Preface

   ---Since the founding of the People's Republic of China over 50 years ago, and particularly since the country's opening up and reform period, the Chinese government has been stressing the development of SHP, small hydropower - a clean, renewable energy which plays a significant role in supplying energy for both rural production and daily life, poverty alleviation, environmental improvement, promotion of the local economy and social progress.

    In the past 20 years, the attention given to hydropower and rural electrification by the world community has also been increasing. A number of international conferences, including the <World Summit on Sustainable Development> held in Johannesburg, South Africa in 2002 and the <Ministerial Declaration> issued at the Third World Water Forum held in Kyoto, Japan in March 2003, have appealed for more utilization of all renewable energy sources, including hydropower. A new era of greater development for this thriving green energy has come.

    Co-sponsored by the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources, Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, and UNDP/UNIDO, the Hangzhou Regional (Asia-Pacific) Center for Small Hydropower (HRC for short) located in Hangzhou was set up in 1981, with the main aim of promoting SHP international exchange and cooperation in the Region. Through great efforts over the past 20 years or so, HRC has contributed much to SHP training, R+D, consultation and information dissemination, and has been praised and appreciated by the world community. <Rural Hydropower and Electrification in China>, edited by the Center, gives a comprehensive and in-depth introduction to the main experience and technology of rural hydropower and electrification in China, as a reference for global colleagues working in the hydropower sector. It is a valuable attempt in international SHP exchange and I am very happy to write this preface for the book.

    There is a Western proverb which goes: "Giving someone one fish is just enough for one meal; teaching him how to fish enables him to provide himself and others with even more fish." I hope that the publication of this book will have the effect described in a Chinese proverb of "casting a brick so as to attract jade".