Guarantee Sustainable Economic and

 Social Development in China with

Sustainable Utilization of Freshwater

By H.E. Mr. Chen Lei

Vice Minister of Water Resources

The People’s Republic of China

3-7 December 2001, Bonn

As the mankind has stepped into the 21^st century, the freshwater shortage and water environment degradation have become the major factors affecting sustainable economic and social development in the world. It has become a wide consensus among various governments and water resources managers to realize the importance or world water safety and take immediate actions. The ministers from the different countries have come to Bonn to discuss the freshwater challenges and coordinate the relevant activities so as to get prepared for the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Rio + 10) to be held next year, which has both practical and long-reaching historical significance for further promoting sustainable utilization of water resources and world sustainable economic and social development.

I would like to take this opportunity to brief the participants of the Conference on China’s issues and policies regarding water resources and its sustainable development as follows:

1.General introduction on water resources in China

Located in the eastern part of the European and Asian continent. China has a large territory and numerous water systems. The total amount of water resources is 2800 billion m³, including 2700 billion m³ river runoff.

The main features of water resources in China:

l.1. Limited per capita water resources. The per capita water resources in China is only 2220 m³, which is 1/4 of the world average.

1.2. Uneven spatial distribution. The distribution of water and land resources is not in line with the distribution of productivity. In the south, the population accounts for 46.5% of the national total, arable land 35.2%, GDP 54.8%and water resources amount to 80.5%of the national total. In the north, the population accounts for 53.5% of the national total, arable land 64.8%, GDP 45.2% and water resources is however only 1 9.5% of the national total. North China suffers from serious drought and water shortage.

1.3. Uneven timing distribution and concentrated precipitation. In most areas, the precipitation in four months from June to September during the flood season accounts for over 70% of annual precipitation. Between different years, the precipitation in wet years is 2.8 times of that in dry years. Moreover, it is quite common to have several wet years or dry years consecutively. These features have made China a country with frequent flood and drought disasters, regional water shortage and fragile ecosystem. Freshwater plays a crucial role in the national development.

2. Water resources development and utilization in China

China’s 5000-year civilization is a history of the Chinese people fighting against flood and drought disasters since the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the Chinese government has led the people to develop water resources on a large scale and achievements attracting worldwide attention have been made. By 2000, China had constructed 85.000 reservoirs of various kinds with the total storage capacity of 510 billion m³ and built 270, 000 km dikes to form a primary flood control engineering system for 1arge rivers and lakes, which has basically controlled frequent floods and guaranteed safety, water supply capacity of water projects had reached 580 billion m³ and effective irrigation area amounted to 820 million mu[1], including 280 million mu water-saving irrigation area, which has formed a sound rural irrigation and drainage engineering system. The food grain production in irrigation districts accounts for over 2/3 of the national total food grain production. Therefore China is able to feed 22% of the world population with 10% of the world arable land China had also controlled 800 000 km² of water and soil erosion area, developed 76, 800 MW of hydro power and 653 poverty-stricken counties in the mountainous area realized primary rural electrification. In water resources management, according to the principles of combining river basin management and regional management and management at various levels. China had established five levels of water management at the national, river basin, provincial, city and county levels respectively. China had also issued such laws as “Water Law”, “Flood Control Law”, “Water and Soil Conservation Law” and “Water Pollution Prevention and Contro1 Law”, and legalized water-drawing permit system and water resources utilization upon payment system. Water resources development has contributed greatly to the economic development and social stability.

In 2000 the national total water consumption is 549.8 billion m³, out of which, the agricultural water use is 378.4 billion m³, accounting for 68 8%; the industrial water use is 113.9 billion m³, accounting for 20.7%, and the domestic water use is 57.5 billion m³, accounting for 10.5%. The national average water resources utilization has reached 20%. Overall per capita water use is 430 m³, the water use of l0, 000 Yuan GDP is 610 m³, water use of l0, 000 Yuan industrial output is 78 m³, water use of agricultural irrigation is 479 m³ per mu, domestic water use in urban areas is 219 liter/person/day, domestic water use in rural areas is 89 liter/person/day. The national total water supply has increased from 443.2 billion m³ in 1980 to 549.8 billion m³ in 2000. The total water supply has increased by nearly 100 billion m³ in 20 years. With the development of water-saving agriculture and promotion of water-saving irrigation, the proportion of agricultural irrigation water use in the total national water use has decreased from 97.1% in early 1950s to the present 68.8%. During the past 5 years, under the precondition of not increasing total agricultural water use, an effective irrigation area of 12 million mu has been added every year.

3.Main issues faced by China

3.1. Serious contradiction between water supply and demand. China suffers from water shortage, especially in the north. With the continuous increase of water demand for social and economic development, water has become a major restricting factor for China’s sustainable economic and social development. Based on preliminary estimation, agriculture suffers a water shortage of 30 billion m³ at present and more than 20 million of rural people are difficult of access to safe drinking water. There is insufficient water supply in over 400 cities out of the total 663 cities, which affects 200 billion Yuan industrial output. By 2030, the population in China will reach 1.6 billion and the per capita water resources will drop to around 1750 m³. In the meantime, the demand for water supply will become larger and larger with the improvement of people’s living standards and social and economic development. Therefore, the contradiction between water supply and demand will become even more serious.

3.2. Flood disaster is still the troublemaker of the Chinese nation. Over 70% of the national fixed assets, 44% of the population, 1/3 of the arable land and more than 620 cities are located in the middle and downstream of the major rivers, which are threatened by serious flood disasters. Since the devastating floods occurred on the Yangtze River in 1998, the Chinese government has sped up the construction of flood control projects, invested over 60 billion Yuan to enhance the dikes of such major rivers as the Yangtze River, the Yellow River and the Songhua River, and built and enhanced more than 30, 000 km dikes, which has greatly improved the flood control capacity Of these rivers. However, there are still 60% of the cities that have not reached national flood control standards. Almost half of the dikes still have various problems and flood detention areas have not developed enough safety measures. Besides, 50% of the sea dikes have not met designed standards and 40% of the reservoirs are operated despite different kinds of problems. There is still a big room for improvement of non-structural flood control measures. Meanwhile, with economic and social development and urbanization, the wealth and population in flood control areas have increased continuously, which has made flood control and safety even more important.

3.3.Water environment problem has become more and more serious. In 2000, the total discharge of industrial and urban domestic wastewater reached 62 billion tons, around 70% of which was released into rivers, 1akes and reservoirs directly without treatment. In the assessment of 110, 000 km of river courses, it is found that 41.3% of the fiver courses suffered from various degrees of pollution. In North China, annual over-exploitation of ground water reached more than 9 billion m³ and 69 ground water over-exploitation areas have been formed with the total area of 55, 000 km². In some areas, the shallow aquifer has been dried up. Water pollution has caused damages to human living environment and worsened the contradiction between water supply and demand.

3.4.Water and soil erosion has been worsened. Water and soil erosion areas in China have reached 3.67 million km², which is 38.2% of the total national territory. Water and soil erosion has not been curbed effectively. Many rivers and lakes in the north have been shrunk or dried up, some inland lakes are disappeared, the pastures have receded or dessertificated, natural oases have degraded and sand storm has increased.

4. Objectives of sustainable water resources utilization

4.1. Establish effective water supply and utilization system. Developing new sources and promoting water-saving will help to realize rational water allocation, raise water use efficiency and benefits, and develop a water-saving and pollution prevention society.

4.2. Establish a sound flood control and disaster reduction system. Strengthen the management of large rivers and lakes, construct the flood detention areas and develop the flood control dispatching and demanding systems with dikes as the basis and key water projects as the backbone, so that the flood control standards of the major flood control areas will meet the needs of economic development, and the safety of cities and some crucial areas guaranteed.

4.3. Establish a safe water ecosystem. It is necessary to prevent and control water pollution, protect water resources and carry out water and soil conservation so as to effectively control and reduce water and soil erosion and water pollution, raise the bearing capacity of water environment, and improve the human living environment.

4.4. Establish a modern water management system. A multi-level water management system will be established with the combination of fiver basin management and regional management on the basis of legal advancement, scientific innovation and system innovation. In this way, water resources will be under integrated management and real-time monitoring, and effective water allocation and water project management will be achieved to guarantee sound operation of water projects and make full use of overall project benefits.

5. Measures for sustainable water resources utilization

5.1.Optimal allocation. Formulate water resources planning, specify water resources macro control index, formulate water allocation schemes and indexes as well as guaranteed measures for provinces, river basins and the whole country; Coordinate domestic, production and ecosystem water use based on total allocated water amount, implement total water use control and quota management for different sectors and different water users, and also implement water-drawing permit; Formulate contingency water supply plan during dry seasons and prioritize water uses, and develop contingency policies and measures to guarantee water use safety; Optimize inter-river basin and inter-region water allocation on the basis of scientific research and analysis; Formulate water rights and rotation systems suitable for the country’s situation and market economy.

5.2. Effective protection. To formulate water resources protection program of major rivers, rationally divide water function areas, specify the waste carrying amount of river systems and the total discharge of various pollutants so as to realize total amount control for waste discharge; Establish a economic compensation system for water resources protection and ecosystem rehabilitation, formulate GDP statistics index for pollution control; Specify water source protection zones, guarantee safe drinking water for urban and rural population, issue water quality reports of water source every ten days for cities with the population over 200.000; Readjust industrial structure and encourage clean production so as to control pollution at the source; Implement waste water discharge permit.

5.3. Effective utilization. Formulate national policies on water-saving, designate micro water use quota for different areas, different sectors and different products, water use index of 10, 000 yuan GDP of various sectors, and water-saving evaluation index, develop and utilize water-saving technology and equipment, formulate national policies on water-saving. To increase wastewater treatment and reuse, and industrial water reuse, develop water-saving industry, agriculture and cities to establish a water-saving society. In this way, the water use efficiency and benefits will be improved.

5.4. Appropriate development. According to the water distribution and bearing capacity, under the precondition of conserving water, China will develop new sources appropriately to continuously improve distribution and water supply safety, solve drinking water problem in poor areas and guarantee water supply for economic and social development. Construct a batch of water resources dispatching and storage projects to make full use of local water resources; Develop inter-river basin and inter-region water transfer projects in areas with natural water shortage after overall planning and scientific research; Rationally utilize ground water resources in areas with potential; Increase utilization of rain and flood water, speed up wastewater treatment and reuse, sea water desalination and direct use, and other unconventional water utilization.

5.5.Scientific management. Revise “Water Law” and formulate “’River Basin Law”, “Water-Saving Law” and so on to establish and improve the legal system for water resources management. Promote the water management system with integrated urban and rural water management; Establish an integrated authoritative and efficient water resources management system for major rivers and develop sound water project operation mechanism to realize effective   combination of river basin management and regional management; Coordinate the use of surface water and ground water, the use of local water resources and water transferred from other areas to achieve effective and efficient uses; Establish water resources real-time monitoring system, dispatching system and management information system.

5.6. Increase financial input. Divide the rights and responsibilities between the central and local governments, among the governments, market and beneficiaries; clarify the main investor of water projects. Further implement active fiscal policies to increase government input in water resources development and utilization; Establish a rational water pricing mechanism and make full use of the market system to raise funds for water projects; Mobilize the Public to participate in water development through policies and measures.

6.Actions in Promoting Sustainable Water Utilization

6.1. Implement regional water resources allocation to relieve the contradiction between water supply and demand in the north. In order to solve water shortage in the north, the Chinese government has planned to construct the South-to-North Water Transfer Project. It is planned to divert water from the downstream, middle stream and upstream of the Yangtze River respectively to form the eastern, middle and western routes of the Project, which will realize rational allocation of water resources for the Yangtze River, Huai River, Yellow River and Hai River basins. The eastern route will divert water from the downstream of the Yangtze River near Yangzhou City in Jiangsu Province, then use the existing river courses to transfer water through several pumping stations up to Tianjin City and Shandong Peninsula in the north. The middle route will divert water from the Danjiangkou Reservoir on the Han River--the largest tributary of the Yangtze River, then cross the Yellow River on the west of Zhengzhou City in Henan Province, flow with gravity to Beijing City and Tianjin City. For the western route, five reservoirs will be built on the Dabu River, Yalong River and Tongtian River in the upstream of the Yangtze River, three tunnels will be built under the Bayankela Mountain, and two canals will be constructed to transfer water to the upstream of the Yellow River. The three routes will totally transfer 40 billion m³, of water to the north, which is equivalent to the annual utilizable water resources of the Yellow River. At present, the preparation of the middle and eastern routes is being sped up and soon the construction will start.

6.2. Develop river basin flood control engineering system to guarantee safety. The Xiaolangdi Multi-purpose Project on the Yellow River has been built to raise the flood control standards of the river sections in the downstream of the project up to a return period of once in 1000 years. The on-going Three Gorges Project on the Yangtze River is a key flood control project for the middle and downstream of the Yangtze River. Together with the dikes and flood detention areas in the middle stream and downstream, it has formed a river basin flood control engineering system. The Project will raise the flood control standards of the Jingjiang section from once in 10 years up to once in 100 years, which will greatly improve the flood control capabilities of the middle stream and downstream of the Yangtze River. Located in Yichang City in Hubei Province, the Project has a reservoir storage capacity of 39.3-billion m³.including flood control capacity of 22.1 billion m³, an installed capacity of 18,200 MW and annual power generation of 84.68 billion kWh. The whole Project takes 16 years to construct. It started in 1994 and completed diversion closure in 1997. The first power units will be put into operation in 2003 and the whole project will be completed in 2009.

6.3. Strengthen protection and management to gradually improve the ecosystems in some key areas. In these key areas with serious water shortage and ecosystem problems, it is necessary to coordinate production, domestic and ecosystem water uses, strengthen water resources conservation, protection, management and allocation according to the principle of safeguarding sustainable development with sustainable water utilization. In recent years, the Ministry of Water Resources has compiled a sustainable water utilization plan for the capital - Beijing City and the river basin management plans for the Tarim River and Black River, which have been approved by the State Council. In the near future, the government will invest over 35.2 billion yuan to realize sustainable water utilization and rehabilitate ecosystems in these key areas.

The Tarim River is China’s largest inland river with a catchment area of 1,020, 000 km² and a main river course of 1,321 km. Since 1969, the downstream has begun to dry up and the total drying up section reached 320 km. Its tail lake – Tailtema Lake dried out in 1972. Due to the drying up of the fiver course, the ground water level in the downstream lowered.1arge areas of diversiform.1eaved poplar forestry died and sand storms increased. Since 2000, the short-term management project has started, water has been transferred from the Boston River to the downstream of the Tarim River for three times with the total amount of 700 million m³, which has improved the ecosystem in the downstream of the Tarim River and enabled the Taitema Lake to resume water ecosystem. In the meantime, water has been transferred to wetland and lakes to improve the ecosystem in Zhalong Wetland in Heilongjiang Province and water ecosystem in the Tai Lake.

6.4.Reform water management system and strengthen integrated water resources management. China is currently implementing a multi-ministry water management system, which separates surface water from ground water, water supply from water use, waste discharge from waste treatment. This system can no longer satisfy the requirement of sustainable water use, conservation and protection. Learning from relevant experiences, the Chinese government has started to promote the water-affairs management system in urban areas with integrated management of water source, water supply, water use, drainage, waste water treatment and reuse. In the whole country, 820 water affairs bureaus have been set up at the city or county levels, which accounts for 40% of the total administrative areas. This system has improved urban water use efficiency and management, which has relieved water shortage to certain extent.

After the strengthening of integrated river basin water resources management, the Yellow River was not dried up last year although it was a very dry year. At present, the Yellow River Conservancy Commission is taking actions to further integrate water resources management to realize four objectives: no break of dikes, no drying up of river course, no exceeding of pollution, and no raising of river bed.

6.5. Strengthen water conservation and protection and raise water-bearing capacity. Agricultural water use accounts for 70% of the total water use in China. Due to the backward irrigation technologies and extensive water use, water is mostly wasted in agricultural use. The Chinese government has regarded water-saving irrigation as a revolutionary measure and invested 43 billion yuan in recent years to construct water-saving irrigation projects and promote advanced water-saving irrigation technologies. It has constructed the water-saving and production-improvement demonstration areas in 300 counties and rehabilitated over 260 large irrigation districts with the focus of water-saving and efficiency increase. The irrigation water use per mu decreased from 476 m³ in 1995 to 439 m³ in 2000. In the meantime, China also strengthened water resources protection, established water source protection zones, implemented pollution prevention and control projects for the “three rivers and three lakes”, namely the Huai River, Hai River and Liao River; Tai Lake, Dian Lake and Chao lake. Obvious results have been achieved.

China is willing to participate in relevant international water activities, increase exchanges, enhance understanding and promote cooperation. Let us join hands to take immediate actions and make concerted efforts to solve various problems faced by the international freshwater sector, guarantee global water safety and contribute to the sustainable economic and social development of mankind.