From 11 to 15 May 2013, Prof.Li Fengting, Vice Dean of the UNEP-Tongji Institute of Environment for Sustainable Development (IESD) and Haixing Meng, Program coordinator of IESD visitedco-operatingpartners in Kenya and Ethiopia respectively, to promote the progress of the project “Development and demonstration of new technologies for safe water supply”.

On 11 to 12 May, Haixing Meng had a survey mission to Arba Minch Town, which was located in the south Ethiopia, and visited the Arba Minch University (AMU) and the Arba Minch Water Supply & Sewerage Enterprise (AMWSE). With this visit as a start, Tongji is going to launch the cooperation with AMU and AMWSE on the safe drinking water supply, waste water treatment and also technical training program under the MOU between Tongji and the Ministry of Water & Energy of Ethiopia.

13 May, Nairobi, Kenya.The Unveiling Ceremony ofDemonstrative Cooperation on Drinking Water Treatment between Tongji University andNairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) was held in UNEP HQs. Mr. Lu Xiaochun, the Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Commission of Shanghai Municipality (STCSM), Prof. Li Fengting from IESD, Dr. Mohamed Abdel-Monem, the Regional Team Leader of Ecosystem Management from the UNEP Regional Office for Africa, and Mr. Nahason Muguna, the Technical Director of Nairobi Water Company unveiled the project together. Mr. Lu Xiaochun commended, “This demonstrative project is the model for South-South cooperation between Chinese universities and African countries as well as the example for technology transfer within the third world. I expect that the two parties should proceed with the practice with consideration of local conditions of Africa.”

On 15 May, Prof.Li Fengting flied to Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya and had a meeting with the representatives from City Council of Kisumu, Kisumu Water and Sewerage Company Ltd., and Maseno University with a profound discussion on the proposal of waste water wetland treatment pilot study project in Kisumu. In this meeting, the wetland waste water treatment proposal which was designed by Tongji was approved and the involved partners designated one technical staffrespectivelyfor coordinating the implementation of this demonstration project. After that, a field survey was held to the Kisumu drinking water works and the Lake Victoria, which is the source for the drinking water supply in Kisumu. With the pollution increased in these years, the eutrophication in the Lake Victoria has become one serious problem to this whole basin.

Under the UNEP-China-Africa cooperation program on the environment which was funded by the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (MOST), IESD is the Chinese leading institute for the sub-project 2 named “Development and demonstration of new technologies for safe water supply”. Up to now, 3 demonstration projects which involved with drinking water and waste water treatment has been in construction in 3 cities in Ethiopia and Kenya. With the cooperation with local organizations, Tongji technical group aimed to provide the safe drinking water supply in African countries by diagnosing and revealing the problems of safe water supplying in urban and rural area and help to promote the capacity building to the local technicians.