On December 17, Professor LI Fengting of the College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, received a letter from Professor Catherine Ngila, the Acting Executive Director of the African Academy of Sciences (AAS). She congratulated Prof. LI Fengting on his being elected Fellow of the African Academy of Sciences in the letter.
Professor LI Fengting
The AAS is the highest academic institution in Africa, dedicated to promoting high-level advancement and sustainable development of science and technology in Africa.
Professor LI has been engaged in the teaching and research of water treatment technology and environmental policy. He led an independent research team of water treatment technologies, and actively promoted the implementation of research results. Among them, the efficient and low-cost clean water technology was successfully adapted to the African environment, which has enabled millions of local people to drink clean water one the one hand, and bring social and economic benefits to them on the other hand.
Prof. LI Fengting on a field trip in Africa
LI Fengting has cooperated with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) since 2004, and participated in talent training and research in environment and sustainable development in Africa and the Asia-Pacific region. He has cultivated a large number of talents in environment and sustainable development who later assumed roles in high-level research and development, enterprises and government management, contributing to the capacity building and talent training of developing countries in this field. Since 2005, funded by the China-Africa Environmental Cooperation project of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Prof. LI's team started the research on water resources and the environment in Africa. The team had successively undertaken the projects including "Demonstration of Wastewater Treatment and Utilization in African Communities" and "Cooperative Development, Application, and Demonstration of Water Resource Utilization Technology in Typical African Countries". Based on in-depth research on water resources distribution and challenges in water treatment process faced by countries in East Africa, the team signed agreements with partners in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and Nairobi (Kenya) for safe water supply. These pilot projects aimed at extending applicable water treatment technologies to other African countries. Since then, Prof. LI Fengting has traveled to Africa more than 50 times and conducted research in countries including Liberia, Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Morocco, Sudan, Uganda, and Cote d'Ivoire.
In 2011, he collaborated with UNEP and UN-Habitat on the report "Green Hills, Blue Cities: An Ecosystems Approach to Water Resources Management for African Cities". In 2012, he, jointly with UNEP, released the Chinese version of "Towards a Green Economy Pathway to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication" at the "Rio+20" United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development.
Release of the Chinese version of "Towards a Green Economy Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication"
In March 2015, during the African Environment Ministers' Meeting in Cairo, Prof. LI Fengting, on behalf of the Chinese team, released the UNEP-China-Africa Cooperation Program: Enhancing the Role of Ecosystem Management in Climate Change Adaptation Report" jointly with UNEP.
Release of the UNEP-China-Africa Cooperation Programme: Enhancing the Role of Ecosystem Management in Climate Change Adaptation Report
Over the past 20 years, with the support of the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Commerce, and other ministries of China, and that of UNEP, UN-Habitat, and other UN agencies, LI Fengting has dedicated to research related to climate change and water resources in Africa. He also assisted in promoting the capacity building of officials and technicians in water resource management, extending new and applicable water treatment technologies, and cultivating environmental management talents for African countries.
Prof. LI Fengting was awarded the "Special Contribution Award for South-South Cooperation" issued by the UN Office for South-South Cooperation (UNOSSC) and was selected as one of the "Typical Characters in the 60 Years of Sino-African Friendship - Messenger of Water" by CCTV.
Source: https://news.tongji.edu.cn/info/1003/79653.htm
