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China¡¯s Water Policy and Practice
By H.E. Dr. Jiao Yong
Vice Minister of Water Resources, People¡¯s Republic of China
(November 22, 2005 - New Delhi)
Distinguished Chairman, ladies and gentlemen:
It is my great pleasure to have this opportunity to present the keynote lecture on the topic of ¡°China¡¯s Water Policy and Practice¡± at this important meeting. I hope it would provide a chance to share with all of you the policies, practice and experiences of China in the field of water development and management.
We all know that water is of vital importance to human societies and environments. How to achieve sustainable development on the base of sustainable use of water is of common concern to the international community. This congress, with the theme of ¡°Water and Sustainable Development: towards Innovative Solutions¡±, will provide a forum for all of us to discuss a variety of issues related to water. Therefore, this is of great significance for exchanging ideas among us and promoting water awareness worldwide. Today, as following the theme of the congress, I like to address the four subjects: water and China¡¯s development, water issues in China, China¡¯s water policy, and China¡¯s water practice.
I. Water and China¡¯s development
China, as a developing country that has a time-honored history, is now on the way towards modernization. China¡¯s development has always been closely related to water. The history of Chinese civilization is a history of mitigating water disasters and generating water benefits for people. The constant effort to fight against floods and droughts by our ancestors created a solid foundation for the evolution of ancient China. The widely told legend of Yu, the reputed founder of the Xia Dynasty who led people to fight against floods, reflects the wisdom, capability and perseverance of ancient Chinese. The 2500 years old Dujiangyan irrigation system has cultivated the rich Chengdu plain and the Great Canal excavated 1400 years ago is now a major waterway in modern China. Many of ancient hydraulic works are still running well and bringing benefits to the Chinese people today.
Over the last 5 decades, water development has attracted high attention in China and achieved rapid progress. China has constructed 277,000 kilometers of river dikes and 85,000 reservoirs. Flood control systems in major river basins have been primarily established, which help us to defeat the major floods encountered over last 50 years. Total annual water-supply capacity has increased to 600 billion m3, guaranteeing water use for 56 million hectares of irrigated farmland, over 600 cities and a variety of industrial sectors. China has resolved the difficulty in accessing drinking water for 282 million people in rural areas. 920,000 square kilometers of soil-eroded area has been brought under control. Urban wastewater treatment ratio has reached 45%. Hydropower installation has totaled 108,000 MW. It is the great achievements of water development based on which China is now able to support 20% of world population only with 6.8% of world cultivated land and 6% of world water resources. This is also an important guarantee for China to maintain sustainable development in future.
II. Water issues in China
Though China has attained great achievements in water sector, it still faces uneven distribution of water resources due to Pacific monsoon and complicated topography. Since China adopted the policy of reform and opening to the outside world in 1978, the country¡¯s economy has developed at an annual growth rate more than 8%, per capita GDP has exceeded 1200 US dollars and total population has reached 1.3 billion. Unfavorable water conditions, rapid economic development and large population have imposed heavy pressure on water resources, showing in following aspects.
1. Water shortage causes further conflict between water demand and supply. Water resource per capita in China only accounts for 28% of the world average. In the past 20 years, water resources in northern China have been decreasing due to climate change and human activity impacts. The average annual runoffs in Yellow River, Huai River and Hai River have dropped by 10% to 40% respectively, and consequently, drought and water scarcity have become a bottle-neck factor for economic development in northern China.
2. Flood control capacity is relatively low and flood damages are serious. China is one of the countries most hit by severe flood disasters. With fast socio-economic development, more economic stock, and high population density, the flood-prone areas have substantially increased. Flood risk becomes higher and flood disaster mitigation more important but difficult. According to statistics, since 1990, national average losses resulted from floods were 110 billion Chinese Yuan each year, equivalent to 1% of the national GDP in the same period.
3. Water pollution is more serious and further intensifies water shortage. Comparing to rapid development of economy, construction of wastewater treatment infrastructure is much behind and pricing mechanism of urban and industrial wastewater treatment has not been completely established, which cause grave water pollution problem. There is still a large amount of wastewater directly discharged into water bodies. Water shortage resulted from quality degradation occurs in water-rich areas, which further worsens the country¡¯s water situation.
4. Adverse development of water resources causes ecological and environmental problems, including river courses running dry, wetlands shrinking, grasslands deteriorating, and groundwater depletion. For instance, the national lake areas are reduced by 15% comparing to those in 1950s, 90% of available grasslands have degraded and some turned into desert. The groundwater over-extracted areas have expanded to 190,000 km2. The above problems have seriously impeded China¡¯s sustainable development.
III. China¡¯s water policy
China is a large developing country with a population of 1.3 billion. According to the national development blueprint for the first 2 decades of the 21st century, China will quadruple its GDP of year 2000 by the year 2020. To realize this objective, China will concentrate itself on national development, manage to resolve new problems emerged and prepare for new challenges. We will guide the overall socio-economic advance by the scientific concept of development which will place people in center for concern, transform the mode of economic growth, give more emphasis on coordinated development among economy, population, resources and environment. China strives to build a resource-efficient and environmental-friendly society in order to safeguard the nation¡¯s sustainable development.
In line with the adjustment of national policy and development strategy in order to target the objective of sustainable development, water development concept and policy are being modified in China. That is, to transform the pattern of water development from project construction oriented to sustainable water resource management oriented. The core of the change is to realize harmonious coexistence between man and nature by restricting human activities to avoid vicious competition for water. We pay special attention to that we should refrain from doing harm to water as well as preventing harm to people from water-related hazards.
In the Chinese context, the principles for sustainable water management are as follows:
1. We should apply the concept of ¡°putting people first¡± in water development and management, and try our best to satisfy the fundamental interests of people in terms of water supply, flood mitigation, ecological and environmental protection.
2. We should try our best to maintain harmonious co-existence between man and nature, and take full consideration of carrying capacity of water resources and water environment into account when economical development takes place.
3. We should stick to the basic national policy of protecting water resources and environment with emphasis on water saving, optimizing water allocation, and wastewater treatment.
4. We should reinforce institutional building, improve water legislative systems, develop scientific and information technology, and promote public participation so as to enhance our ability of water resources management.
5. We should follow economic principles and adopt market mechanism with government regulation to establish water rights system, water financing system and water pricing mechanism.
In order to resolve water-related problems, China has adopted the following policies:
1. Regarding to water shortage problem, establishment of a water-saving society in China is considered as the ultimate measure to resolve conflict between water supply and demand. To do so, we are developing a mechanism of water saving, in terms of allocation of water right in each river basin to deferent local authorities, in condition that the basic environmental flow must be reserved. Maximum water use availability will be calculated for provinces in the river basin, which is considered as a ¡°macro-control indicator¡± to confine the upper limit of water use of the provinces. Within the upper limitation of water availability, provinces can further allocate water right to different areas, industries, and water users so as to the initial water rights can be specified. In addition, a ¡°water consumption index system¡± will also be established as a water saving indicator to measure water saving level of a water user such as an irrigation system or a manufactory. In this way, we hope to enhance the awareness of water saving and protect water resources from adverse utilization in the whole society, which will help us to achieve sustainable use of water.
2. Regarding to flood problem, we implement the new policy of flood management that emphasizes to offer an adequate space for floods by restrain human activities. Guided by this concept, we will execute scientific management on rivers, lakes, flood detention areas and flood storage facilities, in order to enlarge flood storage and discharge capacity. To obtain a better flood mitigation result, flood warning and forecasting systems and risk management should also be strengthened. Meanwhile, considering the shortage of water, rational use of rainwater and floodwater resources is encouraged both in research and practice.
3. Regarding to water polluting problem, Chinese government highlights the priority of water environment protection in the line of recycling economy. With water quality improvement as the goal, we will establish a pollution discharge management system that is based on carrying capacity of water environment for the purpose of maintaining a healthy condition for rivers. We make a great effort to promote industry restructuring, strengthen wastewater treatment and utilize recycled water. Besides, the government carries out strict policies on groundwater protection and intensifies comprehensive management over excessive use of groundwater.
4. Regarding to land erosion problem, the Chinese government pays a great attention to ecological protection and recovery, with an emphasis on exercising the function of self-rehabilitation of nature. While implementing intensified protection and effective monitoring of ecological systems, China has been carrying out a campaign of returning cultivated mountain areas to forests and forbidding grazing and logging, with comprehensive measures of engineering, administration, technology and management. Meanwhile, China reinforces an overall management over the heavy soil eroded areas and ecologically vulnerable rivers so as to reverse the trend of ecological degradation in China.
IV. Practice in China
In recent years, guided by the new policy of sustainable water management, China has made great progress in the following eight aspects.
1. We have placed drinking water safety as the top priority. In the past 5 years, 20 billion Yuan has been invested to solve drinking water problem for 60 million rural population. Currently, special attention is given to improving the quality of the water delivered. According to the ¡°Master Plan for Rural Drinking Water Safety¡± that is being formulated, another 80 million rural residents will be able to have access to safe drinking water by 2010. China is confident in realizing the goal of ¡°halving the proportion of people without access to safe drinking water by 2015¡± agreed at the Johannesburg World Summit on Sustainable Development.
2. We have been actively developing a water-saving society, the key of which is to establish a water-saving system and mechanism. We have carried out the pilot projects of establishing water-saving society in more than 100 cities. It is planned that by 2010, we will complete the work on water right allocation for all provinces along the major rivers and lakes, defining maximum water use availability, clarify water use rights and obligations for the provinces. China has enacted water resource assessment mechanism for the projects that use water, implemented water-extraction licensing system, encouraged water user participation in water management, and improved the water resources management system that combines the mandates of river basin authorities and regional authorities.
3. We have accelerated the construction of flood mitigation systems. Since 1998, China has invested 160 billion Yuan in large-scale integrated flood-prevention system on rivers like Yangtze River, on which reinforcement for 3600 km of dike in the middle and lower reaches has been completed. Apart from that, 2900 km2 of water surface is recovered and 13 billion m3 of flood storage is added for the river basin. It is the first time in Chinese history to transform, on a large scale, the reclaimed farmland to natural lakes. A batch of controlling dam projects on major rivers has been completed or launched and 1600 dams have been reinforced. We will also gradually establish a social guarantee system for flood control and disaster mitigation in the near future.
4. China gives high attention to grain security and has been improving a supporting and protecting system for agriculture. Ensuring grain security for 1.3 billion Chinese is always a key task for the government. China¡¯s policy for agricultural water is to raise water use efficiency and guarantee water supply for agricultural production through water saving, so as to realize zero-increase of total water consumption in agriculture sector. For this purpose, China has being upgraded the major irrigation infrastructure to improve water and land productivities. Water users are also encouraged to participate in irrigation management. In the last decade, 30 billion m3 of water was saved annually, while agricultural production capacity has increased by 40 billion kg. By 2010, 10 million hectares of irrigated area will be equipped with water saving facilities and the coefficient of water use for irrigation systems is expected to increase from 0.45 to 0.50.
5. Construction of water allocation projects has been accelerated to promote regulation on uneven natural water distribution. In order to alleviate water shortage and stop ecological deterioration in North China, the government is planning and constructing the South-to-North Water Transfer Project, which can eventually relieve water scarcity in North China, including Beijing and Tianjin. Meanwhile, construction of regional and local water allocation projects has step up. By 2010, an increase of 40 billion m3 of water supply will contribute to security of water demand due to rapid economic development.
6. Water pollution prevention has been strengthened to arrest further deterioration of water environment. Since 1998, China has invested accumulative 110 billion Yuan of national debt in water pollution treatment. About 15,000 enterprises were closed due to high pollution discharge. At the same time, China is formulating water function zone management system, in which different river courses are classified into different functional zones accordingly. It is expected that by 2010, urban wastewater treatment rate will rise from 45% to 60% or higher. It is also expected that 65% of water function zones in major rivers and lakes and 95% of water sources for urban water supply will meet national water quality standard.
7. We have placed strong emphasis on rehabilitation and protection of ecology and environment. China is implementing the EIA system and water resources assessment system for all projects that may be constructed, which implies that local water conditions and its carrying capacity will be taken into full consideration in urban planning and industrial layout. China has also diverted water to the areas where ecology is seriously damaged. A typical example is due to integrated water resources regulation the Yellow River has been prevented successfully from running dry for 6 years. Other examples can be seen in the lower reaches of Hei river and Tarim river where the severe damaged river eco-systems have recovered recently due to integrated water management to keep a basic environmental flow for the rivers.
8. Water management system and mechanism have been improved. China has enacted the Water Law, the Flood Control Law, the Law on Water Pollution Prevention and Control, and the Law on Water and Soil Conservation, together with corresponding regulations, policies and technical standards. The water management system that is based on the combination of management by catchments and regions has been established. Because of the reform of urban water service management, many cities have realized the integrated water management between urban and rural areas. A series of policies have been implemented to accelerate water tariff reform, introduce market mechanism in urban water supply and wastewater treatment, aiming to encourage private capital to participate in construction and operation of water facilities.
Looking into the future, China will face challenges as well as opportunities in sustainable water utilization. At present, building a well-off society in China is in full swing and the country is formulating a new plan for the next five-year development. Therefore, water management is very important in this critical period. In the light of the demand of sustainable development, we will take effective means and unremitting efforts to improve and implement sustainable water resources management. We are confident in resolving our water problems and guaranteeing sustainable socio-economic development in China.
Distinguished Chairman, ladies and gentlemen:
China maintains a long-standing, good cooperation with the International Water Resources Association (IWRA), other countries and organizations worldwide in water sector. Our cooperation has been very beneficial for China¡¯s water development. I would like to avail myself of this opportunity to express, on behalf of the Ministry of Water Resources of China, our heartfelt gratitude to members of IWRA and the international community for their support and help. I sincerely hope to deepen exchange and cooperation with IWRA, other international organizations and other countries in the field of water resources development, sustainable water management, ecological and environmental protection, so that we can work together to resolve the water problems in order to make a better life for the people in future.
Finally, I wish the congress a great success!
Thank you very much!
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