An international symposium on " sustainable and safe water supplies" opened in Hong Kong Monday with water resource experts from the worldwide to discuss and share their expertise.

The 2-day symposium comprises topics on "water conservation and reuse", "water resource management and environmental policy" and "river basin ecological status and toxic/pathogen detection technology."

Professor David Dudgeon from the department of Ecology and Biodiversity of University of Hong Kong talked about the ecological status of Asian rivers and its implications for biodiversity conservation.

He said that a significant obstacle to the conservation of riverine biodiversity in Asia has been a lack of consideration for environmental allocations of water needed to maintain ecosystem integrity and sustain biota.

Human demands from agriculture and industry dominate water-allocation policies and in-stream flow needs have not been addressed adequately, which Dudgeon said should be a priority for collaborative research between engineers, water managers and ecologists.

One key issue is identification of the ecological attributes of the biota that facilitate their persistence in human-dominated rivers, as well as those features that increase vulnerability to change, he said.

According to Dudgeon, in Asia, habitat rehabilitation to sustain riverine biodiversity will be possible only if the relevant scientific information is acquired, communicated and applied with urgency.

Also dealt with the topic about river conservation, Professor Stuart Bunn from Griffith University of Australia said that projected increases of human population are likely to lead to further degradation of riparian areas, intensification of the hydrological cycle and increase in the discharge of diffuse and point source pollutants.

In turn, these catchment changes will undoubtedly place increasing pressure on the health of coastal ecosystems, he said.

Bunn said that Southeast Queensland of Australia also faced the challenges for ecological sustainable management of rivers and coastal ecosystems in face of population and climate change.

In response to those challenges, the Australian government, industry and community stakeholders have worked in close cooperation to develop a whole-of-government, whole-of-community approach to understanding and managing the region's waterways.

Bunn said that during the process, a range of implementation including upgrade of sewage treatment plants, improvement of planning regions and rehabilitation of riparian vegetation and establishment of a multi-disciplinary science and research program that underpinned the management action program and monitors its effectiveness.

When addressing the challenges of water resources management in Chinese Mainland, member of Chinese National Academy of Engineering Qian Yi said there is an urgent need to implement sustainable management strategy of water resources for solving water crisis.

Qian said that major components of the strategy include taking demand control and water conservation as the priority; increasing investment and develop appropriate technologies for wastewater treatment; and developing untraditional water resources such as rain water harvesting and wastewater reuse. However, there is still long way to go for implementing such strategy.

(Xinhua News Agency January 16, 2007)