Is China Living on the Water Margin?

Abstract

Is there a water crisis in China? Certainly there are many sub-crises, many of them hardly new to that hydrologically complex, densely settled monsoonal landscape. Droughts, floods, befouled flows, and water-short northern cities have long been integral to the Chinese experience. The last half-century has witnessed remarkable efforts to control and reshape waters to ameliorate the traditional ravages of flood and drought. Yet many of these projects, and their water sources, are ageing at the same time that state financial capacity is diminishing. Simultaneously, economic development – especially industrialization, urbanization, chemical agriculture and livestock production – have placed increasing stresses on the quantity and quality of water.

Can urbanization solve inter-sector water conflicts? Insight from a case study in Hebei Province, North China Plain

“…For example, by ignoring depletion due to crop evapotranspiration, Nickum (1998), optimistically concluded that: "Groundwater overdraft does not deplete the resource, which is continuously renewed...Aquifers will replenish with reductions in withdrawals" and, furthermore, ". .…”

Productivity, efficiency and technical change: measuring the performance of China’s transforming agriculture

“…Huang and Rozelle (1996), and Fan and Pardey (1997) show that better incentives were enhanced by new technologies. Inputs also rose as farmers had greater access to fertilizer and other farm inputs (Stone 1988) and improved water control, especially due to the emergence of groundwater (Nickum 1998;Wang et al 2005).…”

Evolution of tubewell ownership and production in the North China Plain*

“…Per capita water availability in north China is significantly lower than the national average (Ministry of Water Resources 2002). Between 1949 and1998, total water use increased by 430 per cent, which is similar to the world average increase of 400 per cent (http://www.c-water.com.cn/news/luntan/guoyaichengshijieshuigaikuang1.htm [accessed on 23 February 2003]) but greater than the average for developing countries. Because China's water utilisation rates are already among the highest in the world, there is little scope for tapping additional sources (Ministry of Water Resources 2002; Rosegrant and Cai 2002).…”

“…China's scholars have regarded the privatisation of tubewells as a measure that has improved groundwater management efficiency and increased agricultural productivity (Cai 1985;Dong and Zhang 1994;Chen et al 1997). Nyberg and Rozelle (1999) and Nickum (1998) also point out the importance of expanding the role of private individuals in water management and investment. Although it is certainly a possibility that the shift of tubewell ownership and management responsibilities to private individuals has helped ease some of the key constraints that producers have faced in recent years, it is also possible that the privatisation of pumping services in an open-access environment (like that of groundwater in the North China Plain) could lead to an inefficiently rapid depletion of the region's water resources.…”