International Water Resources Association Water International, Volume 28, Number 4, December 2003

Book Review

“Resource-Oriented Water Management: Towards Harmonious Coexistence Between Man and Nature.” Wang Shucheng. Beijing: China Waterpower Press, 2002, 152 pages.

This book is a compilation of selected lectures and papers by Wang Shucheng, Minister for Water Resources of China. These lectures and papers, delivered and published between March 1999 and November 2001, provide a realistic understanding of the diverse challenges in water management faced by China and the emerging framework of thoughts that is expected to generate the country’s fu-ture approach to handling these challenges. In line with the ongoing global process of expansion of the cognitive base for the comprehensive understanding of issues re-lated to water, Wang’s new ideas advocate a transition from project-based water management to a resource oriented one. In a sense, one can say that this is the presentation of a Chinese version of integrated water resource management (IWRM). This book, in English, is destined to go a long way to transmit to the wider world readership the rapid emergence of a new and interdisciplinary approach to water management in the most populous country in the world, which also faces some typical water related challenges. The ideas of the author as expressed in the book indicate a clear trend towards widening of the conceptual framework of water management. The emerging concepts were outlined by Wang for the first time in his address at the National Assembly of the Chinese Hydraulic Society, delivered on March 30, 1999. This was nearly five months after he took over as the Minister of Water Resources of China. At the core of Wang’s new ideas is the recognition of the need for liberating the practice of water resource management from the confines of engineering projects and establish clearer and closer links with the social, economic, and ecological processes related to water. The need for having a perspective that is informed of the ecological processes occurring in the various parts of a river basin is exemplified in his approach to the Yellow River basin, for which Wang identifies floods, drying up, and ecological degradation as the three major problems. In order to ad-dress these environmental problems, he asserts that there is a need to learn the structure of agriculture, industry and water utilization from the upper to the lower reaches of the Yellow River” (5). Similarly, in the case of the Hubei province, Wang recognizes five strategies for water management:

1. To try all means for interception and store precipitation;

2. To make full use of surface water;

3. To develop groundwater in a planned and rational manner;

4. To facilitate water transfer from one river basin to another;

5. To regard water saving as the fundamental solution.

He attaches the highest importance to the last strategy. In order for water management to lead to sustainable use of this resource, Wang calls for a clear departure in China from the present project-based approach to what he calls the resource-oriented approach. Otherwise, he cautions that “many issues will be left unresolved” (12). In the rest of the book, Wang presents the various aspects of this new concept of resource-oriented water management. He identifies the main challenges facing China as: how to control floods, how to resolve droughts and water shortages, and how to reverse the process of deterioration of the ecological systems. The clear and new weight given in his writing to the task of ecological rehabilitation of water systems is very much encouraging. In support, Wang accepts that, “in the past we paid little attention to or utterly ignored ecological & environmental consumption of water, resulting in rapid deterioration of the water environment” (28). The basic problems in water resource management in China in general or the Yellow River basin in particular are identified by Wang correctly as emanating from the uneven distribution of precipitation in time and space. He stresses the need for reservoirs as a mechanism for ad-dressing the temporal inequities and the water transfer projects for solving the spatial inequities. In order that a new vision can guide water resource management in China, he also calls for legal reforms. Wang observes that “the requirement for integrated management of water resources brings importance to river basin authorities, the status of which is not clearly defined in the Water Law” (30).

Notwithstanding his recommendation for these engineering solutions, it is important to note that Wang has not been led by a purely anthropocentric vision. In the case of the drying up of the Yellow River, he takes the position that “the main cause for the drying up . . . is that people divert and draw water from the river without any limitation and no consideration is given for supply and demand of total water available and no attention is paid to water conservancy and planned water use. The drying-up of the river is a punishment and warning by the nature” (50). This push for a more comprehensive understanding of individual water projects, in the context of the whole river basin is aimed at bringing an ecologically-informed balance in the design of the projects. Wang points out that “if research is carried out to study the functions and technologies of each individual project, not to study water re-sources on a macro level, it is impossible to realize optimal water resource management” (53). Wang reiterates the need for rethinking the efficacy of the traditional and narrow engineering view of water management, which ignores the wider ecological processes, when he points out that “we should avoid such slogans as ‘to build a dyke that can fight floods with the return period of once in 100 years’ or ‘to raise all embankments by another 2 m on the basis of 1998 flood level’. They are against natural rules and will therefore lead to disasters” (80). In the context of the traditional view of flood control with structural measures, Wang comments that “under such practices, Man blocks the passage of water . . . we should change to a new philosophy with regards to flood control.” He recommends that attention needs to be given to rapid outflow and drainage of the flood waters when he writes that “to provide floods with a route of retreat is to give man a way out . . . it is very important that man should abide by natural rules when struggling with nature” (81). After addressing the philosophical and methodological weaknesses of the present approach to water management in China, Wang highlights the need for pricing of water as a tool “for optimal allocation of water resources under the market economy” (91). He identifies pricing as the most competent mechanism for the allocation of water of the ambitious water development project, the South to North Water Transfer Project. The author next takes up the issue of water use efficiency. In light of the fact that China’s population is projected to reach 1.6 billion, Wang does not make a panic recommendation for a large physical expansion of irrigation facilities. Instead, he asserts, that “at present, the average agricultural water use efficiency is 0.43 in China. If water-saving irrigation is extended to raise the figure up to 0.55, food security can be guaranteed when the population increases to 1.6 billion in 2030 without increase of total agricultural water use” (110). The author concludes with the presentation of a path for managing water resources with Chinese characteristics. This was expressed in his address to the National Water Resource Conference delivered on November 26, 2001. In this, he places due emphasis on the generation of good quality data and allocation of water rights. His dynamic spirit gets exemplified in his statement that “. . . management of water resource requires innovation. All the above areas are new and demanding research and exploration” (151). This infusion of dynamism and innovation in all aspects of water resource management in China is a valuable contribution of Wang, not only for China, but also for many countries of the developing world. The book opens the window to the dynamics of thought and innovation in water management in China. For those interested in the emerging and evolving concepts of IWRM, the volume promises to provide some indicative trends for China. Students of Chinese economic development will also benefit from reading the book. Overall, the stress on rethinking on the efficacy of the traditional engineering interventions is the main contribution of the book. This gains special significance in the assessment of the role of engineering interventions like embankments and dams in flood control, as well as the need for the efficient use of irrigation waters for promoting food security. It will be important to see how rapidly the ideas expressed in the book transform the present policy and practice of water management in China.

Reviewed by: Jayanta Bandyopadhaya, Professor,
Centre for Development and Environment Policy, Indian
Institute of Management Calcutta, India 700104.