A high-echelon international advisory body is proposing the implementation of what is internationally known as "integrated river basin management" for Chinese rivers, with the hope it can restore delicate ecological systems.

The proposal put forward to the Chinese Government is contained in the final work report on the ecosystem-based management framework of restoring China's living rivers. It was presented by the Task Force on Integrated River Basin Management (IRBM) at the 2004 annual general meeting of the China Council for International Co-operation on Environment and Development (CCICED) held in Beijing last week.

Officials say the document will be submitted to the State Council, China's high governing body soon, alerting government officials and whole nation to the need to pay close attention to the ecological degradation of river basins and environmental pollution.

It also calls for sustainable development of all river basins in China, including the seven largest river systems.

"This is the first time that research work on so large a scale has ever been undertaken in China, and for the country to embrace this concept," said co-chair Chen Yiyu, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS).

A river basin, said Chen, combines a variety of landscapes and independent ecosystems and these systems are complete in themselves with rivers, lakes, wetlands, mountains, hills, forests, grasslands, farmlands, villages, towns and cities. "The concept of river basin management inspires us to take their interrelationships and interactions into consideration, thus broadening our vision in our effort to resolve river basin problems they face," he said.

"Such management aims at a sustainable development of river basins by taking into full account of the intrinsic linkages between economic growth, social well-being and environmental development," said co-chair A J M Smits, a professor with the University of Nijmegen of the Netherlands. "However, putting such management into practice is more than making choices between water demands of agriculture, industry and urban areas. Our task force emphasizes the needs of an ecosystem-based approach. Managers have to understand ecosystems before they start to manage them."

The task force, co-sponsored by the World Wide Fund for Nature and the Core Fund of CCICED, operates under a co-chairmanship. It comprises 13 international and Chinese members and has the backing of more than 100 experts, scholars and officials from home and abroad.

Members of the task force represent international organizations, provincial governments, river basin authorities and academic institutions. By dint of hard work over the past two years, the task force has drawn a fundamental "road map" for river basin management.

The management was first practiced in the United States, starting with establishment of the Tennessee Valley Authority in 1930s.

It has been practiced or is being introduced in many other countries as a mechanism to cope with complex problems, particularly ecological and environmental problems, emerging from excessive exploitation of river basin resources.

In the 1950s, China set up water resource management institutions for its seven major river systems, but has never tried out river basin management.

Last March, the Beijing-based task force began working ambitiously to promote its implementation. It organized field studies of the Rhine River in Europe, the Fraser River in Canada and the Poyang Lake in central China, while also conducting case studies in areas located in the upper, middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River Basin.

It also scrutinized international experiences gained by Murray Darling River Basin in Australia, the Rhine River Basin in Europe, the Fraser River in Canada and the European Union. It also analyzed the problems within institutions, policies, laws and technologies, as well as factors that hindered the Chinese Government by placing it in a passive position in the face of ecological degradation. Altogether, the task force has prepared 30 investigative reports and published four monographs. Its final report is based on facts as well as opinions from related experts and institutions, in particular opinions from the Environment and Resources Protection Committee of the National People's Congress, the State Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Water Resources and the State Environmental Protection Administration.

Tending the urgent

According to the report, unsustainable use of water resources and the related ecosystems of rivers remain a problem.

"Devastating floods and mudslides, declining water quality and fish catches, losses in biological diversity, water shortages and falling water tables are just some of the signs," the report states. "These signs need urgent attention."

The report calls water pollution "the toughest problem" facing the government. Pollution is threatening most of the more than 50,000 rivers in China, which the report attributes to the "fast-paced industrialization and urbanization throughout the country." All the seven major river systems - Huaihe, Haihe, Song-Liao, Yellow, Taihu Lake, Pearl and Yangtze - are polluted. The Huaihe River, in particular, remains heavily polluted despite a mega-dollar project on-going for 10 years to make it clean again. The report notes that the same tragedy may befall the Yangtze River Basin, the most prosperous part of China, if old concepts and practices are not done away with.

According to the report, the implementation of management is designated to promote sustainable use of water resources, reduce drinking water pollution, mitigate drought and flooding, stop and reverse environmental degradation and, finally, reinstate the river basin ecosystems. The job involves not only natural rivers, lakes, wetland, flood plains, flood retention regions and deltas, but also canals, reservoirs, dams and dykes built with human power in river basins.

Institutional breakthrough

Everything sounds good, said Chen Yiyu, but there are doubts about the possibility of such programs in China. "There are people who feel too difficult to achieve targets. Anyway, it depends on the determination of the central government," Chen said.

Smits, however, is quite optimistic about future implementation.

He cited the example of the Rhine River that snakes through nine countries. "In 1960s, the Rhine River system was completely dead and there was no life in it. Within a decade, everything improved because of the law and everyone accepted the principle 'the polluter pays.' Nine countries had open discussions and agreed to work together to solve the problems. We now have the water framework directive and it works. The countries along the Rhine can be compared to provinces along the Yangtze River or the Yellow River. Why can't this happen in China, too?"

The task force recommends that the State Council adopt a framework and introduce it through a staged process commencing with the Yangtze River Basin. The framework is supported with the four key recommendations on legislation and institutional arrangements; stake holder and public participation; economic measures and financial incentives; innovative methodologies and technologies. The first two pilot programs will be conducted in Chishui River and Taihu Lake Basin within the Yangtze River Basin.

A breakthrough is expected in institutional arrangements at four levels under the State Council. At the national level, the task force recommends the establishment of the National IRBM Commission headed by a vice-premier, which should involve all related government organizations. Initially, it will co-ordinate major planning and implementation efforts in the Yangtze River Basin. Its priority task is to ensure that lower-level management commissions have appropriate laws to let them operate effectively. When that happens, it will be the first time for ministry and the administration to cooperate in integrated river basin management.

At the river basin level, the task force recommends establishment of the Yangtze River Basin Management Commission, chaired by a State Councilor. The commission should be comprised of representatives of the central government and all the relevant provincial governments. It will draw up plans to oversee its implementation by sending delegations to tributaries and local commissions, or ones at even lower levels.

Smits said he is confident of introducing a good steering mechanism on institutional arrangements in China. "I think that's the most powerful part of our recommendations," he said frankly. "Sooner or later, China will make the step. I hope the State Council will adopt all our four recommendations. If that happens, it will be beautiful!"

(China Daily November 2, 2004)