The 2nd Sino-Swiss Sustainability Forum taking the theme “Focusing on Urban Water Management” was held on July 13. Wang Hong, Deputy Mayor of Hangzhou, attended the forum virtually. The achievements and lessons in “Water ecological environment protection and water resources management” were fully shared and discussed among the representatives from Chinese and Swiss cities, enterprises and research institutes.

Wang Hong, Deputy Mayor of Hangzhou

The representatives include Chinese leaders from domestic cities and departments, such as Guangzhou City, Fujian Provincial Water Resources Department, Neijiang City, Ji’nan City, Zhuhai Water Environment Holding Group, and delegates from Obwalden, Zurich, Thurgau and other cities. Construction of the water-accessible city, water supply and treatment, flood control and drainage, the improvement of surface water quality, and other topics are core topics.

In Recent years, Hangzhou’s urban water management experiences are talked about. Economically, under the concepts of “lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets”, the continuous actions of “Five-Water-Governance” mutually promote sustainable economic development and environment protection with great efforts. Technologically, the measurements “Complete Rain Sewage Diversion, Standardization of Sewage Collection and Treatment” and “River Chief System” have been taken in different layers of villages, towns, counties and cities, which further improve the geographic condition of Hangzhou. Take Hangzhou’s geographic condition for example, West Lake is surrounded by mountains from 3 directions, nurturing the city steadily. Socially, the water quality improvement and water culture are tightly linked. Construction of Beautiful Hangzhou in New Era Progress Meeting 2021 was held in June, it put forward the plan to build “Water City with Wetland & Beautiful Hangzhou”, turning mere “Beautiful water” to “Happy water residence”. To protect water is to promote water culture, for instance, construction of Cultural Belt Construction of the Grand Canal Poetry Road and Qiantang River Poetry Road can carry forward wetland culture.

Water is the source of life. Chinese and Swiss representatives gathered together for water sustainable development and urban water management. At that very moment, Reto von Schulthess, CEO and CTO of SWISSWATER announced that: “Water is colorless and odorless. It has the same meaning to people all around the world. Although we are from different cultural backgrounds and working fields, but we still can understand and learn from each other in water management projects.” Directors from Hangzhou replied that: “Hangzhou will keep on deepening the development of ecological civilization, speeding up the modernization of ecological environment treatment, to make Hangzhou, the ‘Water City with Wetland’, a city for beauty, happiness, and bright future! The pioneering sample of Hangzhou can be extended to more cities and regions globally!”