Source: China Water Network
Reported by: Lv Yapeng
October 13, 2011 

On October 11, a seminar was held to discuss protecting the Yellow River’s water and establishing an emergency response mechanism for contamination of it. This seminar was organized by the Yellow River branch of Global Water Partnership (GWP), in coordination with the Yellow River Seminar, the Yellow River Water Conservancy Bureau and GWP China. Scholars at the seminar expressed particular concern about the management and protection of the Yellow River as a water source, discussing potential solutions for abrupt pollution incidents. The participants also called for the establishment of an emergency response mechanism to protect the Yellow River’s water. 

The Yellow River branch of GWP is the first in the organization to focus on a particular river basin. Since its foundation in 2005, GWP Yellow River has conducted a series of dialog sessions with other social industries and sectors, exploring river management and demands for social and economic development in the Yellow River basin. They focus on the most important and most difficult issues facing the Yellow River. These dialog sessions produced a proposal for a compensation policy for the lower reaches of the Yellow River, which attracted much attention from related government departments. Permission to implement the plan was granted in 2011. Other subjects of past sessions have included flood control and disaster relief, water resource management, stream discharge and environmental protection, construction regulation, water rights and estuary protection, etcetera. The Yellow River branch of GWP has had a widespread impact and played a positive role in water resource management and sustainable economic development in the river basin.

Water plays an increasingly important role in the developing global economy. At the same time, water pollution, shortages and other crises associated with water are more severe than ever. The October seminar, a forum provided by the Yellow River branch of GWP, aimed to cooperate with government and NGOs to promote the ongoing work in water resource management and protection. The participants shared lessons from past pollution incidents and developed an emergency response mechanism, with the goal of developing a more sustainable approach to using water resources. They also supplied valuable suggestions for managing and protecting the Yellow River and for the eventual establishment of an emergency response mechanism in the river basin.

The seminar convened experts and representatives from groups as varied as the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Yangzi River Water Resource Committee, the Yellow River Water Conservancy Commission, the Songhua and Liao River Water Resources Commission, an EU project office and other local government departments responsible for water and environmental protection. Participants exchanged reports on water protection and environmental incident resolution; they presented analyses of the pollution control methods used in other countries.

As it was grounded in real lessons from water resource management in the past and focused specifically on the Yellow River, this seminar has great significance in terms of the development of an emergency response mechanism to water contamination – and in terms of water resource management in the Yellow River basin more generally. 

Translated by: Yang Rong, Xian Tinghong, Xu Danmeng
Proofread by: Max Davis
Edited by: Madelyn Finucane