Swiss expert Andreas Goetz helps China drop by drop

[Photo by Liu Xiangrui/China Daily]

A Swiss water expert's long collaboration with his Chinese counterparts yields results. Liu Xiangrui reports.

Andreas Goetz, a Swiss expert on water management, considers his work in China for more than a decade a great success.

"We first made a rope of cooperation. Now, it has developed into a net," the-68-year-old says of the roles Chen Lei, China's water resources minister, and he have played on various projects.

The two men first met in 2001, when Goetz was deputy director of the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation.

In its journey to become a developed country, Switzerland has gained much experience in water management and has collected relevant data for years.

During their interactions, the two experts found that both countries were pursuing similar goals in water management, and the first joint project began in 2002 after news of a Yangtze River flood drew Goetz's attention.

He wrote an e-mail to Chen, asking if Swiss experts could do anything to help.

When Chen replied, "a friend in need is a friend indeed", Goetz's organization sent a team to assist China in building a hydrological-forecast and warning system in the Yangtze basin.

The project, which used technologies developed in Switzerland, proved worthwhile. In the following year, when Chen invited Goetz to personally inspect the project, they decided to collaborate long term.

Since then, workshops on technical issues related to water have been held every two years, alternatively in both countries, with Chinese and Swiss officials and experts attending.

After a successful workshop in 2008, the two sides signed a Sino-Swiss cooperation agreement that enables not only high-level exchanges but also the joint undertaking of projects.

"The development of the water sector cannot be realized in a sustainable way without the support and cooperation of the international community," says Goetz.