Society

Water Expo China flows into the capital

By Liang Chao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-11-18 09:33

Water Expo China 2010, the only water industry exhibition sponsored by the country's water authority - the Ministry of Water Resources started on Wednesday at the China National Convention Center in Beijing to showcase the latest technologies in the sector.

The two-day show, the largest of its kind, involved 256 companies from 19 countries and regions, including a country pavilion from Japan and group exhibitors from Europe, South Korea, and East China Zhejiang province, and hundreds of new technologies and equipment on display.

Addressing its opening ceremony, Hu Siyi, vice-minister of water resources, said he hopes the exhibition can serve as a platform for participants to showcase their latest products, communicate with one another on future markets for water technologies and push forward water-led public services.

China will go on improving its services for the water industry to consolidate the sector which has long been viewed as lifeblood for many other sectors of its national economy, particularly agriculture, with the ever-increasing water supply demand for rapid urbanization and the demand for improving living conditions of the people, he said.

The sector's sustainable development in the country, he said, "still restrained by problems we are facing today due to droughts in the north or floods in the south, water supply scarcity, serious water pollution and worsening soil erosion".

To deal with the problems in the upcoming 12th Five-Year Plan period (2011-2015), the country must seek new technologies, invent new techniques, and develop new materials with new ideas and advanced management widely adopted for the water industry. Running alongside the expo will be the fifth China (International) Water Business Summit where Chinese officials and renowned experts will give a full perspective of the country's water market.

Major topics are also scheduled to cover water price discussion, water ecology and new-type of urban storm water management, drinking water safety for rural residents, flood control and drought relief management and waste water treatment in the country's small and medium towns and countryside, organizers say.