Under the framework of the China-Europe Water Platform, the focus area Water Management and Ecological Security aims at addressing the best ways to implement Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) at river basin level, involving all urs in order to increase efficiency of water use, address point and diffuse pollution, restore ecological functions, ecosystem services and biodiversity on water bodies. It includes planning mechanisms, dialogue and consultation among all basin stakeholders, users’ participation mechanisms, economic analysis and financial mechanisms for sustainable management of water resources, ecosystem and biodiversity.
The current activities are covering:
- Implementation of a project supported by EU and 3 members states aiming at testing the principles of WFD application in pilot areas, developing policy recommendations based on feedback experience, and disseminating results to all concerned institutions in China.
- Exchange of experiences through participation to international conferences in China and reception of Chinese delegations in Europe.
- Support to the development of partnerships between Europe and China for institutions in charge of water management, research centers and companies developing innovative technologies.
The CEWP-PI Lot1, launched on 1st January 2018 for a period of 48 months, is built with three pilot cooperation projects (WP2) which form the core of the Action
- Hai River: River Basin Management Plans with stakeholders’ participatory approach in China
- Lake Taihu: Evolution of IWRM based lake restoration and public private partnerships
- Nanxi watershed: legal and institutional Chinese Framework conditions, recommendations and stakeholder mapping for river restoration in China
From a global perspective, this first year of implementation of the project, has been carried out in accordance with the original plans:
- The coordination of the work packages activities and of the internal and external communication of the project (WP1) were launched on schedule and assessed positively.
- The Pilot cooperation projects (Nanxi River and Taihu lake - Eastern China, Luan sub-basin - North-East China, Lake Pyhäjärvi - Finland) and the exchanges of experiences (WP2), which form the core of the Action, are satisfactorily under development and lay the basis for the elaboration of the policy papers (WP3) for which a specific event has been organized.
- Some activities have started earlier than scheduled to take advantage of the identified events:
- Process of policy recommendations: the 1st workshop on policy recommendations was organized in the framework of the 6th High-Level Policy Dialogue last November in Beijing, with the view to produce a joint view on the goals, methodology and outputs of the policy recommendations expected by the Chinese Institutions involved in Lot 1.
- Participation to business activities (Qingdao & IE Expo Shanghai), the Lot 5 had planned to attend.
The Lot 1 partners also organized / took an active participation to some specific events related to the activities:
- Expert workshop on River Restoration (February 2018)
- Joint Policy Study on Freshwater Restoration Standards (April 2018)
- Development of a bilateral project between BOKU (Austria) and Tongji University on Chongming area (Shanghai) and Taihu Lake.
- Study visits in France by 3 delegations from China (Hai river water conservancy commission, Changjiang Water Resources Commission, Hebei province Water Resources Institute) in October 2018.
- Participation in the visit of Finnish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Mr. Jari Leppä in China in May 2019.
- Workshop and study visit on IWRM based lake restoration in shallow lakes (September 2018).
- Study visit of Austrian partners to China for development of a new Joint project, Suzhou and Chongming, (April 2018.)
- Launched of the Sino-French year of the environment and angreement to renew the Franco-Chinese agreement on cooperation in the water sector dated 2009
The main activities in 2019 include the continuation of the works developed with the CEWP-PI Lot 1, as regard the 3 pilot projects:
- WP1: regular coordination activities.
- WP2: follow-up of activities in the pilot projects.
- Training session for Chinese partners (POR)
- Workshop session of Advisory Committee (POR)
- Characterization of Nanxi Watershed freshwater system (POR)
- Seminar/workshop for regional and local actors in Lake Taihu on management suggestions for the lake (FIN)
- Evaluation of significant pressures and the recommended measures in Lake Taihu and Pyhäjärvi (FIN)
- Description and assessment of the monitoring and status assessment methods (FIN)
- Water lakes protection and management EU&China (FIN)
- Report on Sub-basin management plan for the Luan river (FRA)
- Establishment of the Luan river basin management coordination group (FRA)
- WP3:
- Continuation of the activities related to the policy paper on elaboration of RBMPs with stakeholders’ participatory approach in China (FRA)
- Report on legal and institutional Chinese Framework for River restoration in China (POR)
- Continuation of the gathering information from pilot case studies in WP2 (POR)
- Progress on the policy recommendations based on the feedbacks from pilot projects: in April 2019, under the patronage of the MWR and in presence of the 3 river commissions of the CEWP PI Lot 1, a second milestone of the 3-years process on policy recommendations was organized in Wenzhou, Nanxi watershed in China. It was more a work-oriented meeting which aimed at going beyond the definition of the modalities and the expected outlines of the policy recommendations, refining & agreeing on the process (methodology). The stakeholders have analysed the process of the policy recommendations on a line-by-line basis and compared theire respective views on the methodology used to extract the policy thoughts from the pilot projects. The Chinese counterparts proposed a critical reading of the suggested items submitted by the European partners of the Lot 1, under the argument that using the Chinse way would be more efficient in a Chinese context.
- WP4: (the business-related activity developed in close collaboration with the Lot-5 horizontal activities are scheduled to take advantage of the identified events such as ”WaterTech Expos”
- Restitution in business events of horizontal activities lot 5. (FRA)
- Identification of needs and opportunities to develop exchange of experiences and set up new projects with EU interested M
- Contribution to the requested communication tools needed to promote and disseminate the results of the CEWP project. (FRA)