Chapter 3
Actions and Achievements in the Major Fields of Sustainable Development
Section 9 Water Resources
I. BackgroundII. Actions and Achievements3.54 In China, freshwater resources are inadequate and unevenly distributed in both temporal and spatial scales. China's per capita water resources is only one-fourth of the world average. With the growth of the population and economic development, serious water shortages have appeared not only in the arid and semi-arid areas, but also in many cities of northern China. This has become a limitation to the economic development. Moreover, all the river basins of the country have been polluted to various degrees, resulting in a further decrease of water resources utility. Therefore, it is an important strategic task for the implementation of sustainable development to rationally use and protect water resources.
3.55 Formulation of the overall strategy for water resource protection and sustainable utilisation
In order to implement China's Agenda 21 in the area of water conservation, the Chinese Government has formulated "China's Water Conservation Agenda 21" and the "National Plan for Medium- and Long-Term Water Supply and Demand". This agenda has put forward the general objectives for water resource protection and sustainable utilisation. The objectives are:
to implement the policy of rational exploration, utilisation, and comprehensive conservation of water; to strengthen the management of river basins and lakes; to improve the management and control of water pollution; and to vigorously maintain and improve the natural utility of water resources and the ecological environment of basins.3.56 Remarkable achievements in the management and development of major rivers and lakes
During the past five years, the Chinese Government has strengthened the integrated development and management of major rivers and lakes. The key part of this work is to prevent flooding disasters by heightening and reinforcing major dams, building flood-division areas, and realigning river courses in major rivers and lakes such as the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, the lower reaches of the Yellow River, Huaihe River, Haihe River, Songhuajiang River, Liaohe River, and Taihu Lake. A group of important large-scale water conservation projects have been developed to allow more effective control and bring comprehensive benefits. In order to solve the problem of water shortages in northern China, the Chinese Government has vigorously organised the planning and construction of trans-basin water-transferring projects, conducted a scientific feasibility study of transferring water from the south to the north in the central, eastern, and western parts of China, and made preliminary preparations for the project.
3.57 Increased water pollution control in major river basins
In order to bring water pollution under effective control and protect the aquatic environment, beginning in 1994 the Chinese Government carried out the "Three Rivers and Three Lakes" water pollution control project ( Huaihe River, Haihe River, Liaohe River, Taihu Lake, Dianchi Lake, and Chaohu Lake). In 1995, the "Interim Regulations on the Protection against Water Pollution in the Huaihe River Basin" was issued and the "Programme and Ninth Five-Year Plan of Water Pollution Control in the Huaihe Basin" was formulated by the government. It also defined the targets for controlling the total amount of water pollutants discharged into river basins, as well as the maximum permissible discharge amount for major cities, towns, and discharge points. Meanwhile, a deadline was set for closure or production shift in those small-sized paper mills whose production capacity was less than 5000 tons in the Huaihe Basin. By June 30th of 1996, 1,111 small paper mills in four provinces along the Huaihe River had been closed, reducing COD discharge by 346, 000 tons, and achieving the objective of a 15% reduction in pollutants for that year.
3.58 Progress in agricultural water-conserving technology and demonstration project construction
The Chinese Government has organised the compilation of the "China Water-Conserving Development Programme for Irrigation Agriculture", drawn up the technology standards suitable for national conditions for various water-conserving irrigation projects, and formulated the plan for the construction of large-scale water-conserving irrigation demonstrations at the national level. At present, the total area covered by water-conserving irrigation has reached 13.33 million hectares. Some practical water-conserving technologies have been developed and these are being used in the technical preparations for the establishment of 300 demonstration counties for water-conserving irrigation projects during the Ninth Five-Year Plan.
3.59 Promotion of drinking water projects in poor rural areas
In order to solve the drinking water problems of some poor rural areas, the Chinese Government carried out a drinking water project for those areas in 1990. Since 1991, 145,000 drinking water projects have been built, 470,000 drinking water wells have been dug, 199,000 water-collecting facilities have been established, and 174 million rural people have had the problem of inadequate drinking water resolved. With the cooperation of UNICEF, the government has carried out the Trinity project (water, environmental hygiene, and health education) and achieved preliminary progress. Moreover, the government has spread low-cost water supply measures and sanitary toilets, and disseminated health knowledge to farmers. With the implementation of the "Sweet Dew Project", more than 4 million people in Shaanxi Province and 3.8 million herdsmen in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have achieved adequate drinking water supplies during the past 3 years. A series of drinking water projects have also been carried out in Xinjiang, Gansu, and some other western provinces. All these have eased, to some degree, the difficulties of peasants in water-short areas.
In order to accelerate the water supply and environmental health work in China's rural areas, especially poor and remote areas and improve the health care condition of women and children, UNICEF and the Chinese Government decided that water supply and environmental health projects would be listed in their 1994-1995 cooperation programme. The Chinese agencies responsible for this program are the Water Resources Ministry and the National Patriotic Health Committee Office. The project consisted of two parts: one was a demonstration project in low-cost water supply and environmental health which involved six projects in Shanxi, Gansu, Henan, and Anhui Provinces; the other was the publicising of the links between water supply and environmental health in the area. The objective of the programme was to accelerate the recognition of the importance of safe water supply and sanitary toilets, to enforce capacity building at all levels, to increase the proportion of those benefiting from this project to 85% of the people in the six counties, to extend the sanitary toilet coverage rate to 35%, to set examples, and to acquire experience for future low-cost water supply and environmental health projects. This project has become a complete success. Altogether, construction was completed on 270 gravity drinking water supply stations and 230 deep hand-pump wells. This work has benefited 140,000 people. Also included was the building of 10,000 households sanitary toilets and 83 public toilets in schools and clinics. The government has also conducted individual health education and published more than 100,000 pictures and pamphlets. The complete success of the China-UNICEF water
supply and environmental health cooperation has not only brought direct
benefits to the project area, but also made contribution to the realisation
of the national objective. |
3.60 Projects for water resource development in western China
The Chinese Government has greatly promoted the western water resource development plan and carried out a number of utilisation projects that focus on the central and western regions. These projects include the Xinjiang Wuluwati Reservoir project, Tibet Manla Reservoir project, Guizhou Wangerhe Reservoir project, Qinghai Heiquan Reservoir project, Ningxia Fuyanghuang irrigation project, Gansu Changma Reservoir project, etc. These projects will play a very important role in promoting the social and economic development in central and western China, changing the poor and backward situation, improving the eco-environment, and strengthening national solidarity.
Picture 3-17 Huangtong Hydropower Station - Hexian County of Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region
Total water resources: 2.8 trillion cubic metres Water resources per capita: 2,400 cubic metres (about one quarter of the world's average) Water consumption: 530 billion cubic metres (78% is used for agricultural purposes and 22 % is used for industry and human consumption) The net increase in water supply by the year 2000: 40-50 billion cubic metres The total capacity for water supply : 580 billion cubic metres By the year 2000, the total capacity of the total water supply will be 650-700 billion cubic metres. The total capacity of the water supply by the
year 2050 will be sufficient for the social, economic, and environmental
development. |
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