The former president Professor Miodrag Zlatic, current president Professor Rui Li and vice president Jose L. Rubio of World Association of Soil and Water Conservation (WASWAC) visited China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research (IWHR) on June 29, 2019. Prof. Shangfu Kuang, the president of IWHR, Prof. Wenhong Cao, the chief engineer of IWHR, Prof. Duihu Ning, the vice director of International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation (IRTCES), and Prof. Jianli Zhang, the director of Division of International Cooperation of IWHR, attended the meeting. The two sides exchanged ideas on deepening the cooperation and future work among WASWAC, IWHR and IRTCES.

President Kuang first expressed a warm welcome to WASWAC president and his delegation to visit IWHR and appreciated WASWAC for its continuous support for IWHR and IRTCES. In particular, he was deeply grateful for President Rui Li, on behalf of WASWAC, attending the leaders’ roundtable meeting of water related international organizations held by IWHR last October, where he signed the Beijing Declaration on Sustainable Water Development with leaders of other international organizations. President Kuang pointed out that since IWHR and IRTCES officially took over WASWAC secretariat in 2010, the secretariat has made great progress in the past ten years. Major works included the success of absorbing more than 500 new members, founding of the English journal International Soil and Water Conservation Research, improving the service for WASWAC members, and ensuring the support for secretariat in human resources, material resources and financial input.

The former president Zlatic, president Li and the vice president Rubio expressed their appreciation for the warm reception of IWHR. They reviewed the strong support from IWHR for WASWAC secretariat in the past ten years and recognized the work done by the secretariat. They stated that WASWAC, as an international organization with a comprehensive academic coverage and strong academic nature in the field of soil and water conservation, has been famous for its extensive coverage of subjects, close membership network and high academic output. In contemporary world, sustainable development has become a common goal of the international community, among which the basic supporting role of water and cross-field linkage are crucial. The effective soil and water conservation and soil management will surely play a key role. This brings us both pressure and opportunity. Thus, the future work of WASWAC should focus on the sustainable development goals of the United Nations, strive to expand the international application and influence of WACAT, and provide new scientific and technological support for the international water society in the aspects of soil agricultural productivity improvement, soil ecological function conservation and satisfactory soil management.

The two sides also exchanged views and discussed on the expansion of research funding, the improvement of publication quality and the preparation of the WASWAC World Conference IV.

After the meeting, the president and his delegation were also invited to visit the Institute of Water Resources for Pastoral Area. This institute is the only scientific research institution specializing in water resources research in pastoral areas in China. The soil and water conservation and ecology of grassland is one of their key research focuses. Over the past years, it has accumulated extensive and distinctive scientific achievements in the relevant research fields, which helped promoting the development of the discipline of soil and water conservation and sharing experience all over the world.