Dr. Yongqiang (Yong) QiMay, 2014

Is China Approaching Its Water Boundary?Challenges and Opportunities in Chinese Water Management

N O S T C o n g r e s s 2 0 1 4

2

Legalism and Water

3

European culture

Greek & Roman

LearningChristianity German

Warriors

World is simple, logical

and mathematical

World is evil; only

Christ can saveFighting is fun

- John Hirst, 2012

Chinese culture

Taoism Confucianism Legalism

Life is simple,

nothing is necessary

World is hard; need to

constantly perfect oneself

Men are bad, need to

enforce strict obedience

4

Taoism

Confucianism

Legalism

Water is the highest virtue. It stays low

and quietly nurtures life.

I never miss a chance to reflect on water. It nurtures life like

virtue; flows east with determination; cuts valleys with

courage; fills voids with fairness; cleans filth like civilization.

“Tao Te Ching”, Lao Tze

“Hsun Tzu”, Hsun Tzu

A successful ruler must cope with five

hazards and water tops the list.Guan Zhong

5

Mountain of flesh, sea of men, command and controlDujiangyan Irrigation System, Chengdu, 251 BC

2000 years later… Dam Construction, Hangzhou, 1970s

Mountain of cement, Sea of steel South-North Water Transfer Project, Nanyang, 2013

Where Have Rivers Gone?

Disappearing Wetlands

Wastewater Discharge

Land: 62%

Water Resource: 19%

Groundwater Resource: 30%

Population: 47%

Land: 38%

Water Resource: 81%

Groundwater Resource: 70%

Population: 53%

NORTH

SOUTH

Water Per Capita

S

N

Source: MWR

China, A Tale of Two Halves

Source:

China Geological Survey (2008)“Cones of Depression”

62 m

112 m

Max depth to water

Water Challenges Associated with

Economic Growth

0

10000

20000

30000

40000

50000

60000

70000

1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008

Bu

dg

et

Sp

lit

be

twe

en

Ce

ntr

al

an

d L

oca

l

Go

ve

rnm

en

ts (

10

8R

MB

)

Local Government

Central Government

The Water Law

National focus

turning away

from water

Yellow River

stop flow

Changjiang

River flood

Huaihe River

pollution

control

Shift from

development

to management

Source of the Water Crisis

(1) Binary structure of many western democracies：

(2) Binary structure of China：

National InterestNational Interest

Capital InterestCapital Interest

Sectional Interest

Sectional Interest

Infest, Control, OverdraftInfest, Control, Overdraft

Use, RestrictUse, Restrict

Personnel and Financial PowerPersonnel and Financial PowerNational InterestNational Interest Executing ResponsibilityExecuting Responsibility

The State Council

National People’s

Congress (NPC)

Water Pollution

Prevention & Control

Law (WPPC, 1996, 2008)

Water Law

(2002)

Mineral

Resources Law

(1986)

Legislation

Province

Municipality

County

Township

Centre

AdministrationMEP MWR MLR

Pv. EPBs Pv. WRBs Pv. DLR

Mn. EPBs Mn. WRBs Mn. LRBs

County EPBs County WRBs County

LRBs

RBOsYangtze

Yellow

Huaihe

Haihe

Pearl R.

Songliao

Taihu

Is legalism mentality the ultimate source?

Managing water requires the highest level of collaboration, and this effort is frequently hampered by the out-of-focus decisions and information hoarding resulted from internal competition.

• Emphasize government over market• Emphasize development over protection• Emphasize engineering over natural

attenuation• Emphasize points over system

17

How to Cook a Small Fish?

Running a big country is like cooking a small fish.

“Tao Te Ching”, Lao Tze

What are the challenges

• Flood control, irrigation, drainage, shipping , and city water supply. – Sima Qian (145~90 BC) firstly defined the

framework of water resource management Water-saving technologies

• Flood control, water supply safety, drainage, pollution control , and water saving . – Zhejiang Province has vowed to launch a major

initiative to advance water management in Jan. 2014

Coping with Water Scarcity

� Engineering and Technological Approaches� Water-saving technologies � Water-treatment and re-use technologies

(including desalination)� Monitoring, measuring and sensing technologies� Water transfer (the South-to-North Water Transfer

Project)� Non-technical “soft” Approaches

� Social-economic considerations� Political and institutional systems

� More innovative, out-of-box approaches?

Water Market

(1)Water privatization is difficult, but the alternative has usually been worse.

(2) China is raising water prices to improve services, and to guide toward a water saving society. Still struggles with optimizing water allocation between different purposes.

(3) Foreign capital was first introduced to Chinese water market in 1992 and the initial restrictions were lifted in 2002.

VS

A Convincing Example

Monitoring Programs

• MEP (2013 Central Level, all automatic)– 962 river sections– 61 lakes– 4 seas and 9 bays– 906 water sources– 20k+ industrial sources

• MWR (2010 Provincial Level & up)– 21371 rain gauges ( 15600 automatic )– 10212 river stages ( 7180)– 4655 flow gauges ( 518)– 13989 groundwater stations ( 1444)– 7250 water quality stations ( 196)– 1211 soil moisture stations ( 559)

• MLR (2013)– 1200+ groundwater level

stations (Central level)– 4778 groundwater quality

stations (City level and up)– 800 groundwater quality

stations (Central level)

Information sharing

(1) Most national level automatic monitoring stations publish daily data;

(2) Archived data or local data can be difficult to access;

(3) Most of the water related information is managed by public-sector organizations, many of which compete after commercial projects.

Public Participation

Concluding Remarks

(1)Six decades into China’s late journey of modernization, the security driven water rights (including clean drinking water, ample water for food production, and flood safety) have been provided to the Chinese people.

(2)Multiple forces are building strength toward the development of China Economy 2.0 and a phase change in the management of water: emergency of a middle class, self-organizing mechanism, information barrier break-down, and slow-down self-examination.

(3)China is poised to attract the flow of people and capital. This flow will reinforce the phase change in water management of China.

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The Questions of Sang

CorruptionLow quality product

Oligarchy

National securityGovernmental fundingSeparatism

VS

中节能集团中节能集团中节能集团中节能集团 CECEP Group

• CECEP Group is a state-owned enterprise, which is fully sponsored by the central government. – The only State-owned key enterprise in the field

of energy conservation, emission reduction and environmental protection.

– RMB 100 BN Asset, RMB 50 BN turn-over in 2013

– 400+ sub-companies, 38,000 employees

Energy conservation

Enviro-Protection

Clean EnergyNew materials /resources

Professional Sectors

Supporting Sector

Business Sectors

Contaminated sites Investigation & Remediation

Hydro-powerWater treatment

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Our clients and end products:

Government Our end products

A

A Total Solution on water data collection and management• Data logging system• Modelling software• Water resource investigation

C

Standard development• First State Technical Centre

in a company• Guideline development and

training

B

Site remediation pioneer of China• First TDU in China which

treated 10k tons of PCB soil• First hazardous wastes

disposal certification in China • Over 70 sites remediated

Universities and Research Institutes• CIGEM

• Peking Univ

• CRAES

• NHRI

• Tsinghua Univ

International Brands

• MEP

• Beijing

• Tianjin

• Hangzhou

Banks

Various Land Developers

E3

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Remediation Technologies

S/SS/SS/SS/S Chemical OxidationChemical OxidationChemical OxidationChemical Oxidation

Thermo Thermo Thermo Thermo DesorptionDesorptionDesorptionDesorption

SVE and SVE and SVE and SVE and BioBioBioBio----VentingVentingVentingVenting

State Environmental Protection Engineering Center f or Industrial Contaminated

Site and Groundwater

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环境管理的技术支撑：• 制定技术规范 Standards• 制定技术手册 Guidelines• 政策研究 Policy research

国民教育：• 风险意识 Awareness Campaign

• 展示中心 Exhibition• 技术交流平台 Platform

• 管理人员技术培训• 从业人员技术培训• 从业公司技术培训

• 开发应用于工程的技术及产品• 开发应用于修复工程的设备• 建立示范工程

技术技术技术技术TechnologyTechnologyTechnologyTechnology

培训培训培训培训TrainingTrainingTrainingTraining

政策政策政策政策PolicyPolicyPolicyPolicy

设立门槛设立门槛设立门槛设立门槛规范行业规范行业规范行业规范行业LicenseLicenseLicenseLicense

Groundwater Pollution Assessment and Modeling Guidelines

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Training and Short Courses

Training Center

40m

100m

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Equipment Demonstration and Field Testing

Site Remediation Guidelines

(1) Terms of Contaminated Sites(2) Technical Guidelines for Environmental Site

Investigation(3) Technical Guidelines for Environmental Site

Monitoring(4) Technical Guidelines for Risk Assessment of

Contaminated Sites(5) Technical Guidelines for Site Soil Remediation

All these guidelines were published on 2014-02-19, and will be effective on 2014-07-01.

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Groundwater Monitoring Information Network

Thank You!

QiQiQiQi YongqiangYongqiangYongqiangYongqiang (Yong)(Yong)(Yong)(Yong)齐永强齐永强齐永强齐永强

yqi@pku.edu.cnyqi@pku.edu.cnyqi@pku.edu.cnyqi@pku.edu.cn

The Quest for "Discretionary Budget"

Sun, 2011

Coorpetition Gaming between Central

and Local Governments

Sun, 2011

Comparison of Exploitable

Water Resources Per Capita

2200

350

82007600

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

China North

China Plain

USA World

Am

ou

nt

in m

3

Ranked ~120 th globally

Sources: Gleick (2003) & Shiklomanov (1997)