On October 19, Mr. Koike Toshio, Director of the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) under the auspices of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), visited IWHR to discuss joint efforts for relief of water-related disasters.

IWHR and ICHARM have been maintaining cooperation, which has been playing an active role in reducing water-related disasters, reminisced Dr. Liu Yi, Vice President of IWHR. He introduced China’s disaster relief principles of combining disaster preparedness, control and rescue with a focus on preparedness and integrating routine disaster reduction and emergency response, while swithching from emphasizing post-disaster relief to focusing on pre-disaster preparedness, from targeting individual disaster types to comprehensive disaster response, and from disaster loss reduction to disaster risk mitigation. He also briefed the four-point initiative calling for stronger solidarity and synergy to achieve water-related SDGs noted by China’s Water Resources Minister Li Guoying at the United Nations 2023 Water Conference earlier this year.

IWHR will further enhance dialogue and cooperation with ICHARM and other UN organizations and specialized agencies, said Dr. Liu. The institute will work together with international counterparts for the implementation of the UN Water Action Agenda and other global initiatives and jointly promote sustainable water-related disaster risk management.

Professor Koike Toshio appreciated IWHR’s research achievements and its network of international partnerships, as well as China’s coordinated efforts of promoting water resources development and mitigating water-related disasters. He pointed out that the world needs interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral action as well as public awareness rasing for water-related disaster relief against the backdrop of climate change, and hoped that IWHR and ICHARM could leverage their domestic and international resources to jointly advance cross-border research and exchange on relief of water-related disasters.

Professor Koike Toshio also lectured on “An Integrated Challenge for Research, Education, and Information Networking” at IWHR’s Global Vision Forum during his visit.