STORY: Int'l experts discuss water treatment technologies in Sri Lanka
SHOOTING TIME: Dec. 16-17, 2024
DATELINE: Dec. 19, 2024
LENGTH: 00:01:37
LOCATION: KANDY, Sri Lanka
CATEGORY: SCIENCE

SHOTLIST:
1. various of the building of the China-Sri Lanka Joint Research and Demonstration Center
2. various of the symposium
3. various of the exhibition
4. SOUNDBITE (English): LAWRANCE MADAPATHA, Executive director at Board of Investment of Sri Lanka

STORYLINE:

An international symposium on climate resilient water supply and a water technology exhibition were held in Kandy, Sri Lanka from Dec. 16 to 17.

Both events were jointly organized by the Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and the China-Sri Lanka Joint Research and Demonstration Center for Water Technology (JRDC). Experts and scholars from six countries and regions discussed water treatment technologies and expertise in addressing climate change.

In his speech, S. K. Weragoda, director of JRDC, said climate change has had a serious impact on agriculture, economy, and society in Sri Lanka in recent years, and that many countries represented by the attending experts face similar challenges. He expressed his hope that the experts would share their valuable insights and advanced experiences to provide reference for Sri Lanka.

Chronic Kidney Disease of Unknown Etiology (CKDu) was a major public health issue in Sri Lanka, with over 40,000 people suffering from it since the mid-1990s, statistics showed.

In 2016, then Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena called the disease a "national disaster" that affected 20,828 patients and caused 5,000 deaths per year.

In March 2015, China and Sri Lanka officially launched a joint research cooperation on CKDu and drinking water security, providing safe drinking water to over 5,000 villagers and more than 1,300 students over the following years.

SOUNDBITE (English): LAWRANCE MADAPATHA, Executive director of the Board of Investment of Sri Lanka
"We've been in the institution which promotes foreign direct investment to the country, BOI (Board of Investment), we have been working with them to identify new technologies to convert into a normal economy to a green economy, so that's the concept. In this forum and the exhibition, I understood that a lot of technologies are there for our industries to get connected and see whether they can implement in their industries to harness new technology and then reduce their energy consumption and get more renewable energies into their action, likewise, so I think that's a very good initiative."
Xinhua News Agency correspondents reporting from Kandy, Sri Lanka.
(XHTV)