An international symposium on "sustainable and safe water
supplies" opened in Hong Kong Monday with water resource experts
from the worldwide to discuss and share their expertise.
The 2-day symposium comprises topics on "water conservation and
reuse", "water resource management and environmental policy" and
"river basin ecological status and toxic/pathogen detection
technology."
Professor David Dudgeon from the department of Ecology and
Biodiversity of University of Hong Kong talked about the ecological
status of Asian rivers and its implications for biodiversity
conservation.
He said that a significant obstacle to the conservation of
riverine biodiversity in Asia has been a lack of consideration for
environmental allocations of water needed to maintain ecosystem
integrity and sustain biota.
Human demands from agriculture and industry dominate
water-allocation policies and in-stream flow needs have not been
addressed adequately, which Dudgeon said should be a priority for
collaborative research between engineers, water managers and
ecologists.
One key issue is identification of the ecological attributes of
the biota that facilitate their persistence in human-dominated
rivers, as well as those features that increase vulnerability to
change, he said.
According to Dudgeon, in Asia, habitat rehabilitation to sustain
riverine biodiversity will be possible only if the relevant
scientific information is acquired, communicated and applied with
urgency.
Also dealt with the topic about river conservation, Professor
Stuart Bunn from Griffith University of Australia said that
projected increases of human population are likely to lead to
further degradation of riparian areas, intensification of the
hydrological cycle and increase in the discharge of diffuse and
point source pollutants.
In turn, these catchment changes will undoubtedly place
increasing pressure on the health of coastal ecosystems, he
said.
Bunn said that Southeast Queensland of Australia also faced the
challenges for ecological sustainable management of rivers and
coastal ecosystems in face of population and climate change.
In response to those challenges, the Australian government,
industry and community stakeholders have worked in close
cooperation to develop a whole-of-government, whole-of-community
approach to understanding and managing the region's waterways.
Bunn said that during the process, a range of implementation
including upgrade of sewage treatment plants, improvement of
planning regions and rehabilitation of riparian vegetation and
establishment of a multi-disciplinary science and research program
that underpinned the management action program and monitors its
effectiveness.
When addressing the challenges of water resources management in
Chinese Mainland, member of Chinese National Academy of Engineering
Qian Yi said there is an urgent need to implement sustainable
management strategy of water resources for solving water
crisis.
Qian said that major components of the strategy include taking
demand control and water conservation as the priority; increasing
investment and develop appropriate technologies for wastewater
treatment; and developing untraditional water resources such as
rain water harvesting and wastewater reuse. However, there is still
long way to go for implementing such strategy.
(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2007)
