According to Xinhua News Agency on March 13, Tongji University and the UN Human Settlement Programme (UN-Habitat) jointly launched a report titled Making Cities Sustainable Through Rehabilitating Polluted Urban Rivers: Lessons from China and other countries on March 12 during the fourth session of the UN Environment Assembly. The rehabilitation of Suzhou River, to which Tongji experts made great contributions, becomes a key case of river pollution control in China.
At the conference, Maimunah Mohd Sharif, the Executive Director of UN-Habitat said that China's success in restoring polluted rivers provided an example for other developing countries. Sharif applauded the efforts of Chinese Government in developing technical, managerial and financial solutions to improve the water quality of urban rivers, and the innovative implementation of the " River Chief System " for strengthening coordination. She hoped policymakers in developing countries would learn from China's experience by giving priority to sustainable waste water management and rehabilitation of heavily polluted urban rivers.
Maimunah Mohd Sharif (R) and XU Zuxin jointly launch a report, March 12, 2019
XU Zuxin, the lead author of the report and professor of Tongji University, said the Suzhou River area, with dense population and buildings, was one of the most polluted river networks in China, and thus the rehabilitation of Suzhou River was also a very complex project for the world. XU believed that the success could be attributed to the attention paid by the Municipal Party Committee and Government, the smooth coordination among government departments, scientific decision-making by experts, the application of innovative scientific and technological achievements and the wide participation of the public.
The report analyses the challenges faced by developing countries in the restoration of polluted rivers, summarizes the technical measures and management systems as well as introducing comprehensive measures for improvement of the Suzhou River environment in China and other cases of water environment management in developing countries, with the intent to promote the implementation of Transforming our World: the 2030 Agenda for Sustain and the New Urban Agenda.
