Water Management in Yellow River - Essay Example

Report on Governance Characteristics: Water Management in Yellow River (China) The past several decades have seen China’s economy grow remarkably butat an incredible environmental cost to the country. For a period stretching back more than 20 years China has recorded a growth rate averaging 10% per annum (OECD, 2007). However, this growth is far from sustainable as together with the country’s health is constantly being under great threat of environmental deterioration and constraints with specific reference to water. The paper is set to detail an analysis of the social, political, economic and institutional issues that affect change in the management of water in the Yellow River Basin of China. Analysis The water resources in China are inefficiently used, over-allocated and coarsely polluted by industrial and human waste to the extent of killing sections of large rivers like the Yellow River (Ma, 1999). In addition, there is vast over-pumping and unsustainable consumption of groundwater resources; lakes are covered in pools of waste; numerous aquatic species have been extinct, with a host of other adverse direct impacts on the health of the ecosystem and humans widespread in the country. China is home to sixteen of the twenty most polluted cities worldwide; ensuring that all major watersheds of the nation suffer from extensive pollution. Desertification, as a result of too much ground and surface water withdrawal, is increasingly dominating the Northern region of China; a region hugely dependent on the Yellow River (Ma, 1999). The social issue facing the region involves handling of the disposal of wastes by local residents as well local industries. The densely populated regions result in mass production of waste products which are inappropriately dumped into the river. These problems not only pose a huge threat to the political stability of the country but it is also a huge threat to the country’s economic development. The government is spending substantial amounts of money on health care issues as a result of major disease outbreaks in the heavily polluted areas of the country (Boyle, 2007). According to Eng and Ma (2006), major companies are calling off their business ventures due to water concerns as well as augmenting internal conflicts over the quality and allocation of water resources. These events have resulted in new political pressures on the regional and central governments to tighten their fight with the current water management problems. A 2005 Chinese Government report revealed that fifty thousand environmentally related protests occurred, most of which revolved around degradation of water. A Chinese media reported that “the pursuit of economic growth has been the priority overshadowing the vital issues of water resources and ecological balance” (Caixiong, 2007). These problems have been addressed in various capacities but have been hampered by efforts by the local governments aimed at protecting jobs and local industries, corruption by the government, the desire to ensure rapid economic development as well as the crippling weakness of the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) (Turner, 2006). The Yellow River is among the most productive yet destructive rivers in the world (Yardley, 2007a). As a result, past Chinese governments have made it a main concern to manage it accordingly. The economic surpluses in the North of China and the whole country in general over the past millennium have been made possible thanks to the productivity of the Yellow River. However, the river is characterised by periodic breakouts and changes in its course as it stretches a distance greater than five thousand kilometres across western and northern parts of the country consequently resulting in some of the world’s worst disasters in history. The productivity of the river together with its potential for destruction is caused by the mass silt it accumulates from its upper catchment. This silt is usually deposited on the banks of the river as well as the river bed as it loses power during various stages and regions of its course, thus raising the banks and the river as well. Consequently, the Yellow river has hundreds of its kilometres flowing metres above the surrounding plain and its residents (Yardley, 2007a). In cases of a breakout, the water floods over large areas coming with severe impacts to the region and its ill-protected population. The Chinese government has been working towards managing these breakages by supporting dykes, strengthening banks as well as an attempt to maintain the integrity of the banks (Yardley, 2007b). However, the river’s catchment area is often experiencing high variations in climate that result in frequent floods, some too strong for containment. These activities limit the nature of the measures undertaken by the authorities in containing the damage due to the unpredictability of the river. Of all the largest rivers worldwide, the Yellow River sweeps with it the largest silt-per-unit volume of water; most of which is eroded from the middle reaches passing through the Loess plateau. The silt that comes with the Yellow River is both productive and destructive. The management of the river came with a plan to help stop or reduce the destructive nature of the Yellow River – reducing soil erosion. In order to reduce soil erosion, Yardley (2007a) points out that the Chinese government undertook a string of rural development projects as well as several payment-for-ecosystems-services schemes aimed at promoting crop production, horticultural production as well as growth of vegetation to hold together the plateau’s fine soils. As a result, 30% of the river’s silt loads have been reduced (Yardley, 2007a). Furthermore, construction of dams, for instance, Xiaolangdi Dam to act as traps to silt as well as supply the water for flushing the river has been a growing activity along the course of the Yellow River (Yardley, 2007b). This method is forecasted to last close to twenty years. However, the major issue here is by this time, the dam will be deposited with large volumes of silt requiring managers to device new strategies. Central to this analysis are the impacts related to the reduced river flow as a result of increased demand. Since 1980, the Yellow River has on numerous occasions been unable to reach the Sea, with the most recent occurring in 1997, stopping or rather drying for an estimated 800 kilometres from sea for 226 days (Yardley, 2007b). The no-flow periods had a massive impact on the lower reaches as there was no water for irrigation, causing difficulties among urban residents who instead sort water from other sources. Reduced water flow means reduced power of water to flush silt out of the river channels and as such, silt is deposited. Upon closure of the river’s mouth, the silt being gathered upstream has to get an alternative place to be deposited; thus, it reduces the size of the river. Occurrence of floods may demolish the major difficult-to-recreate channel that may lead to uncontrollable catastrophe (Economy, 2004). In response to the above issue, the Chinese government introduced exacting limits on upstream extractions as well as an elaborate system used for monitoring and concurrent control of diversions allowing the central authority to cut off diversions as soon as the trigger points are hit (Yardley, 2007a). Furthermore, the government has implemented an elaborate system of compensation that sees to it that costs are fairly distributed between the upstream and downstream stakeholders. The management of the river developed techniques of river pulsing that involved releasing large volumes of water from dams for short periods so as to clean or flush the silt out of the channel and successfully out of the estuary. The issues with shortages in North China have resulted in some key political developments, for instance, development of incentives aimed at improving the efficiency of water use (Yardley, 2007a). In addition, a variety of reforms are under pursuit by the Chinese Government for example, the water trading reforms. Further than this is the immense South to North water transfer scheme, that sees part of its three routes divert the large Yangtze flow of water to the skimpy Yellow River (Caixiong, 2007). Despite the vulnerability of the Yellow River, these measures have continuously been implemented in management of the river’s social, political, economic and institutional issues that affect change in the management of water in the Yellow River Basin of China; hence the absence of a major flood or breakout since 1938 (Economy, 2004). Disaster management is one area that lacks quality among the region’s public. The public should be made aware of the mitigation measures of disaster management (Caixiong, 2007). The different institutions that play vital roles in the management of water should provide education programs to the locals for awareness purposes. Reflection According to Grindle (2007:568), the process of identifying and addressing the social, political, economic and institutional issues that affect changes in water management in the region is not easy. Table: Ease/difficulty of addressing social, political, economic and institutional issues that affect changes in water management. Intervention Degree of conflict likely Time required for institutionalisation Organisational complexity Logistical complexity Budgetary requirements Amount of behavioral change required Social issues High High Medium Low/Medium High High Political issues High Low Medium Medium High High Economic issues High Low Medium Medium High High Institutional issues Medium High High Medium High High In order for the management to ensure these issues are addressed, Grindle (2007:568) affirms that strict rules have to be created and enacted so as to contribute to the overall objective of efficient and effective use of water sustainably in the Yellow river region. In order to arrive at these, suitable actions have to take place and they are often of different difficulty and or ease to accomplishing. Some may result in more conflicts while others require a lot of time to implement, some are complex to implement and others are more inclined to behavioural change than others. The above table summarises the level of priority received by each of the issues towards changing the water management of the Yellow River. The high chances of conflicts are likely due to the differences in economic, political and social interests of people living upstream and downstream of the river. Social issues arising like inappropriate dumping of wastes by residents has high budgetary requirements due to the process involved in recreation of suitable dumping sites. Conclusion Across ages, the Yellow River has been breaking through its levees repeatedly leaving behind immeasurable damage to the heavily populated region of North China Plain. Regardless of the river’s significance or rather importance in the country, the management of the Yellow River water is still a problem in China. In spite of the existing legislative measures, enhanced water management practices’ implementation at provincial levels is quite slow as a result of local conflicts between water users, inadequate details on the implementation procedures of the law as well as financial constraints. Hence, government institutions leave a lot to be desired for efficient and effective allocation of water resources in the basin. References Boyle, C.E. (2007) Water-borne Illness in China. The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, A China Environmental Health Project Research Brief. Caixiong, Z. (2007). User pays, that’s the price of wastage, China Daily. Economy, E. (2004) The River Runs Black: The Environmental Challenge to China’s Future, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press. Eng, M., & Ma, J. (2006) Building Sustainable Solutions to Water: Conflicts in the United States and China, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, China Environment Series, pp.155–184. Grindle, M.S. (2007) ‘Good enough governance revisited’, Development Policy Review, vol. 25, no. 5, pp. 553-574. Ma, J. (1999) China’s Water Crisis. Voices of Asia, International River Network – China Environmental Sciences Publishing House. OECD. (2007) OECD Environmental Performance Review of China, Paris, France, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. Turner, J.L. (2006) ‘New Ripples and Responses to China’s Water Woes.’ Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, China Brief, vol. 6, no. 25. Yang, J. et al. (2005) ‘A mass vaccination campaign targeting adults and children to prevent typhoid fever in Hechi; Expanding the use of Vi polysaccharide vaccine in Southeast China: A cluster-randomiz\sed trial,’ BMC Public Health, vol. 5, no. 49, pp. 1471–2458. Yardley, J. (2007a) China tunnels through Yellow River for massive water diversion project, International Herald Tribune. Yardley, J. (2007b) Chinese dam projects criticised for their human costs, The New York Times. Read More