On the basis of the MoU between CAS and The Ministry of City Planning and Water Supply (MCP&WS), the deputy director general of the Bureau of International Cooperation, Mr. Huasheng QIU, and the deputy director of RCEES, Prof. Min YANG, led a CAS delegation to visit Sri Lanka during 18-25 Oct, 2015.

The delegation visited Colombo, Kandy, Anuradhapura and Jaffna, held meetings with MCP & WS, Ministry of health, the National Board of Water Supply and Drainage (NBWSD), the government of Jaffna District, University of Peradeniya, University of Jaffna and Rajarata University, respectively, and attended the Workshop on Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology (CKDu) chaired by the Secretary of MCP&WS, Mr. B.M.U.D. Basnayake. As one of the key activities, the delegation visited the proposed sites for the construction of the building of “China-Sri Lanka Joint Center for water Technology Research and Demonstration″ and the pilot plant for ground water purification. Meanwhile, the delegation visited the CKDu patients in three villages. Finally, the delegation investigated the water supply situation in Jaffna Peninsula according to the suggestion by the Minister of MCP & WS, Mr.Rauff Hakeem.

Shanghai Advanced Research Institute, Institute of Intelligent Machines, Institute of Hydrobiology, and some Chinese water companies accompanied the visit. Sri Lanka MCP&WS attached great importance to the visit of CAS delegation. They have made a well designed visiting schedule, and assigned the Additional Secretary, Mr. Muinudeen, to accompany the delegation for the entirevisit. The CAS delegation preliminarily determined the sites for “China-SriLanka Joint Center for Water Technology Research and Demonstration″ and pilot plant study, and worked out a plan for next step cooperation. In the end ofvisit, Mr. Rauff Hakeem, the minister of MCP&WS, and Mr. Xianliang Yi, the Chinese Ambassador to Sri Lanka, met with the CAS delegation, respectively. Both of them highly praised the achievement of the cooperation, and made some constructive suggestions for future cooperation.

Meanwhile, CAS donated four water quality analysis equipments with a total value of one Million RMB, which were manufactured by Lihe Technology (Hunan) Co., Ltd. This equipment would enhance the capacity of water quality analysis for NBWSD of Sri Lanka.

Recently years, the CAS-TWAS CEWE aims to culture the professionals in the water and environmental fields for the developing world through various training, education and joint research programs. CEWE has created an innovative model including three major elements:personnel training, technology development, and follow-up by industries. Thismodel is well accepted by the developing countries.