to statistics released during the event, the annual erosion of surface soil from river basins amounts to 60 billion tons with 50,000 to 70,000 square km of farmland lost worldwide each year. 

While many riverbeds kept rising due to heavy deposition of sediment in their water courses, about 1 percentage of the world's built reservoirs has also shrunk with silts rapidly built up inside.

The global warning made the problem even worse today as water flowing into natural rivers in many countries reduced too much to have the regular silts deposited on their water courses washed downstream, Hu, Chunhong, secretary general of the center, told China Daily before a seminar on the issue was kicked off for the celebration.

The UNESCO has appealed the world to increase researches, training, and capacity building for sustainable sedimentation management through intensive internal cooperation as one of its key tasks in the next five years.

China is one of the world's countries worst plagued by such sediment problems as water and soil erosion has affected over one-third of its total territory with many farmland lost, reservoirs and lakes got smaller and rivers turned into suspended ones downstream.

To cope with them, China has, under the auspices of the center, made great strides in controlling erosion in the Loess Plateau by building silt dams in watersheds, washing away massive buildup of silts downstream the Yellow River by making regular artificial waves with water from reservoirs, launching a series of related training and organizing many international seminars on related researches.

Over the past two decades, the center, the first of its kind jointly sponsored by China and UNESCO in the field, has made important contribution to international cooperation.

"We would go on sharing our experiences and achievements in the sphere with more other countries through research consultation and technical training," Chen said on behalf of Chinese water authorities.

"The contribution China has made is highly valued by researchers and policy-makers worldwide," Walter, Erdelen, UNESCO's assistant director-general for natural sciences, echoed Chen at the celebration held in Beijing.

"UNESCO is proud to have the center as part of the growing network of international and regional centers dealing with water and sustainable development, operating under the auspices of its organization," he said.