News

Prior to the official opening of the Holland Water Week, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) took the initiative to establish the World Estuary Alliance (WEA). The WEA, held on Saturday 5th of June, will become a platform for delta plains in the world and will aim at the exchange of knowledge, expertise and experience in this field. At the start of the WEA conference on Sunday 6th of June, vice-governor Lenie Dwarshuis-Van de Beek discussed in her speech the South-western Delta that comprises the province of Zeeland, the islands of the provinces Zuid-Holland and West-Brabant.

The Holland Water Week was officially opend in the afternoon of June 6 by Minister Huizinga and vice-governor Lenie Dwarshuis-Van de Beek. Former Minister Li Zhendong and management of Zhengzhou Water Supply Corporation attended the opening session. Following the opening of the Weekrepresentatives of the University of Utrecht and Qaboos Research Institute gave a presentation on water quantitaty. The last part of this opening session consisted of theannouncement of the winner of the Holland Water Challlene.. The contest challanged students of Chinese universities to develop an innovative plan to resolve a waterissue. Li Xiang won the contest by developing a system that supplies clean drinking water to housholdes in a building. The winner was awarded with an intership in the Netherlands.

The following days seminars on different topics related to water were organized in the VIP room of the Dutch Pavillion. Each seminar was attended by a large number of Chinese visitors. The seminar on Drinking Water & Millenium Development Goals focussed on the availability of clean drinking water and was co-organised by Royal Haskoning and Nethwater. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed between Vitens Evides International and Zhengzhou Water Supply Corporation. Both parties expressed the intention to improve the quality of drinking water in the city of Zhengzhou and to expand the watercleaning facillities. In the evening the Water Student Exchange Challenge announced the winner of its contest. Groups of Dutch and Chinese students competed in the contest and the “Live, Love, Levee” concept won. The group developed a multifunctional river dike.

During the seminar on BOT and Water Reuse, a MoU was signed between Evides and Shaanxi Beiyuan Chemical Industry Group Co. Ltd.. The third seminar was the seminar on Water & Energy and Wastewater, co-organised by DHV, Norit and Paques and the Chinese Chengtou Group. On Thursday the city of Rotterdam organised in cooperation with Shanghai the Shanghai-Rotterdam Water Conference.The seminar on Delta Development was attended by a large group of government officials of Hebei. The cooperation between Dutch and Chinese companies and institutes was stimulated by the signing of several MoU’s on different topics and between several parties.