On the afternoon of May 31, 2022, the 2022 Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Week Activity on Water Resources was successfully held online with the theme of “Resilient Water Governance in the Lancang-Mekong Region”. Dr. ZHONG Yong, head of the Joint Working Group on Water Resources Cooperation of LMC from China, consul of the Department of International Cooperation, Science and Technology, Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) of China, Ms. ZUO Wenxing, counsellor of the Department of Asian Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, Dr. CHEN Shengshui, president of Nanjing Hydraulic Research Institute (NHRI) and Hans Guttman, executive director of Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) delivered their speeches. Sreng Sataro, minster counsellor of the Royal Embassy of Cambodia in Beijing, Thongsavanh Phyathep, minister counsellor of the Lao Embassy in Beijing, Zin Mar Htwe, Minister counsellor of the Myanmar Embassy in Beijing, Natthira Krasaesarn, minister counsellor of the Royal Thai Embassy in Beijing, and Tran Thanh Hai, counsellor of the Viet Nam Embassy in Beijing attended the event and made presentations. Dr. GAO Changsheng, deputy director-general, MWR Dam Safety Management Center was also present at the event.
During the event, participants watched a video of CGTN’s interview with LI Guoying, minister of water resources of China, who attaches great importance to the Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation and scientifically explains the positive role of the hydropower stations on the Lancang River in "storing flood water in wet season and discharging more water in dry season". Participants also had in-depth exchanges on promoting high-resilience water governance in the Lancang-Mekong Region and jointly addressing water-related challenges to sustain the development of the region.
The LMC Water Center, NHRI and MWR Dam Safety Management Center co-hosted the event. A branch venue of the event was at NHRI. NHRI president CHEN pointed out at his speech that the frequency of floods and droughts resulted from climate change in the countries of the Lancang-Mekong River Basin had increased significantly, which became our common challenge on promoting resilient water governance. NHRI has conducted comprehensive, in-depth and fruitful cooperation with the Mekong countries in the fields of dam safety management, green development of hydropower, hydrological information monitoring and agricultural irrigation. NHRI wishes to participate in more cooperation on promoting resilient water governance with the Mekong countries by integrating its strong expertise, so as to contribute to the well-being of the people and the building of a community with a shared future in the region. In the session of Exchanges and Dialogues, Dr. XIANG Yan, director of MWR Dam Safety Management Center made a report titled Lancang-Mekong Cooperation on Dam Safety Management, and proposed ideas for next step cooperation on dam safety. In the session of Discussions, Dr. SHENG Jinbao, chief engineer of MWR Dam Safety Management Center and Dr. XIANG Yan answered the questions from online audiences in regards to water infrastructure and high-resilience water governance, respectively.
Representatives from Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Water Resources of China, Changjiang Water Resources Commission, General Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Planning and Design, MWR Publicity and Education Center, NHRI, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Tsinghua University, Hohai University and Huaneng Lancang River Hydropower Inc. attended this event. International organizations including ADPC, Global Water Partnership and Mekong River Commission Secretariat attended the activity as well. Meanwhile, journalists from Xinhua News Agency, CGTN, China Daily, China News Services, Global Times, China Water Resources News and Vietnam People Newspaper also attended this event.
