Yong, Jiao

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Article, Published VersionYong, JiaoAchieving harmon between people and water forsustainable developmentHydrolinkVerfügbar unter/Available at: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11970/109233Vorgeschlagene Zitierweise/Suggested citation:Yong, Jiao (2014): Achieving harmon between people and water for sustainabledevelopment. In: Hydrolink 2014/2. Madrid: International Association for Hydro-EnvironmentEngineering and Research (IAHR). S. 36-37. https://iahr.oss-accelerate.aliyuncs.com/library/HydroLink/HydroLink2014_02_Three_Gorges_Project.pdf.Standardnutzungsbedingungen/Terms of Use:Die Dokumente in HENRY stehen unter der Creative Commons Lizenz CC BY 4.0, sofern keine abweichendenNutzungsbedingungen getroffen wurden. Damit ist sowohl die kommerzielle Nutzung als auch das Teilen, dieWeiterbearbeitung und Speicherung erlaubt. Das Verwenden und das Bearbeiten stehen unter der Bedingung derNamensnennung. Im Einzelfall kann eine restriktivere Lizenz gelten; dann gelten abweichend von den obigenNutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte.Documents in HENRY are made available under the Creative Commons License CC BY 4.0, if no other license isapplicable. Under CC BY 4.0 commercial use and sharing, remixing, transforming, and building upon the materialof the work is permitted. In some cases a different, more restrictive license may apply; if applicable the terms ofthe restrictive license will be binding.36 hydrolink number 2/2014People-water relation is an essentialproposition for the development ofmodern societyThe Chinese sage Confucius said “The wise findpleasure in water and the benevolent inmountains”. It means that a person of wisdomseeks a more meaningful life by virtue of loveand respect of nature. In a broader sense, itsuggests that the love and respect of natureshould be universal, and the laws of nature befollowed when we exploit natural resources.During our interaction with nature, one of thedecisive factors for human survival and devel-opment is people-water relation.Back in the agrarian age, people were ignorantand fearful of nature, helpless in face of floodsand droughts, and migrated to escape fromwater disasters. In the age of industrializationand urbanization, as productivity skyrockets,massive conquest and transformation of natureis staged to satisfy our growing materialdemand. Along the course dams and reservoirsare built, rivers harnessed and irrigation systemsdeveloped to utilize water for higher economicoutput and better living conditions. However,water in many countries are over exploited andseriously polluted. This plight is unfortunatelybeing repeated in many developing countriesnow, with local and regional developmentstraining the capacity of water resources,leading to degraded ecological environment.We now begin to realize that any endeavors topromote socio-economic development mustabide by laws of nature, and must be done in asustainable manner. As scientists and engineersdirectly dealing with water, we should know itbetter than anyone else that the spirit of lovingand respecting nature should be extensivelyembodied in water engineering activitiesthroughout the process of research, planning,design and construction.The evolution of people-waterrelation in China’s modernizationprocess and the achievementsConflicts induced by people-water relation areno stranger to many countries, but in China theissues are particularly complicated.The complexity stems first from China’s nationalconditions. China is the most populous countryand the second largest economy in the world.Agriculture and industry, the two water-intensivesectors, make up for the lion’s share of nationaleconomy. As the economy begins to run on thefast track since the reform and opening-up,water related conflicts also emerged acute.The complexity stems also from China’s waterconditions. Water ownership per capita inChina is 2,100 m3, only 28% of the worldaverage. Water is temporally and geographi-cally unevenly distributed: 60% to 80% ofprecipitations occur in the flood season; lessthan 20% of water resources are in north China,which accounts for 64% of national land area,46% of the population and 60% of the arableland. China therefore has to walk a fine linebetween utilizing water for socio-economicdevelopment and protecting the aquatic eco-environment. Practices tailored to China’s water picture yieldmany successes: a water-related legal systemis put in place, combining both basinmanagement and regional administrativemanagement. A flood control mechanism formajor rivers has been developed, raising theflood defense standard for large cities to 100-200 year flood. To enhance food security andpoverty alleviation, massive efforts are put todeveloping irrigation agriculture, with irrigatedarea producing 75% of food and over 90% ofcash crops. China has fed 21% of worldpopulation using 6% of world fresh water and9% of arable land. Last but not least, aquaticeco-environment protection is being reinforced.Ecological restoration projects have beencarried out on key river basins and ecologicallyfragile regions. Successful examples includethe ones on Tai Lake, Tarim River and ShiyangRiver.Challenges aheadDespite the achievements, China still faces anACHIEVING HARMONY BETWEENPEOPLE AND WATER FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENTBY H.E. DR. JIAO YONGOpening speech at the IAHR World Congress in Chengdu in 201337hydrolink number 2/2014uphill journey of eliminating and mitigatingwater induced conflicts. Tense supply of water. As China’s industrialeconomy will remain un-proportionally large forquite a period ahead, the industrial demand forwater will continue to rise. Urban population willonly grower larger in the next two decade,hence more water is needed. Despite the hard-work to produce more food with no biggeragricultural water consumption, developing amore water-efficient agriculture is challenging.Low water use efficiency. In terms of industrialwater, GDP output per m3 of water fall short ofthe world average by two thirds, and waterusage per 10 thousand RMB of industrialadded value is three to five times that of theinternational advanced level. In terms of agricul-tural water, irrigation water coefficient is muchlower than the international advanced level. Rampant water pollution. The pollutantsdischarged into water bodies are almost twicetheir pollution-carrying capacity. Degraded aquatic eco-environment. Wateroverexploitation in various places has led todried-up river channels, shrinking lakes,reduced aquatic biodiversity, depleted ground-water and seawater flowing into estuaries. Policies and measures to achievehuman-water harmonyThe philosophy of people-water harmony. SinceChina strives to become a resource-efficientand environment-friendly economy, more focusis laid on water demand management and thecapacity of local water and environment duringeconomic planning. Special policies are formu-lated to optimize, restrain or prohibit waterexploration in areas where serious watershortage or fragile ecology exists.Water for supporting socio-economic devel-opment. The existing water engineeringsystems are better utilized to more preciselyregulate floods of major rivers. Flood control ofmedium and small sized rivers should beenhanced as well as they are usually denselypopulated. More efforts are put to improvingaccuracy of the flood warning system, raisingpublic awareness and strengtheningcommunity management against floodcasualties. In the aspect of water supply, rural access tosafe drinking water is increased and urbanwater security is strengthened. In the aspect offood security, water-efficient irrigation systemsshould be further developed to heighten grainproductivity and water use efficiency. The three red lines of water management. In2012 the Chinese government introduced thestrictest water management system, theessence being three red lines for total waterusage, water efficiency and water pollutiondischarge respectively. That is, the total waterconsumption shall not exceed 700 billion m3 by2030; water consumption per unit of industrialadded value shall be reduced to 65 m3 orbelow, efficient usage coefficient of water shallbe increased to 0.55 or higher; and thepercentage of major function areas of largerivers and lakes that meet designated waterquality shall reach 60% by 2015 and 80% by2020.Aquatic ecological restoration. Successful pilotrestoration projects include those on TarimRiver, Heihe River and Shiyang River, with totalinvestment of 20 billion RMB. Many waterengineering projects also put more efforts onrestoring the ecological function of rivers. Forexample, the Xiaolangdi multi-purpose damproject on the Yellow River has restored thenatural river course with its flood dischargecapacity. The Three Gorges Project on theYangtze River has managed to provide suitablewater flow for the reproduction of rare fishspecies downstream through accuratedischarge regulation. Legal formulationconcerning aquatic ecological compensation isunderway.China has both successes and setbacks in itslong history of water management. In accor-dance with our commitment to sustainabledevelopment, the harmony between people andwater will be actively pursued.IAHRH.E. Dr. Jiao Yong is the Vice Ministerof Water Resources of China; he hasover three decades of experiences inresearch and management of waterresources and engineering practices.

Achieving harmon between people and water for sustainable development

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Achieving harmon between people and water for sustainable development

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