A tripartite collaboration between China, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and 16 African countries has achieved considerable success in water resources management and water-saving agriculture.

The China-Africa Cooperation Program for Environment in Africa, signed in November 2008, is implemented under the Africa Ministerial Conference on Environment (AMCEN) and the African Union (AU). Having proved an immense success in South-South cooperation, the agreement was renewed in November 2011 to initiate four regional projects for Phase II of the cooperation.

Annually, since 2008, China has published a white paper for adoption of sustainable social, economic and political systems and institutions that promote socioeconomic equality, equal rights to resources and a healthy environment. Under the water pillar, this year's report notes that many people have been trained in cost-saving sustainable land management, rainwater harvesting and dry land agriculture. Under the renewed agreement, China and other participating countries have carried joint technical training on water supply, drinking water treatment, maintenance of water works, waste water treatment and recycling. The pact promotes technology transfer, exchange of experience and technical support to enhance efficient water resources management and safe supply.

The tripartite collaboration combines comparative advantages of China and UNEP to offer technology transfer and capacity building in these African countries. In July 2014, the implementing partners released a report in Nairobi, cataloguing successes in water resources planning, water-saving techniques, early drought alerts and technologies for combating desertification. The report comes on the heels of a landmark collaboration between China and UNEP to help African countries achieve environmental sustainability and combat climate change. Signed in May 2014 by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner, the agreement promises to harness strengths, capacities and resources to assist the Global South.

The report hails results in water security and sustainability in Africa. It calls for dissemination of knowledge and sharing the successful practice on a wider scale. This will be done through exchange of information amongst scientific and scholarly circles. It will also be used to influence decision making to create awareness on the environmental challenges.

Lead expert Chen Linhao from the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) lauds the collaboration for improving understanding and capacity of African countries in rainwater harvesting, waste water reuse and adaptation to drought and sustainable ecosystem management. According to Chen, the pact encourages rainwater harvesting to augment water resources and ecosystems management. For example, experts from the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology have done water quality monitoring in Lake Tanganyika.

The collaboration enlists both Chinese and African experts in joint research, training courses, scholarly exchange and equipment donations. Through Chinese aid, a major laboratory in Kigoma, Tanzania, carries out low-cost but long-term water quality monitoring for the four countries sharing the lake - Tanzania, Zambia, Burundi and Democratic Republic of the Congo.

"The Chinese aid came at the right time, with the fresh water in lake [Tanganyika] heavily polluted and this compromised water quality, thus [creating] public health risks," said current AMCEN President and Tanzanian Environment Minister Dr. Terezya L. Huvisa.

Hailed as a panacea to perennial water problems in Africa, the cooperation has trained many in cost-saving sustainable land management, rainwater harvesting and dryland agriculture. "Our scientists from Tongji University work closely with the nine Nile partner states to solve pollution through water quality monitoring and treatment," said Li Fengting, the team leader.

The multi-sectoral project relies on science and technology to enhance African countries' resilience to climate change and improve living standards. Since its establishment, African experts have learnt sustainable management of dryland agriculture, sustainable land management and combating desertification.

For personnel development, technical training has been conducted in water resources, environmental protection and combating desertification. "Many technical officers and farmers from Africa have benefitted, with 300 trained in China while another 800 are beneficiaries of in-country training in Africa," said AMCEN representative to UNEP Mounkaila Goumandakoye.CA

(Reporting from Kenya)