CDIA Shares Project Design Innovations to Manage Water Pollution in Huangshan City

December 23, 2019

In the knowledge sharing and exchange session held 17-18 December 2019 in Huangshan City, People’s Republic of China, CDIA presented key innovations and international best practices in water pollution management to city representatives and stakeholders. These are expected to add value to the efforts of the Huangshan Municipal Government (HMG) in protecting the ecological system of the Xin’an River, to ensure water security for the residents including those living in the downstream of the river basin.

The session focused on the following themes: 1) first flush run-off control, 2) storm water management, 3) environmental, health and safety (EHS) monitoring and emergency response system, 4) climate change, and 5) application of information and communication technologies (ICT).

CDIA’s assistance to HMG is integral to the “Anhui Huangshan Xin’an River Ecological Protection and Green Development Project,” which is supported by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and KfW/German development bank.

About 50 participants attended each of the thematic session. They came from the HMG Project Management Office (PMO) for the ADB Transaction Technical Assistance (TRTA) and loan; as well as the Environmental Protection Bureau, Data Bureau, Hydrology Bureau, and House and Construction Commission at both Huangshan City and county/district levels.

Also represented were local PMOs, particularly from She County and Huizhou District of Huangshan. Representatives from industrial zones within the area also attended the sessions on climate change, first flush run-off control, environmental monitoring and emergency response system and ICT as these were the components that would affect them.  Design Institutes on urban drainage and ICT also attended relevant sessions.

“The lectures were well-organized. The profound theories were presented in an easy-to-understand way, combined with abundant case studies and interactions,” said Mr. Weidong Wang, Director of HMG-PMO, Huangshan Development and Reform Commission.

Overall, the participants rated the capacity development activity as useful for their current and future work. They appreciated the knowledge shared on innovative design concepts, particularly in the ICT and EHS, which proposed to upgrade the city’s information system for environmental monitoring.  While this was well appreciated, a healthy exchange of ideas transpired on the disruption of the status quo as a uniform, integrated system that could be adopted by any industrial zone was proposed. The case studies of global best practices shared in all sessions were well-received.

As the co-financier of the ADB loan, KfW had a short session where it shared its plans to pursue an integrated water management system to unify the various components of the loan. The interventions are expected to ensure that geographical differences among the areas covered, as well as their urban and rural characteristics will be considered in the engineering design of the wastewater component.

Click here for related story: https://www.adb.org/news/adb-approves-green-financing-river-restoration-demonstration-project-anhui-prc

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