The 11^th Forum on China’s Rural Water Environment Governance and the Forum on Environmental Infrastructures in Rural Area were grandly held on October 13^th to 16^th in Yixing, the city known for its prosperous environmental protection industry. The forums were jointly organized by the Environmental Technology and Industry Branch of the "One Belt & One Road" Alliance of International Science Organizations (ANSO), Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS),and Ecological Municipal Construction Committee （EMCC）of China Municipal Engineering Association (CMEA).More than 600 representatives from relevant national ministries and commissions, local governments, universities, research institutes, and industries from different sectors attended the forums.

Lu Yingfang, President of China Municipal Engineering Association (CMEA) and former inspector of Village and Town Construction Department of the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development(MOHURD), delivered a speech at the meeting. He pointed out that China has over 20,000 small towns, 10,000 townships, 500,000 administrative villages and 2 million natural villages. There are great differences in the economical, social, and climatic conditions in different regions. Chinese government attaches great importance to improving the rural living environment. The three-year action plan was implemented in 2018, followed by a five-year action plan, focusing on rural sewage treatment and waste management. He spoke highly of such an unprecedented event on the construction of the rural environmental infrastructures.

Lu Yingfang, President of China Municipal Engineering Association

Yang Min, Deputy Director of the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences (RCEES) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Director of the Ecological Municipal Construction Committee of the China Municipal Engineering Association, gave a brief review of the efforts of RCEES, CAS on the environmental infrastructure construction in rural areas. In 2008, the Northern Research Center for Rural Sewage Treatment Technology of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Rural Development was established to systematically study the technology, policy, standard and mode of rural sewage treatment. ANSO Environmental Technology and Industry Alliance was established in July 2020, and the Ecological Municipal Construction Committee of China Municipal Engineering Association (CMEA) was set up in May 2021. The vision is also expanded from rural sewage to the environmental infrastructure construction in rural areas. At the same time, he also addressed the vision in supporting the countries along the Belt & Road in achieving SDG6 with China's technology and wisdom.

Jia Bo, Senior Affairs Officer of ANSO Secretariat, introduced the position of ANSO and its vision to promote and implement innovative international scientific initiatives and promote the construction of a community with a shared future for mankind. He believes that strengthening water environment governance is a key task faced and concerned by China and other countries along Belt & Road. The relevant activities of water environment governance are the priority support area of ANSO, and this forum provides a powerful practice for ANSO to boost the development of water environment industry. 

Jia Bo, Senior Affairs Officer of ANSO Secretariat

Zhou Feng, Deputy Mayor of Yixing, and Ling Jianjun, Chairman of Lingzhi Environmental Protection Group, also addressed in the forum.

"China Rural Water Environment Governance Forum" is a rural environmental technology exchange platform jointly created by RCEES,CAS and the Journal of Water Industry Market. Over the past 11 years, the forum has promoted the Industry-University-Research cooperation and witnessed the emergence of China's rural sewage treatment industry from scratch, and from chaos to governance, from imitation to creation. As the first meeting following the establishment of the Ecological Municipal Construction Committee （EMCC） of the China Municipal Engineering Association (CMEA), this forum has greatly expanded the field of exchange. In addition to the traditional rural sewage treatment module, it has also added three topics of the toilets, garbage, and water supply in rural areas, with a total of 45 main-forum reports and 31 sub-forum reports. Qu Jiuhui, Xu Zuxin, and Ren Hongqiang, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, were invited to make keynote reports on "Strategic Research on Rural Drinking Water Security in Poverty-Stricken Areas", "Practice of Ecological Treatment of Rural Domestic Sewage in Eastern China" and "Thinking on the Standardization of Rural Sewage Treatment Equipment". They have pointed out the direction for the construction of rural environmental infrastructures in the future.

Table Talk: "How to realize the resource utilization of rural sewage and how to promote the ecological development of urban and rural environment under the background of carbon peak, carbon neutralization and rural revitalization?"

On October 16, the forum also organized the technical visit to the pilot of Yixing rural sewage treatment project and Production and R & D base of Lingzhi Environmental Protection Group, more than 200 representatives participated.

Technical visit to the pilot of Yixing rural sewage treatment project

Visit Production and R & D base of Lingzhi Environmental Protection Group