Paper to be presented at the International Workshop on economic sociology of Water, NDHU, Taiwan. March 27-28, 2013

1. The Scale Politics of Urban Water Governance
Beijing and the South-to-North Water Transfer Project
13年4月9日星期二

2. Outlines
✤ Introduction
✤ Urbanization of water and water politics
✤ Beijing’s water: historical legacies
✤ Beijing and the “South-to-North Water Transfer Project”
✤ A new governance mechanism is emerging?
✤ Conclusion
13年4月9日星期二

3. Introduction
✤ This paper discusses the issues regard how rapid industrialization
and urbanization generated high degree of water consumption that,
triggering by the building of various water supply civil engineering,
caused conflict/tension between cities and rural areas as well as
between central and local states.
✤ Case: Beijing vs. the South-to-North Water Transfer Project
✤ Urban Political Ecology Perspective
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4. China: Water Scarcity Problems
✤ Rapid economic development after 1980s
✤ The increase of water consumption
✤ Uneven rainfall distribution
✤ The arid north, and humid south
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5. Rainfall Distribution The arid north, and humid south
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6. Beijing: Thirsty Capital
✤ Located in the dry northern part of China
✤ Rapid urbanization and industrialization
✤ Water, we need more water
✤ The South-to-North Water Transfer Project
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7. Research Questions
✤ How has the Chinese state handled the disputes on water demands
from related provinces?
✤ How has Beijing city compensated those rural regions where water
was diversified to feed its need?
✤ Has China developed a new type of governance to solve the dispute
of water supply along the affected provinces where the Sou-North
water diversification project?
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8. Hydraulic Society and State Power
✤ Wittfogel: The capital investment and labor coordination required for
substantial water control demand the rise of a strong and hierarchical
power center which he called the “despotic” states of the Orient. (ex:
China)
✤ Worster: The “capitalist state mode” of production on water control is
dominated by two powerful groups: wealthy agricultural capitalists
and “water bureaucrats.” (ex: The Western US)
✤ Swyngedow: After 1990s, water became Privatized, Commodified,
Globalized. (ex: Latin America)
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9. Dujiangyan （都江堰） Sichuan, China
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10. Who dominate?
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11. Urbanization of Water
✤ Not only social, political and economic processes, but also the
interaction of social and nature.
✤ Swygngedow: Urbanization of water looks at urban hydraulic
environments as socio-physical constructions in which urban water is
organized through a combination of social historical and metabolic-
ecological process.
✤ The re-territorialization of water, the rise of scalar politics.
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12. Beijing’s water
legacies
✤ Located in Northern China
with Yongding river and
Chaobai river
✤ Capital city of China from Qin
Dynasty (1644-1912)
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13. 1949-1970s
✤ Beijing dominant era
✤ Dams: Guanting and Miyung
✤ Wells: everywhere in the city
✤ Policy: Industrialized!!
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14. 1980s-1990s
✤ Local competition era
✤ Rapid Industrialization
✤ Crowded Urbanization
✤ Water Pollution
✤ Water Shortages
✤ Fragmented Authoritarian
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15. Fragmented Water
Management System
State Council of
P.R. China
Ministry of Water Ministry of
Resources Environmental
Protection
✤ Tiao-Kuai （條塊） Inter-
7 River Bansin
governmental relation Commissions
Provincial
Governments
✤ No Water Law before 1980s
Bureau of
Bureau of Water Environmental
Resources Protection
✤ Water Act promulgated 1988
City & County
✤ Water Pollution Amendment Governments
Act amended in 1996
Bureau of Water Bureau of
Resources Environmental
Protection
✤ But local governments still
compete to each other.
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16. Water shortage crisis in Beijing
✤ In the late 1990s, seven consecutive years led Miyung and Guanting
reservoirs’ storage had sharply shrunk.
✤ In the fragmented water management system, adjusted the water
prices couldn’t solve the problem.
✤ But, Beijing government promotes FAB, TFT-LCD and even Olympic
✤ So, where is the CLEAN WATER?
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17. Water consumption and Water resource in Beijing (Unit: One billion cubic meter)
60
45
30
15
0
1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009
Water Consumption Water Resource
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18. Water Consumption in Beijing (Unit: One billion cubic meter)
60
45
30
15
0
1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009
Water Consumption Agricultural Irrigation
Industrial Use Urban Domestic Use
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19. The South-to-North Water
Transfer Project
✤ 1952: Chairman Mao suggested
✤ 2002: the overall plan of the project began to take place
✤ There are EASTERN, CENTRAL, and (WESTERN) Routes
✤ Beijing is the terminal of the Central Routes
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20. South-to-North Water
Transfer Project
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21. Danjiangkou Dam
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22. Beijing vs. Hebei: Urban vs. Rural
✤ Not just a water diversion project, but also a task to prevent water
from environmental pollution.
✤ The Beijing government asks the farmers in Hebei: no more chemical
pesticide, no more ecological harmful farming techniques, and
reducing the farming area.
✤ Dead lock: poorly irrigation skill + national food security policy
✤ So the conflict still going...
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23. Beijing vs. Water-Supply Provinces
✤ Immigration: in Henan and Hubei, 330,000 people have to move.
✤ Compensation: each person can get 600 RMB per year but hard to get
job in the new place.
✤ Fiscal burden: for the local government, resettlement costs is too
heavy and industrial development is forbidden.
✤ Ecological impact: not only to the water source area, but also along
the canal and the downstream of Han River.
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24. A new governance mechanism is
emerging?
✤ Political, the “South-to-North Water Diversion Project Committee
Office” was composed in 2003.
✤ Director: the Deputy Prime Minister of the State Council
✤ Members: Minister of the relevant ministries, the governors of the
People’s Bank and the Development Bank, and the relevant provinces.
✤ Missions: Policy, Financing, Monitor, and Cooperation.
✤ Six Units at the Central level
✤ Project Construction Committees at the Local level
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25. A new governance mechanism is
emerging?
✤ Economical, three types of Company compose the market mechanism
✤ Water Transfer Company: state-owned company, invested by central
government and relevant local governments with different ratio.
✤ Water Resources Company: invested by the water-supply province
government, sell the water to the Water Transfer Company.
✤ Water Company: some state-owned some private, buy the water from
the Water Transfer Company and sell it to the citizen.
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26. A new governance mechanism is
emerging?
✤ Ecological Compensation
✤ First one: the water-receiving areas should help the water-supply
areas to solve its economic problem.
✤ Second one: the market-oriented compensation. Rise of Beijing water
price to compensate water contribution areas.
✤ Beijing: provided 50 million RMB to Henan + signed economic
cooperation agreement.
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27. The Governance Mechanism
of the South-to-NorthWater
Transfer Project
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28. Conclusion
✤ This paper argues that the South-to-North Water Transfer Project in
fact has strengthened the Beijing-centered central-peripheral relation
✤ Such an “artificial water-shed” strengthen the injustice distribution of
natural resources between Beijing and other inland areas.
✤ Beijing should re-orient its development path.
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