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VI. Water Management and Reform

Water resources planning and early-stage work. The completed tasks included the 11th Five-Year Plan on National Water Resources Development, national integrated water resources planning and water resources allocation, technical examination of flood control plans for seven major river basins, national plan on rural drinking water safety and plan of safeguarding urban water supply sources in cities, and modification of comprehensive plans of the Yangtze River Basin and the Taihu lake. The plan for Major Improvement of the Weihe River and Emergency Project Plan of Rural Drinking Water Safety in 2005 and 2006 was examined and approved by the State Council. The proposals of phase-I of the eastern and the central routes of South-North Water Transfer project were approved, and the feasibility study reports were completed. In the 159 key water construction projects in the 10th Five-Year plan, 61 were initiated, 11 had been approved for construction, and 69 had been reported for approval.

Law enforcement by water administrative department.The State Council's Decision on the modification of Flood Control Ordinance of the People's Republic of China, and Implementation Methods of Water Administration Permit were enacted, and the reform of administrative examination and approval system and publicity of government affairs was further deepened. 39,205 illegal water-related cases had been investigated and 37,521 cases were resolved that accounts for 95.7% of the total, and economic losses of 120.5 million Yuan were retrieved. In river course inspection, 5,155 cases were investigated, among which 770 were illegal. 33 permission areas for sand excavation were defined in the water courses of the Yangtze River, and 16 sand excavation operation licenses were approved. The permitted quantity of sand excavation was 17 million ton annually and the permitted number of sand dredges were 55.

Protection of water resources.In all river basins, a general survey and registration of inflow pollution discharge outlets was conducted, and sampling assessments of water functional zones were undertaken. Pilot projects were launched in Guilin and Wuhan for protection and rehabilitation of water ecosystem. The scope of over-exploitation of groundwater was determined in 11 provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities. The approval of water function zoning, and pollution discharge outlets was completed in 24 provinces/autonomous regions/ municipalities.

Reform of water management system. Suggestions for the implementation of provincial water project management system came into being in 29 provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities, and implementation plans for the reform of water projects directly under river basin authorities were prepared in 6 river basins. More than 10,000 water management units completed the calculation of "two quotas", accounting for 65% of the total water management units.

Reform of rural water management system.Implementation methods for the reform of property right of small-sized rural water structures were formulated in 26 provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities, and the property rights of over 7 million water structures were clarified. The number of Water Users Associations (WUAs) was over 20,000, among which more than 7,000 established in large irrigation districts.

Water and soil conservation. 461 soil and water conservation plans in large development or construction projects were examined and approved. Activities of comprehensive scientific studies were launched for water and soil conservation and ecological safety. By the end of 2005, 16 key prevention and protection areas of soil and water conservation, 7 key monitoring areas and 19 key control areas are zoned at the national level.

Water pricing reform.Water pricing reform was planned in 21 provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities, and methods or implementation provisions of water price management came into effect in 12 provinces and cities. Progressive pricing for over-quota water use was implemented in 10 provinces of Yunnan and Hebei etc. The average water tariff of water supply facilities all over the country increased from 0.028 Yuan/m3 in 2000 to 0.06 Yuan/m3 in 2005. The average tariff of electricity sold to the rural hydro-electrical grid was 0.271 Yuan/kwh, and the average tariff to the rural household was 0.515 Yuan/kwh.

Construction management.Over 90% of water construction projects implemented the "four systems". Performance evaluation of production safety was conducted toward major hydropower plants. 35 projects were checked. The government approved the qualification upgrading of 11 construction enterprises, and professional qualification of 1,307 construction engineers. 87% of the payment in arrears was recovered.

International cooperation. There are 8 multilateral international exchange activities that successfully organized or participated. The signed bilateral agreements with other countries for water cooperation were 6. There are 7 bilateral meetings held between the Ministry of Water Resources and the governmental agencies of other countries. The planned World Bank financed project of Changjiang River Watershed Rehabilitation involving 4 provinces or municipalities of Yunan, Guizhou, Hubei, and Chongqing and Huai Basin Flood Management and Drainage Improvement were further promoted and 6 foreign government grant projects were carried out.

Reservoir resettlement.An investment of 1.591 billion Yuan was allocated to the resettlement of reservoir directly under the Central Government in 21 provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities, for providing adequate food and clothing to 311,500 reservoir resettlers. The completed investment for resettlement of 3 under-constructed large reservoirs of Nierji, Baise and Zaoshi was 2.106 billion Yuan. 38,400 resettlers were arranged, accounting for 30.5% of the total planned population of resettlement.