Experts from the Sino-Swiss Dam Safety Enhancement Program gather in Embassy of Switzerland in China on April 26, 2016. [Photo: CRIENGLISH/Meng Xue]

The five-year Sino-Swiss Dam Safety Enhancement Program is almost complete.

It's the first cooperation of its kind between China and Switzerland, aiming to boost people-to-people exchange.

The program, called DaSEP for short, is one of the cooperation projects within the framework of a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the Chinese and the Swiss governments in 2009.

Philippe Zahner is a counselor with the Embassy of Switzerland in China.

"(Through the project) we would see how we can maintain the dams in China what we should be done. And another important thing for expert is surveillance, surveillance for the dam safety. It's something like China thinks it could learn from Switzerland. Therefore, the goal is to improve the management systems and guidelines which can be used on dam safety here in China."

China has thousands of small-and medium-sized dams, mainly in the southwest of the country. Those dams have played a significant role in irrigation and water conservancy, as well as flood and drought control.

However, most of these dams were built in the 1950s, and regular maintenance has been lacking.

In May 2008, a magnitude-8 earthquake hit Wenchuan County, Sichuan Province, causing severe damage to nearly 70 dams. Some of them collapsed.

Switzerland, whose hydro power accounts for about 60 percent of its total power production, is experienced in terms of dam safety management.

DaSEP official Patrice Droz says the safety cooperation has two missions.

"One preliminary mission is sending the Chinese people to Switzerland, another one is sending the Swiss people to China. The objective of the two missions is that ask experts to give a good presentation of the dam system organizations in all aspects in both China and Switzerland."

Experts from the two countries have monitored and repaired the dams which were damaged by the Wenchuan earthquake.

Currently, those dams have basically returned to operation.

Wu Suhua, senior engineer of the Dam Safety Management Center of the Ministry of Water Resources, says DaSEP is a new attempt to promote people-to-people exchange between the two sides.

"We sent a number of specialists to Switzerland and study Swiss best practices based on their concept of Dam Safety. These specialists have become trainers after they come back. They can share their knowledge, experiences and safety concepts to domestic engineers. Meanwhile, through the DaSEP, we have also established good relationship with Swiss engineers. Experts from both countries have frequently organized workshops on dam safety enhancement. I believe that these moves are very helpful to our long-term cooperation."

DaSEP is expected to be fully completed by end of this year.