Chinese water culture exhibited at the 2008 Zaragoza World Expo

According to Gong Qijun (vice-director of the exhibition department of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade) the Spanish Expo in Zaragoza will allow China to prepare to play host to the World Expo in 2010. "We attach great importance to the Zaragoza World Expo and consider it a rehearsal for the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. It's the first time a developing country will host the event," Gong said.

The winning bid has been designed by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Beijing Zhongjian Architect Ltd.

One of the main themes of the Chinese hall will be to exhibit water control achievements including the Chinese three gorges dam. This will probably be a topic in the Extreme Water Pavilion from the point of view of the power of water.

I have to say that the term of “developing country” might be not give the whole picture of a country such as China. I leave you with the wikipedia definition of a developing country a developing country has a relatively low standard of living, an underdeveloped industrial base, and a moderate to low human development index (HDI) score.…

Pd. The photo above is the only graphic material i could find on the Chinese exhibition hall at Expo Zaragoza 2008. If you have more info & photos please let me know.

The Water Tribune: third pillar of Expo Zaragoza 2008

What is the Water Tribune? Together with the exhibitions and performances, the Water Platform is a basic pillar of the Expo Zaragoza 2008. It is a space for reflection and discussion revolving around the global debate on Water and Sustainable Development through innovation. Reflection and discussion. This is good.

The United Nations reported that two-thirds of the world's population could be threatened by water shortages by 2025. It estimated that 1.2 billion people currently live in areas with insufficient water. That’s a lot!

If you want to know more n the subject, have a look at the human development report titled : " Beyond Scarcity: power, poverty and the global water crisis".

Zaragoza consumes 100 litres per inhanbitant per day…Los Angeles 400 Litres…. Rwanda has an average water consumption of 10 litres per person per day...

Best practices and behavioural changes are needed for the developed world. For the rest, development eg. see one great initiative in a previous blog entry and behavioral changes...

World (further) thinking on Water and Sustainable Development around the Expo Zaragoza 2008 will have a new reference text with the Zaragoza charter and a new (Water and Future) Foundation with aims to become a multi-disciplinary advisory office coordinated with the Secretariat of the United Nations Decade of Water (Zaragoza 2005-2015) which no doubt will contribute to the global attention and political momentum in favour of the water and sanitation agenda.

Depending on the results, we will see whether it materialize the vision of the organizers: coordination of United Nations bodies which address water problems at various levels to take place into one organization based in Zaragoza. This is the long term goal, to establish a permanent secretariat after 2015….

La “Cesta”: Aragon’s pavilion at Expo Zaragoza 2008

Aragon is the spanish region which hosts the Expo Zaragoza 2008 exhibition.

With a surface of more than 47.500 Km2 Aragon is larger than other European countries such as Denmark, Holland or Switzerland and… of course, much less known than them.

As I believe this to be a pity, I will use another post (or a lot of them, in fact) to let you know what you might be missing....

In this blog, I will concentrate on the Aragon’s pavilion (see above). It is quite curious that in a previous post I explained to you the curious shape of the Citizen’s initiative pavilion known as “el botijo” and now I have to explain another traditional pavilion: “la cesta”.

What’s a “cesta”? A basket. An how are they made? According to wikipedia the process consists on weaving unspun vegetable fibers together. 1 image is worth 1000 words so look on your left to see a basket being woven. Seems quite relaxing...

Pd. If you cannot wait to know more about Aragon, note that at the Aichi exhibition Aragon organized (within the Spanish Pavilion) an events week, with different activities which included Calanda drums and dancing performances.

What are Calanda drums? Here you are:
http://www.expo2005.or.jp/en/nations/release/pdf/050706_spain.pdf

Enjoy!

Be frank, buy Frank (water)…possibly maybe at Expo Zaragoza 2008

The theory is very simple. Booming bottled water market in the EU means… business?

Well, that depends. Imagine that you founded a company to market water bottles and you give (so naïve :) the net profits (100%) to technology based clean water projects around the world.

Uhmmm....a non profit company…
yeahh you’ve got it!

Now for a nano-second (not point in overheating neurons here ;) calculate how many thousands of bottles of water will be consumed in summer 2008 when the expected 6 million visitors gather in (semi-desertic) Zaragoza …ufff.

Hopefully this fascinating experience (water for water) will be supported at the Expo Zaragoza 2008…maybe by the Citizens Initiatives Pavillion.
Cheers,

NB: Frank is an independent, not for profit company founded in Bristol in 2005 by Katie Harrison and a small, dedicated voluntary team. They are all committed to the cause and believe whole-heartedly in the product’s aims. In the UK, the experience works as follows: every one litre of FRANK spring water bought helps fund 200 litres of clean, safe drinking water for villagers at the FRANK projects in India and Africa.
You ve got more info at: http://www.frankwater.com/