Abstract
The Tai and Chao Lake basins are currently facing a serious water pollution crisis associated with the absence of an effective environmental governance system. The water pollution and the water governance system of the two basins will be compared. The reasons for water pollution in both basins are similar, namely the weak current water environmental governance system cannot deal with the consequences of the rapidly growing economy. China’s water governance system is a complicated combination of basin management with both departmental management and regional management. There is an absence of legal support and sound coordination mechanisms, resulting in fragmented management practices in the existing water environmental governance system. A comparison is made for the Tai and Chao Lake basins and Canada, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. Based on China’s present central-local governance structure and departmental system, an integrated reform of basin level and water environmental governance in China should learn from international experiences. The reforms could consist of improved governance structures, rebuilding authoritative and powerful agencies for basin management, strengthening the organizational structure of the basin administrations, improving legislation and regulatory systems for basin management and enhancing public participation mechanisms.
Highlights
The five largest freshwater lakes in China—Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, Tai Lake, Chao Lake, and Hongze Lake—are all located in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River and Huai River
Water pollution prevention and control in the Tai Lake Basin has become the focus of the state environmental protection work with an important demonstration effect for other Chinese lakes
The Regulation indicates that water resources management system is a “combination of basin management with departmental management and regional management” and that “the Nation is responsible for establishing coordination mechanisms and making overall arrangements of major issues in the Tai Lake basin management”
Summary
The five largest freshwater lakes in China—Poyang Lake, Dongting Lake, Tai Lake, Chao Lake, and Hongze Lake—are all located in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River and Huai River. The region has a high population density and has shown rapid economic development These five lakes are major freshwater storage areas, and play an important role for maintaining a regional ecological balance, providing freshwater resources, preventing floods, diminishing environmental pollution, etc. Water pollution prevention and control in the Tai Lake Basin has become the focus of the state environmental protection work with an important demonstration effect for other Chinese lakes. Increasing complexity and uncertainty in river basin systems have created land and water management problems, but the limited capacity of state institutions to deal effectively with such conditions suggests that the current system must be reformed and that a more powerful system-response capability founded on inter-organizational collaboration should be developed. This paper will compare the water environmental pollution conditions and the governance systems of the Tai and Chao Lake Basin and learn from experiences elsewhere in the world. The research question is how does China deal with lakes in governance terms and how does this compare to international practices such as more participatory water governance, and unified leadership of and well specified rules for different organizations involved?
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