Irrigation Development and Water Rights Reform in China

Abstract

Abstract This article describes the growth and importance of irrigation in China in terms of the expansion of surface water irrigation led by the state, and the more recent acceleration of groundwater irrigation led by individual farmers. Key management challenges and policy priorities are outlined, highlighting the importance of water conservation and integrated water resources management under the 2002 Water Law. The article then describes the basis for rights definition and allocation planning under the Law, and recent experience with implementation in surface water and groundwater contexts. A key conclusion is that the development of a modern water rights system in China is vital for mediating between the claims of competing uses, particularly at the agricultural–industrial–urban interfaces, and for meeting water conservation and reallocation objectives. At the same time, farmers within irrigation districts and in emerging groundwater economies need clearly defined rights to encourage investment in the farm economy and to provide security of supply. Implementing new systems in a country the size of China is a major challenge, however, particularly across large rural aquifers where groundwater development is increasingly opportunistic and farmer-led. Acknowledgements This paper is the result of a project undertaken under the auspices of the Australian Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts and the Chinese Ministry of Water Resources, with funding provided by AusAID, the Australian Agency for International Development. Notes 1. Using China's standard of defining poverty, i.e. income below $0.2 per person per day at the current exchange rate, or less than $0.6–0.7 at purchasing power parity (PPP). Note that China's poverty line is lower than that used by the World Bank to measure poverty in other countries ($1 per day at PPP). 2. The total environmental damage costs of air and water pollution were estimated at 5.8% of GDP (World Bank, Citation2007a). 3. Northern China is generally referred to as the area north of the Yangtze River. In terms of water availability, the North China Plain (or 3H Basin) has only about one-third the national average and about half the per capita water availability specified by the UN as the standard for maintaining socio-economic and environmental development. 4. Spence (Citation1999) reports that during a three-month period between late 1957 and the end of January 1958, the State mobilized 100 million peasants to create a functioning irrigation system for 7.8 million hectares of land. Bramall (Citation2000) reports that the proportion of irrigated land rose from 20% in 1952 to 50% in 1978. 5. Mandatory targets governed sown areas, yields, levels of input applications, planting techniques and other factors on a crop-by-crop basis. After 1978, mandatory targets were replaced by 'guidance planning' and market allocation (Ash, Citation1993). 6. De-collectivization and the re-introduction of household farming led to uncertainty about who should own and manage irrigation infrastructure and contribute to maintenance, especially as local government was reluctant to take charge of (and therefore subsidize) irrigation projects. Water charging—at a very low level—was only initiated in 1980. Hitherto, only a few larger and older IDs charged nominal fees; in most schemes, farmers paid no charges but were expected to contribute labour for construction and maintenance (Stone, Citation1993). 7. MWR (Citation2006b) indicates that medium-sized IDs of over 10 000 mu (667 ha) and large IDs of over 300 000 mu (20 000 ha) account for 72% of the effective irrigated area. 8. According to official estimates, the number of wells in all of China was roughly 150 000 in 1965. By the late 1970s there were more than 2.3 million, and by 2003 the number had risen to around 4.7 million (reported in Wang et al., Citation2007b). 9. Government abolition of local taxes and levies on farmers by village and township leaders may also undermine collective investment in groundwater infrastructure and indirectly encourage private development. 10. In practice the irrigated/rain-fed distinction is uncertain because of changing climatic conditions and irrigation needs from different sources. 11. MWR, Citation2006b. In reality the surface water/groundwater partition is also uncertain because of (a) the significance of informal, unmonitored groundwater development; and (b) the fact that groundwater demand will vary with surface water availability and climatic conditions, particularly in those areas that rely on groundwater as a supplemental or buffer source. 12. Revisions were required to address the growing problems of water scarcity and pollution that had arisen in the 1980s and 1990s. The 2002 Law makes water resource conservation a general principle in all relevant areas, and the subject of 17 separate articles (Wouters et al., Citation2004). 13. The Chinese government maintains an unwritten policy of ensuring roughly 95% self-sufficiency in grains to ensure an adequate supply of affordable food. Agricultural trade broadly reflects comparative advantage, with sharp rises in imports of land intensive oil crops rather than wheat, rice or maize (OECD, Citation2005). 14. Since 2000, the government has attempted to reduce the 'peasant burden' by phasing out a range of government taxes, township and village levies and miscellaneous fees. In 2004, the government announced the phasing out of the Agricultural Tax over a period of five years (OECD, 2005). 15. According to the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR, 2006a), the 'water saving' irrigated area now comprises 34.5% of the total irrigated area. 16. The food price rises currently being experienced in China are generally attributed to rising demand, poor weather and outbreaks of livestock disease. Most commentators agree that the current global spike in food prices has little to do with China since the country continues to be largely self-sufficient in grain (Wiggins, Citation2008). 17. Only in 1998 were responsibilities for groundwater monitoring and management transferred to MWR from the Ministry of Mines (now the Ministry Land Resources—MLR) and the Ministry of Construction (in urban areas). However, most groundwater data and knowledge is still found within the hydrogeological branches of the MLR rather than with the MWR and its subordinate Water Affairs Bureaus (Foster et al., 2004). 18. Under the 2002 Law, all water resources are owned by the state. Although state ownership is a cardinal principle of socialist legality, historically it has not led to effective control. This reflects, in part, China's civil law, allowing subordinate units of government to develop relatively firm entitlements and over-use resources (Wouters et al., Citation2004). 19. River basin conservancy commissions have been established in six key river basins, including the Yellow River. 20. The conversion of Water Resource Bureaus to Water Affairs Bureaus began in Shenzhen in 1991, and has led to the consolidation of water resources development, management, flood control and rural-urban water supply under one roof (Shah et al., Citation2004). 21. In practice, annual regulation plans are not prepared for many rivers, particularly in southern China where water resources are more abundant. 22. With certain exemptions, for example for stock and domestic purposes in rural areas, and rural collectives taking water from their own works. 23. Under the 1988 Water Law the state was required to adopt a permit system to regulate direct withdrawals from aquifers, rivers and lakes. In September 1993, the state also issued Implementation Procedures for the Water Drawing Permit System, outlining the scope and implementation measures for the permit system. 24. Permit No. 1 for Hangjin ID allocates 410 million m3 to the district, including a mandatory return flow of 35 million m3 per year. Permit Nos. 2 and 3 for Hetao ID allocate a much larger volume of 4.82 billion m3. 25. Hence membership of the WUA, conferred through village registration and land ownership in the ID, provides farmers with rights to an irrigation service, subject to pre-payment, with accountability provided ultimately through voting rights. However, individual farmers only have an indirect role in ensuring the WUA does not lose any contractual water rights granted to it. 26. This assumes that channel leakage was not being used to maintain environmental assets or provide usable recharge to groundwater users. In many closed basins, this assumption may not be valid (FAO, Citation2004; Perry, Citation2007). 27. A typical groundwater district in the US or Australia might include one thousand farmers. In an area of comparable size in China, there may be 100 000 farmers, each withdrawing small volumes of water (Shah et al., Citation2003). 28. Permits for well drilling can serve to check the numbers of groundwater users as well as the location and spacing of wells. However, abstraction licenses that (ideally) define variable shares of aquifer safe yield are required to control total groundwater withdrawals.