First Meeting of IWA Fellows Greater China Interest Group in Beijing

Updated on 18 October, 2017

The IWA Fellows Greater China Interest Group (IWA-FGCIG) held its first meeting during the “15th IWA World Conference on Anaerobic Digestion” in Beijing on October 18, 2017. The IWA Fellows who attended the meeting include Nanqi Ren, Xia Huang, Aijie Wang, Yujie Feng, Xiaojun Fan, Hongying Hu and Xiaochang Wang from the Greater China region. David Garman, Helmut Kroiss, Bruce Rittmann, Bruce Logan, Per Halkjær Nielsen, Jules van Lier and Gustaf Olsson also attended from other countries. Tao Li from the IWA China Regional Office, Mark Hammmond from IWA Publishing, Ruiping Liu and Rong Chen were also invited to attend the meeting on behalf of IWA China Young Water Professionals.

Chaired by Xiaochang and Xia, IWA Fellow Steering Committee Members and Co-Conveners of IWA-FGCIG, the meeting started with brief self-introduction of all attendees. Then, Xia gave a brief introduction to the IWA Fellow Program, and Xiaochang explained the background and basic considerations for organizing the IWA- FGCIG. These were followed by addresses by Nanqi on behalf of the Academic Advisers of IWA-FGCIG, and David on behalf of the IWA Fellow Steering Committee. Both of them pointed out the importance of networking among IWA Fellows through organizing such kind of regional groups and expressed their wishes for the contribution of IWA-FGCIG to regional and global water issues. On behalf of the IWA China Regional Office, Tao gave a brief and comprehensive presentation on IWA activities and stressed the great progress made in Greater China region.

Regarding a number of proposed topics on what IWA-FGCIG can do, all attendees expressed their ideas and provided valuable suggestions. The followings are the key points that will help IWA-FGCIG to perform its roles:

-          Utilizing IWA regional and global events to hold group meetings to bring together IWA Fellows for exchanging information and discussing issues of common interests.

-          Utilizing available media and communication tools to facilitate wide networking.

-          Strengthening the linkage between IWA Fellows and young water professionals to benefit their capacity building.

-          Expanding “Fellows +” activities to draw wider attention from IWA members to the IWA Fellows program.

-          Bridging between IWA and other water-related associations to promote strong international linkages.

-          Paying more attention to water industries to expand the coverage of IWA activities.

It was also confirmed at the meeting that IWA-FGCIG is an informal group related to the IWA Fellow Program for networking. IWA-FGCIG has been initiated by the Conveners and participated voluntarily by Fellows who are interested in regional water issues. IWA-FGCIG has currently gathered 21 IWA Fellows and Distinguished Fellows in the Greater China region including the Mainland, Taiwan, Macao and Hong Kong, as well as oversea Chinese Fellows who are working in China within special talent programs. In addition, it is proposed to have Jiuhui Qu and Nanqi Ren, Members of the Chinese Academy of Engineering as Academic Advisers, and invite David Garman and Julian Sandino, Co-Chairs of the IWA Fellow Steering Committee, as Honorable Members. IWA-FGCIG thanks all the IWA Fellows attending the AD Conference from other countries and regions for participating in this meeting and welcomes more IWA Fellows who are interested in Greater China regional issues to join the subsequent meetings and related activities organized by IWA-FGCIG.

During the meeting

All attendants at the meeting

Group photo