The safe use of water resources and the improvement of food control, grain security and eco-environment will be key if China is to enjoy a sustainable economic and social development in this century.

“China hopes to realize such a strategy through greater international cooperation with world elites in hydraulics in the years ahead because the issues facing China are also problems challenging the world today,” Suo Lisheng, vice-minister of water resources, said at the opening ceremony of the 29th congress of the International Association of Hydraulic Engineering and Research (IAHR) in Beijing Monday.

The congress with a general theme of “21st century: the new era for hydraulic research and its applications,” was the first ever held in China and attracted some 800 scholars and researchers from more than 50 countries and regions.

For this week China has become the focus of water-related research and its applications in the world with the gathering of so many professionals of hydraulics.

Interviewing members of the IAHR council, minister of water resources Wang Shucheng confirmed China will build the long-awaited project to divert water from the Yangtze River in the south to the north to curb persistent and worsening droughts that have plagued that area of China for years.

Instead of only building large water-control works, the government will focus on the protection and sustainable use of water resources.

Meanwhile, the country has decided to prevent key water problems like floods, droughts and pollution, from worsening and affecting the environment in following years.

Wang also made it clear that, in the next five to 10 years, most of China’s large and key industrial cities will be capable of withstanding the worst floods that occur every 50 to 100 years through improvements in their flood-control infrastructure.

Wang pledged to intensify water-saving efforts to prevent more water from being wasted, particularly irrigation water.

Farming irrigation has consumed more than 70 percent of China’s total water supply. But only 43 percent of the water -- or 5 percent below the world average -- was used effectively.

By the year of 2010, Wang is confident at least 50 percent of China’s irrigation water can be used effectively with the adoption of more water-efficient irrigation technologies.

By 2030, Wang said he wished the utilization rate of irrigation water would reach 65 percent to ensure grain security for a large population.

China has to feed a record 1.6 billion people by then without increasing water use in irrigation, experts said.

(chinadaily 0918/2001) )