Abstract
A water allocation policy that aimed to balance water demand with water availability to ensure sustainability was implemented in an arid region of China over ten years ago. This policy’s success was assessed across three dimensions: society, the environment, and the economy. While the assessment was not intended to be comprehensive, it highlighted the best outcomes of the policy intervention while revealing some hidden issues. It was found that although the policy was successful in placing a ceiling on water use in the middle reaches of the Heihe River, the Water User Association, one of the main actors in water policy implementation, was under-recognized, even though it functioned well. Moreover, the economic structural adjustment at the macro level had not led to any significant reduction in water use, the reasons for which were explored.
Highlights
Water is the lifeblood of human society
To coordinate the water allocation, the Heihe River Basin Administrative Bureau (HRBAB) was set up in January 2000 to serve as the main agency for integrated water resource management across the Heihe River Basin and to be responsible for the implementation, operation, and maintenance of large-scale water projects
The analysis indicated that the ratio of the primary sector to the secondary and tertiary sectors was not correlated with variations in water use from 2001 to 2014, implying that the economic structural adjustment did not lead to further reductions in water use in Zhangye City
Summary
Water is the lifeblood of human society. Due to population and economic growth, the competing demand for water resources has been increasing, especially in developing countries. Mounting evidence of the significant effect of human activities on the environment in general led to the emergence of sustainability concept as a central aim for societal development in the early 1970s, and the concept has been gaining increasing recognition and wide use both academically and politically in recent decades. Sustainability 2015, 7 significant challenges for the 21st century, which is unprecedented in scope, and requires a fundamental shift in political and societal consciousness and in action. It calls for innovative visions and new approaches for shaping an evolving new reality.
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