Deficiencies in Water Conservancy

By LAN XINZHEN

Deficiencies in Water Conservancy

By LAN XINZHEN

CAO ZHONGHONG

Recent droughts and floods show the fragility of China’s water conservancy capabilities

Be it extreme flooding or severe droughts,China has yet to find a stable middle ground concerning its water supply.These disasters, primarily in the Yangtze River region, reflect China’s shortcomings in the construction of water conservancy facilities, said Zheng Fengtian, Vice Dean of School of Agricultural Economics and Rural Development of Renmin University of China.

Mounting damages and losses from droughts and fl oods in the fi rst half of this year illustrate China’s weaknesses when confronted with these types of disasters. Financial costs and property damage aside, concerns from the Chinese people and political officials are also increasing, especially as these annual problems intensify on a yearly basis.

Most affected by surges and declines in water supplies is the Yangtze River region,known as the land of fi sh and rice because of its rich fresh water resources.

The region, however, became a desiccated wasteland from continuous dry weather this spring. This extreme lack of water was briefly alleviated when summer rainstorms began showering the region, which quickly became waterlogged and fl ooded due to poor drainage systems.

“Besides focusing on these extreme climate conditions, we need to seriously focus on the fact that China’s water conservancy systems fall far behind the country’s economic and social development,” Zheng said.

Zheng has led several investigations into China’s obsolete, and in some cases non-existent, irrigation and water conservancy network.The results have been startling: In the past three decades, more than 70 percent of China’s 700,000 villages have not invested a single cent in irrigation or water conserving projects.

The Central Government has been quick to react. Earlier this year, the Central Government said, in this year’s No.1 document focusing on agriculture, it would invest 2 trillion yuan($308.17 billion) over the next five years for water conservancy construction projects—investment in the previous fi ve years (2006-10)totaled 700 billion yuan ($107.86 billion). In 2011, investment in this fi eld will reach 400 billion yuan ($61.63 billion).

A crucial cause

China already has an extensive network of water conservancy facilities to prevent droughts and floods. The problem is that most of them don’t work, or operate below an effective threshold.

The reasons for this ineffectiveness,Zheng said, involve a near-sighted approach to dealing with excess water, obsolete water control networks and China’s current obsession with building dams.

When dealing with fl oodwaters, China’s current priority is drainage rather than storage, Zheng said. In recent years, as the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River experienced unusually rainy weather,facilities drained the waterlogged countryside. The practice is effective in the rainy season, but completely ignores the seasonal balance: If the rainwater is completely diverted out of the region, severe droughts will ensue when cloudless skies and a changed spring climate deposit little precipitation.

China’s current network of irrigation and water conservancy facilities are also poorly maintained. Following the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949, the government engaged in a massive effort across the country to ensure that all localities had effective water conservancy facilities. After the reform and opening up that began in the late 1970s,maintaining these facilities fell to the wayside as funds from the central budget focused on harnessing the power of major rivers, while funds from local governments were mainly earmarked for urban water conservancy projects with high returns. Farmers were also unenthused about irrigation and water conservancy construction because agricultural production generates low returns, leaving farmers with little extra cash on hand for water conservancy facilities.

To top matters off, the country has built a number of hydroelectric power stations on the upper reaches of many of its waterways.But it now makes the country suffer from “big dam syndrome.”

Along the Yangtze River more than 40,000 reservoirs have been built, and 2,400 hydropower stations have been completed or are under construction, according to the Ministry of Water Resources. These power stations belong to different regions and are managed by different departments, so it’s often dif fi cult to adopt uniform controls. Since some hydropower facilities only consider their own interests, intensifying the con fl ict of water storage and discharge, said Zheng.

Some of the smaller local power stations are counterproductive to fighting droughts:In the dry season when the middle and lower reaches urgently need water, these power stations hold up and store large amounts of water to generate electricity. After strong rains, these small hydropower stations will discharge fl ood for their safety, intensifying the fl ood disasters.Uniform controls of these hydropower stations are urgently needed, Zheng said.

The Three Gorges Dam has also come under scrutiny in recent months as the Yangtze River region suffers from serious drought.Long-term observations will be needed, Zheng said, to rule on the dam’s involvement.

Accelerating construction

To solve water shortage or surplus problems, a new irrigation and water conservancy mechanism must be established first, Zheng said. The mechanism—led by the central and provincial governments and complemented by governments at the county and township levels—would focus on irrigation and water conservancy infrastructure closely related to agricultural development and farmers’ livelihoods.

Large-scale water conservancy projects would be funded by the Central Government,while basic irrigation and water conservancy facilities would be funded by provincial governments and built and maintained by county governments. Some small-scale infrastructure projects in rural communities would be mainly invested by farmers with government subsidies.

Opening new investment channels will also be crucial to the project’s success since government funds will not be enough, Zheng said.

The government can raise funds in the capital market by issuing long-term treasury bonds.It can also set up special funds for construction on relevant projects. Zheng said if the government spends some money in establishing water conservancy funds, these funds will produce ampli fi ed effects in promoting the construction of water conservancy facilities, even though the funds only account for 0.5 percent of the GDP.The government can also encourage private capital to invest in irrigation and water conservancy infrastructure construction through tax incentives and favorable policies in acquiring loans.

China can also take a Western approach to fi nancing and issue lotteries to raise funds.In developed countries such as the United States and Great Britain, the fi nancing scale of issuing lotteries is huge and the money collected has been used to offer fi nancial aid for public welfare programs.

China has successfully experimented with sports lotteries and welfare lotteries.Base on these experiences, China may be able to use lotteries as a means to fi nance its water conservancy undertaking.

China will spend 2 trillion yuan ($308.17 billion) from 2011 to 2015 on water conservancy projects,including 400 billion yuan ($61.63 billion) to be invested in 2011

Innovation needed

Increasing investment in water conservancy facilities is only part of the solution to China’s water problem. The establishment of a new irrigation and water conservancy mechanism needs innovation. An accountability system targeted at local governments must be set up fi rstly, Zheng said.

Frequent droughts and floods in China are caused by the weather, but part of the blame for the after effects falls on local governments for inadequate preparation and response measures. They also have failed to attach enough importance to related construction projects, Zheng said. The key to this accountability system will be to put responsibility for drainage and storage projects on local of fi cials.

Furthermore, establishing this system can also force local governments to invest a certain amount of funds they have available in small-scale irrigation and water conservancy construction.

According to Zheng, if Yunnan Province had spent 10 percent of the money equivalent to the total economic losses caused by the drought in improving irrigation and water conservancy facilities, the drought disaster would have been less severe. Inadequate input in water conservancy facilities and lack of reasonable water conservancy planning like this makes Yunnan, a province with annual precipitation of more than 1,000 millimeters, unable to find available water sources.

Another roadblock to expand China’s water conservancy projects is the country’s land contract system adopted in the late 1970s, which has made it difficult to organize large-scale irrigation and water conservancy construction,Zheng said.

There are a number of ways of solving this problem, Zheng said. Experience can be learned from construction projects undertaken by rural families before the contract system was adopted. An association of irrigation water users can also be formed, where the government offers aid for them to build water conservancy facilities.

“The ultimate goal is to make rural families participate in irrigation and water conservancy project construction and create a good mechanism for investment, construction, application and maintenance of infrastructure,” he said.