Xiangzhou District, Zhuhai

A “sponge city” is one that can hold, clean, and drain water in a natural way using an environmentally friendly approach. A seminar focused on urban aquatic management and the advanced practices and theories from the Netherlands was held in Zhuhai on June 21.

“The seminar held in Zhuhai signifies a new era and start of a long-term Sino-Netherlands cooperation. Facing various challenges of urban aquatic management, the Netherlands has accumulated rich experience to share with Zhuhai at this seminar,” said Guo Meiyao, the Netherlands’ consul-general in Guangzhou.

Pan Ming, vice-mayor of Zhuhai, said that, frequent exchanges between Zhuhai and cities of the Netherlands and their enterprises have laid a solid foundation for bilateral cooperation. Zhuhai welcomes specialists and entrepreneurs to share experience and ideas, and to participate in Zhuhai’s construction of a “sponge city”.

Du Ting, deputy director-general of the Guangdong Department of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, said that “Zhuhai has been selected as one of the nation’s ‘sponge city’ pilots. Zhuhai’s experience is significant for the success of this project. Zhuhai should be developed in a fresh way—route out the problems, set the goals, complete the projects, and operate it well.”

Up until now, Zhuhai has established a project library, and introduced relative ancillary planning, working program, technical guide, and an atlas to build a sponge city. Preliminary work for most projects has been carried out, meanwhile, Zhuhai is moving forward on drainage basins, and exploring the PPP (public-private partnership) financing model.

Hosts of this seminar included embassies and consulates of the Netherlands in China, China-EU low-carbon city project management office of Zhuhai, and Zhuhai Housing and Urban-Rural Planning and Construction Bureau. Five world-class institutions related to water control participated as well, including KCAP, Arcadis, Ewaters Environmental Science & Technology Co, KuiperCompagnons, and OMA.