China’s energy challenges may be vast, but its water resource situation is probably even more critical, due in no small part to the water requirements of energy extraction and the energy requirements of water transfer. In this talk, gleaned from several years of looking at the problem through the eyes of a political scientist, I’ll summarize China’s water resource challenges, the policies it has put in place to deal with them, and discuss why I think implementing them effectively will require major political reform

1. Water Resource Politics and Policy
in China
Scott Moore
Doctoral Candidate, University of Oxford
Scott.moore@politics.ox.ac.uk

2. China’s Water-Energy Nexus
Energy Requirements of Water Water Requirements of
Production and Supply Energy Production
 6.6 MJ/m3 (Kahrl and  800- 3000 gallons of water
Roland-Holst 2008) to extract and process 1
ton of coal [Circle of
 Pumping requirements for Blue]
SNWTP (7.3 trillion
 Coal power production
gallons/yr for central and uses approximately 4
eastern routes) trillion gallons/per year
(China MWR)
 Ecological disruption of
hydropower

3. Part I: Issues

4. Basic Water Stats (FAO Data)
2003-2007 Armenia Azerbaijan Bahrain Canada China
Human Development Index (HDI) (-) 0.777 0.758 0.902 0.967 0.762
Agriculture, value added to GDP (%) 20.28 5.906 2.198 11.13
Water resources: total renewable per capita (actual)
(m3/inhab/yr) 2529 4018 152.6 88086 2125
Dependency ratio (%) 11.71 76.6 96.55 1.792 0.9619
Agricultural water withdrawal as % of total water withdrawal (%) 65.76 76.41 44.54 64.61
Municipal water withdrawal as % of total withdrawal (%) 29.82 4.267 49.78 12.19
Industrial water withdrawal as % of total water withdrawal (%) 4.422 19.33 5.68 23.21
Total water withdrawal per capita (m3/inhab/yr) 920.2 1415 470.3 414.6
Percentage of total actual renewable freshwater resources
withdrawn (%) 36.39 35.21 219.8 19.51
Percentage of total actual renewable water resources
withdrawn by agriculture (%) 23.93 26.9 137.2 12.61

7. Irrigation Patterns in China (Thomas 2008)

8. Water Quantity
 Demography
 Per capita water resources 2079 m3/yr (2009), 1890 m3/yr 2030s (FAO)
 Regional Variation
 500 m3/yr in Huai River bain, 25,000 m3/yr in southwest
 North China breadbasket: 65% of cultivated land, ~50% wheat
production, 45% national GDP, 20% total water resources (FAO)
 Groundwater Depletion
 In Beijing and Shanghai water levels falling by 1m/yr (FAO)
 In the Hai River Basin groundwater depletion accounts for 95% of total
(FAO)
 Climate Change
 Overall supply of water in China’s major lakes, rivers, and water-bodies
has decreased 13% since 2000 (China National Bureau of Statistics/Keith
Schneider)

11. Water Quality
 70% of major waterways
heavily polluted; 40% of river
water not fit for “human
contact”
 436 of 532 rivers polluted, half
too polluted to serve as
drinking water sources
 57% of monitored
underground water sources of
bad or extremely bad quality in
2010
 56% of total wastewater is
treated (World Bank)

12. Water Use Efficiency
 Inefficient Irrigation Water Use
 45% of irrigation water actually consumed by crops (FAO)
 Low water productivity
 US$3.6/m3 (high-income average = US$35.8/m3) [FAO]

13. Part II: Policies

14. Policy Framework
 Legal Reform
 2008 Water Pollution Law
 Polluter Pays: fines for bosses
 2002 Water Law
 Safe water, water conservation and protection are priorities
 Water resources owned by the State, use is by permit and permission (delegated to MWR)
 River basin planning and management
 Investment and Market Reform
 US$45 billion in 11th FYP for water conservation (Freeman 2012)
 Full cost recovery (but water prices still very low)
 Water rights trading (in infancy)
 Enforcement and Implementation
 MEP Regional Supervision Centers (Quyu ducha zhongxin)
 Digital Yellow River (Shuzi Huanghe)

15. Nanshui Beidiao
 44.8 billion m3/yr from
South to North
 Three routes
 Eastern/Grand Canal: 2013
 Central: 2014
 Western: 2050 (?)
 US$62 billion (Circle of
Blue)
 Central Route: Submerge
350 km2, displace ~330,000

16. China No. 1 Policy Document 2010
 Water conservancy as a national priority
 “Mobilize all social forces” including public opinion
 The “Three Red Lines” (Santiao Hongxian) [Article 19] say
that by 2030:
 Quantity: Total national water consumption limited to 700 billion
m3/yr
 Quality: 95% of water quality within established guidelines
 Efficiency: water intensity limit of 40m3/10,000RBM, effective
irrigation utilization factor of 0.6

17. Part III: Politics

18. Two Stories from the Field

19. Sub-national governance in the People’s
Republic
 Functional-territorial structure
 Fiscal-administrative decentralization
 Hierarchical ranking: provinces have ministerial-rank
 “One-level down” appointment system
 Cadre evaluation and rotation system

20. Tiao-Kuai Administrative Relationships
in the People’s Republic (Liu and Zhang
2012)

21. Trans-boundary Issues in the People’s
Republic
 Article 56 Where a dispute over water arises between different
administrative regions, it shall be resolved through consultation. If
consultation is unsuccessful, it shall be subject to ruling by the
people's government at the next higher level, which the parties
concerned shall strictly abide by. Pending settlement of the dispute, none of
the parties may, in the absence of an agreement reached between the
parties or approval granted by the same people's government at the next
higher level, build any projects for draining, blocking, taking or intercepting
(storing) water or unilaterally alter the existing water regime within a
certain area on each side of the common boundary of the administrative
regions.
 2008 Water Law

22. Concluding Thoughts
 Better trans-boundary dispute resolution mechanisms
 Legal and tort reform
 Network governance