Summary Meeting of China-UK Water Demand Management Project

At the invitation by UKDFID Beijing Office, Mr. Zheng Rugang, Coordinator of GWP China, attended Summary Meeting of China-UK Water Demand Management Project. The organizers of the meeting also invited representatives from World Bank, UNDP, EU-China River Basin Management Project, Australia- China Environmental Management Project and some project pilot provinces.

At the meeting, the project outcomes were reported and participants discussed about the way forward about China’s water resources management. It’s agreed that this project can be deemed as a positive step toward IWRM implementation and better water demand management.

As an important cooperation project between China and UK, Water Demand Management Project was started in February, 2006. One of its outstanding outcomes is to introduce IWRM principles and promote them among the public, particularly, to advocate the participation of water users in water resources management and in particular at grassroots level. By the joint efforts of the related parties in current years, the project sees its great successes in IWRM in the pilot areas and better management capacity in relevant departments. It’s also highly appreciated by the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources and DFID.

The China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR), the host institute of GWP China, has invested many experts into this project and played key roles in the promotion and practice of IWRM. For wider dissemination of the project outcomes, the GWP China Secretariat is going to cooperate with the project group to develop it as one of case studies of GWP IWRM Toolbox.