Transjurisdictional Water Pollution Management in China: An Overview

Management of water pollution at the basin level is a part of a more complex set of water management issues that includes: water abstraction and allocation to agriculture and to other consumptive users; non-point source impacts; discharge regulation for other beneficial users such as hydropower generation, recreation; etc.. Conceptually, all of these are managed with the framework of integrated water resources management (IWRM). While many countries, including China, pursue the goal of IWRM, in practice IWRM is rarely achieved in a comprehensive manner due to a variety of legal, institutional, and political barriers. Failure to manage at the basin level in an integrated manner leads directly to transjurisdictional (transboundary) problems that lead to interjurisdictional disputes and, in some cases, to larger regional and political conflict. Currently, in China, profound water scarcity, especially in the North China Plain and the semi-and north-central regions within the Yellow River Basin, is leading to a growing number of transjurisdictional problems that are not adequately dealt with in current law and practice. Throughout China, transjurisdictional water pollution is a growing problem for the same reasons. Using the Yellow River Basin as an example of a large river basin under immense water stress and increasing pollution, the Chinese Government, with technical assistance from the Asian Development Bank, is studying ways and means of strengthening national and provincial legal frameworks to better deal with transjurisdictional pollution management, and to recommend new sets of administrative and management practices to basin stakeholders that will quickly identify and resolve transjurisdictional disputes.