Abstract
Many river basins in the arid and semi-arid parts of the world are experiencing water scarcity due to water consumption by agriculture resulting in conflicts between upstream and downstream, conflicts between water users, and degradation of the natural ecosystems. The Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, China, has developed into the world’s most important cotton production region with 8.85% of the world’s production. Under the extremely arid climate with annual precipitation of below 100 mm, the water consumption due to irrigation resulted in water scarcity and conflicts between water users as well as between upstream and downstream. The Tarim river catchment harbors about half of the world’s Populus euphratica riparian forests, which are impacted by water shortage. Starting in the 1990s, a unified water management system with a quota system for water distribution has been set up. We introduce this unified water management system and analyze how the water distribution works in practice. Ecologists and forestry officials claim more water for environmental flow, whereas water management officials give priority to agricultural, industrial, and domestic water use. The water quotas for downstream regions are frequently not fulfilled, especially during the non-flood season in spring and early summer posing a risk to water users. Water users with financial and political advantages gain more water security than others. The water quotas are annual quotas. These quotas should be differentiated into seasonal quotas, in order to enhance water security for the downstream section of the Tarim all year round.
Highlights
Many river basins in the arid and semi-arid parts of the world are experiencing water scarcity due to water consumption by agriculture resulting in conflicts between upstream and downstream, conflicts between water users, and degradation of the natural ecosystems, such as the Aral Sea Basin [1], Jordan [2], Murray-Darling [3], Yellow River [4], Heihe [5], and Tarim Basin [6] [7]
Half of the cotton in the Tarim Basin is produced along the Aksu and Tarim River and most of the population of the Tarim Basin live in the Aksu and Tarim river catchment [8] [11]
This paper aims at revealing the water distribution patterns in the Tarim river catchment from a stakeholder perspective by addressing the following four questions: 1) How is water really distributed among different water use sectors, in particular with regard to environmental flow? 2) How is water distributed among different geographic and administration areas? We focus on the Tarim river catchment, because it is more prone to water shortage compared to the Aksu River [13]
Summary
Many river basins in the arid and semi-arid parts of the world are experiencing water scarcity due to water consumption by agriculture resulting in conflicts between upstream and downstream, conflicts between water users, and degradation of the natural ecosystems, such as the Aral Sea Basin [1], Jordan [2], Murray-Darling [3], Yellow River [4], Heihe [5], and Tarim Basin [6] [7]. The Konqi River (lower part of the Kaidu-Konqi River), which drains the Bosten Lake and which flows parallel to the Tarim lower reaches, was hydrologically connected with the Tarim through natural wetlands and river branches until the 1970s Today, it supplies water through artificial channels into the Tarim downstream section. The Aksu, Hotan, Yarkant, and Kaidu-Konqi River as source streams, together with the Tarim mainstream constitute the Tarim river catchment or the so-called four source streams and one mainstream area (Figure 1). This area is the scope of the Tarim Water Distribution Program. River branches of this inland delta connected to the Konqi River [29]
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