Water

Closing the Water Information Gap in the PRC

Media workshops were held in September 2005 in the People's Republic of China (PRC) to close the information gap on water issues in the country. As part of ADB's Water Awareness Program (WAP), these workshops raise awareness on water issues throughout Asia.

The reasons for choosing the PRC as a venue were compelling. There are few countries in the world that are being more directly impacted by water issues. Despite having the world's fourth largest fresh water reserves, the PRC, with a population of 1.3 billion, is likely to face severe water challenges over the coming years. While supporting 21 per cent of the world's population, PRC has just seven per cent of its water supplies.

From water pollution to urban and rural water supply to the intense demand for water from the PRC's growing industries, farms and sprawling cities to the contradictions between the problems of drought in the north and flooding in the south and the dwindling water of the Yellow River, the PRC faces many water sector challenges that can only be addressed through a coherent and integrated national water policy, a change in behavior and a greater understanding of the challenges the country faces.

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More than 90 journalists from 23 provinces and 4 municipalities gathered in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu to attend two-day workshops arranged by ADB in collaboration with PRC's Department of Environment and Resource Conservation, National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). A number of small local publications were invited alongside the larger and national media like the Shanghai Morning Post and Xinhua News Agency to ensure as wider cross-section of media and potential readerships as possible.

Wang Yao, editor of Elite Reference, a leading Beijing weekly newspaper and an attendee at the Beijing workshop, sums up the goals and hoped for outcomes of the workshops well: "From People's Daily to Hebei Daily, Henan Daily, Shanxi Daily and Xinhua News Agency, this is the first time I have seen so many journalists together in one room discussing water in depth - such a critical issue to the PRC."

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Sessions at the workshops tackled such key issues as integrated water resources management and the need for a coherent and integrated national water policy in the PRC; the water quality challenges the PRC is currently facing and measures that need to be undertaken to improve it; and the twin issues of urban and rural water supply and sanitation.

The diversity of issues covered was matched by the widely ranging background of speakers from both inside and outside the PRC and from government, civil society, academia and the private sector.

Speakers included Amy Leung, Senior Sector Unit Head at the Asian Development Bank PRCM; Zhai Qing, Deputy Director from the Department of Environment and Resources Conservation, NDRC; Feng Guangzhi, Director of the China Irrigation District Association; Jia Xia Zhen, Deputy General Manager of the Tianjin Waterworks Group Ltd; Ulf Volker Rakelmann from the Hamburg Public Sewage Company; and Hong Kong-based Stephan Truchot, Project Finance Director of Veolia Water Asia who spoke alongside Tian Gang, Managing Director of the Chengdu Water Supply & Sanitation Project.

Participants also had the opportunity to see some water projects up close with field trips to the Gao Bei Dian Water Treatment Facility in Beijing, the Suzhou Creek Rehabilitation and Construction Project in Shanghai; and the world famous Dujiangyan Irrigation Scheme in Sichuan province.

A voluntary competition was also organized for the journalists at all three workshops where they were asked to write a short, one page article on a particular issue of interest which came out from the workshop.

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The goal for the workshops has been clear - to increase journalists' understanding of water issues in the hope that they will become passionate about water, that they will become better equipped to write objectively about water issues, and that they will be able to use their influential positions to educate their readers and viewers on the complexities around water and the importance of water sector reform.

Since 2003, more than 200 journalists participated in 12 workshops in Cambodia, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, and Indonesia, and are now part of a network sharing ideas on water issues and writing extensively on the subject. One such outcome of the workshops has been the Asia Water Wire where journalists who attended the workshops have the opportunity to write compelling, highly personal stories about local people facing extreme water challenges.

Wang Yao asserts, "The issues-based approach, the global viewpoint and the diverse collection of speakers will ensure that this workshop leaves a lasting legacy in creating a greater awareness toward water issues in the PRC. It is now up to us journalists to go away and educate our readers. Influencing one Chinese journalist can lead to hundreds of thousands of readers having a better understanding of water."

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