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4 River Basin Management
4.5 Experiences from River Basin Management in China
China’s political system adopts a national unified approach to river basin management—regardless of the variety of these river basins—that is comparable to practices
in several other large federal countries, such as Mexico and the US, and in a number
of other countries and regions, such as Spain, France and England and Wales. The
authority to manage inter-jurisdictional river basins is derived from the national
government and water-related laws in China.
At the beginning of the 1950s, China suffered from frequent floods and droughts.
In response to this, China developed a water sector based on the planned economy and
gradually formed a water management institution focused on water project construction. This institution addressed several important tasks. First, it established WADs
at all levels of government to strengthen and promote water construction. Second,
it divided water project construction and management functions into departments.
WAD was responsible for unified water resource planning, flood control, irrigation,
and drainage; the power sector was responsible for hydropower development; the
transportation department was responsible for shipping and waterway construction
and management; and the urban construction department was responsible for urban
water supply and drainage. This institution was reflected in Article 9 of the 1988
Water Law.
The hierarchical and departmental arrangement of water resource development
and use has promoted the large-scale development of water projects, but it also has
inevitably faced challenges, such as neglecting or rejecting the benefits of water
resources from river basin management and multi-purpose utilization out of local
and departmental interests. This has resulted in interregional and interdepartmental
conflicts. In order to overcome these shortcomings, China has set up and strengthened
the river basin management institutions of the seven major river basins.
As early as November 1949, while establishing the new MWR, the central government stated, “the water use of any river must be planned and managed in an integrated manner to make full use of water resources. The principle of integrated water
administration is to centralise water administration of the river.” The responsibilities of several RBOs established in the 1950s reflected the intention to develop an
all-function agency to oversee all river basins and all water resource development,
construction, and management.
However, the practices in the following years reveal that this target was not
achieved. In addition to macroscopic reasons related to China’s political and
economic changes, it is also important to note that (1) the hierarchal and departmental water resource management system based on administrative regions was
formed nationwide. These water agencies have several decades of experience and
are supported by local governments. However, RBOs were replaced several times and
not fully restored until the end of the 1970s. (2) RBOs have always been the mission
residents of MWR with functions limited to flood control and agricultural irrigation
and drainage, and they are difficult to manage comprehensively. (3) China’s major
rivers have relatively large river basins that are often more than 10 times larger than
4 River Basin Management
4.5 Experiences from River Basin Management in China
China’s political system adopts a national unified approach to river basin management—regardless of the variety of these river basins—that is comparable to practices
in several other large federal countries, such as Mexico and the US, and in a number
of other countries and regions, such as Spain, France and England and Wales. The
authority to manage inter-jurisdictional river basins is derived from the national
government and water-related laws in China.
At the beginning of the 1950s, China suffered from frequent floods and droughts.
In response to this, China developed a water sector based on the planned economy and
gradually formed a water management institution focused on water project construction. This institution addressed several important tasks. First, it established WADs
at all levels of government to strengthen and promote water construction. Second,
it divided water project construction and management functions into departments.
WAD was responsible for unified water resource planning, flood control, irrigation,
and drainage; the power sector was responsible for hydropower development; the
transportation department was responsible for shipping and waterway construction
and management; and the urban construction department was responsible for urban
water supply and drainage. This institution was reflected in Article 9 of the 1988
Water Law.
The hierarchical and departmental arrangement of water resource development
and use has promoted the large-scale development of water projects, but it also has
inevitably faced challenges, such as neglecting or rejecting the benefits of water
resources from river basin management and multi-purpose utilization out of local
and departmental interests. This has resulted in interregional and interdepartmental
conflicts. In order to overcome these shortcomings, China has set up and strengthened
the river basin management institutions of the seven major river basins.
As early as November 1949, while establishing the new MWR, the central government stated, “the water use of any river must be planned and managed in an integrated manner to make full use of water resources. The principle of integrated water
administration is to centralise water administration of the river.” The responsibilities of several RBOs established in the 1950s reflected the intention to develop an
all-function agency to oversee all river basins and all water resource development,
construction, and management.
However, the practices in the following years reveal that this target was not
achieved. In addition to macroscopic reasons related to China’s political and
economic changes, it is also important to note that (1) the hierarchal and departmental water resource management system based on administrative regions was
formed nationwide. These water agencies have several decades of experience and
are supported by local governments. However, RBOs were replaced several times and
not fully restored until the end of the 1970s. (2) RBOs have always been the mission
residents of MWR with functions limited to flood control and agricultural irrigation
and drainage, and they are difficult to manage comprehensively. (3) China’s major
rivers have relatively large river basins that are often more than 10 times larger than