Chinanews, Beijing, Sept. 28 – The European Union, the World Bank and the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources on Tuesday kicked off a joint-funded program in Wuhan in Hubei province. The program aims to improve the natural conditions in the Yangtze River and Pearl River delta regions. EU has donated 10 million euros to the program for soil conservation in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River where the economy is relatively poor.

 

By applying biophysical means and other methods, the program aims to raise utilization efficiency of natural resources and local resources in those places. The World Bank has provided big loans for the program. Chinese government has also allocated a large sum of money. With EU donation, the program can further cover the poor places in the upper reaches of the Yangtze River.

 

Meanwhile, EU has also worked with the Ministry of Water Resources, the General Administration of Environmental Protection, the Yangtze River Water Conservation Committee and the Yellow River Resource Committee to jointly set up the EU-China River Management Program, under which EU will provide 15 million euros. The program aims to explore new means to better manage the Yangtze and Yellow rivers. Methods used in the management program will be applied to a related program that focuses on problem solving, so that they can achieve more effective results when working together. The EU-China River Management Program will be kicked off in January 2007 and last for 5 years. It is expected that methods used in this program can serve as a good example for similar river management issues in other parts of China.