Transboundary Water Issues in China

Luwei Ying & Xianlong HouCE 397 – Transboundary waters

Background

• Ice and snow melt in the Himalayas will reach the peak with the global warming during the period of 2050 to 2070.

• United Nations issued a warning in 2010 that there had been 1.1 billion people lacking access to safe water resources and the number would increase to 4 billion which is the half of the world’s population in the year of 2050.

World Water Situation

In China…• There is about 25% of the total land turned out

to be desertification.• 40% of the river was polluted by heavy metal and

pesticide.• The capita water resource is only 25% of the

global average level which is the lowest of all the large economies.

• The groundwater level of north part of China has decreased dramatically due to excessive pumping.

Capita Water Resource distribution in China

What is worse…• Sustained drought leads to the decrease of the

water level at Yangtze and other major rivers. • Hydroelectric power generation is 20% less than a

normal year which in turn leads to the increase of coal consumption for power generation.

• In order to ensure normal power supply under the condition of drought, there is raising demand of coal power generation.

• However, the mining coal, in turn, would require a lot of water resources.

The solutions• One of the most effective and efficient ways to solve the problem is

to carry out transboundary waters cooperation. • The Chinese government has invested $ 30 billion to construct a 20

million kilowatts hydropower station in northern Myanmar and a power station which has a installed capacity of 7.1 million kilowatts at Salween (Known as Nujiang in the territory of China).

• In Laos, Chinese government has invested $ 200 million to build a hydropower station with a total installed capacity of 100,000 kilowatts.

• Chinese government has planned to build a hydropower station in Cambodia with a total installed capacity of 2.7 million kilowatts and invested about $ 600 million to build a hydropower station with a total installed capacity of 330,000 kilowatts in Myanmar in 2014.

Problems and conflicts• Case 1• Kachin army conflicted with the Myanmar government army,

destroyed the hydropower station on transbounday river.

Problems and conflicts• Case 2• India and Bangladesh expressed strong dissatisfaction with that

decision that China plan to build the hydropower station on the upstream of Yarlung Zangbo River (Brahmaputra River )

Problems and conflicts• Case 3• China is now building a canal from Irtysh River, result in

influencing the agricultural irrigation and channel transportation in Kazakhstan

Conclusion

• China is one of the countries with the most international rivers; there are 12 international rivers origin from China and area involve in 19 countries and nearly 3 billion people. In recent years, some issues about developing and utilizing the water resources, ecological environmental protection and pollution control have taken place in China and the surrounding countries. These factors are influencing China's security and should be solved via negotiations and cooperation.

Discussion

• Under the condition of the recent water resources status quo in China, do you believe there is going to be a water resources disaster in the near future if no better solutions are carried out?

• According to the present water resources situation in China, do you think developing transboundary water resource is a good idea? Why?

• Assuming developing transboundary water resources is critical, what chances of success are there if the developing process is only based on the existing International water laws or regulations but no real cooperation and negotiations? How important is the win-win situation come to be? Do you think International political and economic situation would have an influence on such cooperation?