Sustainability at One | French-Sino Collaboration Drives Eco-friendliness Focusing on Water in Wuhan
People look for economic development and prosperity, but they also cherish a healthy and highly sustainable living environment. These two wishes could be complementary instead of contradictory to each other.
In early November, the French Embassy to China unveiled its annual “Franco-Chinese Month of Environment” which is entitled “Blue Planet”. Throughout the month, a series of educational, cultural and scientific activities were staged in some 20 Chinese cities to call for the public’s attention on the current environmental challenges of the globe, and more importantly how everyone could pitch in upholding a sustainable world.
The “Blue Planet” program set its focus on Wuhan from November 16 to 18, 2022 with a series of intriguing activities promoting sustainability focusing on “water”.
On November 16, an exhibition entitled “River, Weather and Human” was staged at the China-EU Institute for Clean and Renewable Energy (ICARE) at Huazhong University of Science and Technology. ICARE Is one of the major programmes of the China-EU higher education cooperation platform under the project of the China-EU high-level cultural exchange and dialogue mechanism. It is the first major cooperation program between Chinese government and European Commission in the field of engineering education.
On November 17, senior representatives of French Consulate General in Wuhan led a group of students of ICARE to pay a familiarisation visit to the Sino-French Water Development Company Limited (SFWDC) in Wuhan.
Wuhan Chemical Industry Park (the Park) lies on the Yangtze River that produces and supplies petrochemical products, mainly an annual output of 800,000 tons of ethylene, for the Central China region. The Chinese leader once dubbed Yangtze River as “China’s Mother River” and called for all-out efforts to protect the river.
SFWDC was established in a bid to ensure that the Park would enable sustainable economic development in the Yangtze River area. It is a joint venture between Sino French Water Development Company Limited and Wuhan Chemical Industry Park, Degremont Water Treatment Systems (Beijing) Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Chemical Industry Park.
Currently SFWDC is able to process 10,000 tons of waste water a day, and its maximum daily capacity could reach 50,000 tons.
On November 18, French Consulate General in Wuhan, Agence française de développement together with Sino French Ecological Demonstration City Investment and Development Co. Ltd. organized a familisation visit to Lake Shi for university students to understand its biodiversity recovery and water conservancy program. The Lake Shi program is being supported by Agence française de développement within its funding and feasibility research framework. The participants of the visit included students of related disciplines from Wuhan University, Alliance Française Chine and France Alumni.
