TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE URBAN WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT: A CASE STUDY IN TIANJIN, CHINA
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Sustainable Development
Sust. Dev. 9, 24 – 35 (2001)
TOWARDS SUSTAINABLE
URBAN WATER RESOURCE
MANAGEMENT: A CASE
STUDY IN TIANJIN, CHINA
Xuemei Bai1,* and Hidefumi Imura2
1
Institute for Global Environmental Strategies, Japan
2
Nagoya University, Japan
Sustainable water resource management integrated systems approach for problem
has become a critical issue for the solving. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley &
development of cities that suffer scarce Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment.
water resources. Tianjin City, located in
China’s Huaihe basin, one of the most
polluted and water-scarce river basins in Received 31 May 2000
the country, is a typical example in Revised 12 July 2000
which water is posing a major constraint Accepted 2 August 2000
to the development. This paper examines
the current status of the use of water INTRODUCTION
resources, and the current practices and
policy measures taken for water resource
T
ianjin City is located on the Huabei
management in Tianjin, with a view to Plain, within the Haihe River Basin in
drawing lessons through an evaluation northern China, neighbouring the coun-
of these measures. The study illustrates try’s capital city of Beijing. Geographically,
the role of cities and their complex the city belongs to the warm temperate zone,
interaction with their peripheries for the with annual mean temperatures between 11
and 12 degrees Celsius, and annual mean
allocation of scarce water resources, and
precipitation of about 560 to 690 mm. One of
it suggests that a systems approach the country’s seven largest river basins, Haihe
should be adopted in order to analyse River Basin is also one of the most polluted
and understand the complexity of the and water-scarce. It covers a total area of
entire picture. Based on this review and about 310000 square kilometres and includes
evaluation of Tianjin’s experience, the portions of five different provinces and two
authors propose a framework for mega-cities. Tianjin City is located at the low-
sustainable water resource management est point downstream of the river (Figure 1)
in cities, emphasizing the importance of and covers 11200 square kilometres, equal to
taking full consideration of 5.3 times the area of the Tokyo metropolis in
resource/environmental capacity and an Japan. This unusually large scale is an impor-
tant factor in the following discussion.
* Correspondence to: Dr. Xuemi Bai, Research Fellow, Institute Two factors form the background of Tian-
for Global Environmental Strategies, 1560-39 Kamiyaguchi, jin’s water issues. One is the imbalance be-
Hayama, Kanagawa 240-0198, Japan.
tween natural resource distribution and the
region’s social and economic stature in China.
Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. The share of area, population and arable landURBAN WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Figure 1. Water system and major cities in Haihe River Basin.
of the region in the country are 3.3, 9.8 and Among many other concerns, a deficit of
10.9%, respectively, while the share of water total available water resources, overuse of
resource distribution is only 1.5%. As a result, groundwater and deteriorating water quality
the per capita water resource is only 430 cubic are three major water resource related issues.
metres per year, 16% of the country’s average The environmental impacts are significant
level. Despite this, the region plays a very and diverse, including desertification, land
important socio-economic role. The basin
holds one of China’s five largest urban ag-
glomerations, with Beijing and Tianjin, and
Tianjin is the largest industrial centre in
northern China. The second factor is the rapid
industrialization and economic growth of the
city and surrounding region that have oc-
curred in recent decades. Because water de-
mand upstream has grown rapidly, the
downstream city of Tianjin has suffered. Wa-
ter demand in Tianjin City is also growing. As
the GDP of the city grew tenfold from 1978 to
1996, the urban population grew by 1.5 mil- Figure 2. Population and economic growth (data source:
lion persons (Figure 2). Tianjin Municipal Statistical Bureau 1997).
Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Sust. Dev. 9, 24 – 35 (2001)
25X. BAI AND H. IMURA
subsidence, dropping water tables, saltwater This four-step water flow can be considered
incursion into groundwater and soil saliniza- as common to all cities. The discussion of
tion among many others. major water-resource-related issues in Tianjin
This paper examines water resource issues will therefore follow each of these steps.
in Tianjin following each step of water re-
source use in cities, and draws lessons from
Tianjin’s case through review and evaluation Input: distribution of the water resource and its
of the measures taken by the municipal gov- changes over time
ernment. Based on these, a framework for
sustainable urban water resource manage- The total water resource in Tianjin, of 3.56
ment is presented, emphasizing the im- billion cubic metres in an average year, in-
portance of taking full consideration of cludes 2.86 billion cubic metres of surface
resource/environmental capacity and an inte- water and 702 million cubic metres of
grated systems approach for problem solving. restorable groundwater. The total can drop to
Together with the framework, the importance less than 2.0 billion cubic metres in a rela-
of institutional arrangements to ensure the tively dry year, and can be further reduced to
implementation of these strategies is around 1.2 billion cubic metres in a severe
emphasized. drought. The amount of water resources
available to Tianjin, especially surface water,
is on a long-term decreasing trend, thought to
A CASE STUDY IN TIANJIN be a consequence of increased water demand
and associated water withdrawal upstream.
Water flow in cities can be divided into four Figure 3 shows long-term trends in the total
steps. Step 1 is the capture of water from volume of surface water entering Hebei
nature as a resource. Water resources include Province through rivers. The volume during
water captured within the basin, input from the 1970s had dropped by one-third of the
other basins through inter-basin transfers and amount during the 1960s, and dropped an-
newly developed resources such as rainwater other one-third in the 1980s. Since Tianjin is
use and desalinization of seawater. Step 2 is within Hebei Province, it is not difficult to
allocation of obtained water resources among imagine the reduction trend in surface water
regions and sectors. Usually it is distributed inflow to Tianjin.
between urban and rural areas, and the water As the local resource deficit became signifi-
assigned to cities is further allocated to differ- cant, efforts were made to explore new water
ent sectors such as agriculture, industry, mu- resources. In 1981 the city started a project
nicipalities and ecological uses. Ecological to transfer water from Luanhe River, which
uses here signify the minimum amount of
water necessary to maintain ecosystems and
hydrological cycles. Despite the importance of
ecological uses, a quantitative understanding
of water for these uses is still inadequate. Step
3 is water use within each sector. The effi-
ciency of resource use, recycling ratio, treat-
ment ratio etc will determine the amount and
quality of discharge. These factors greatly af-
fect Step 4, which is output and environmen-
tal impact. All three kinds of major output
from urban water use, namely municipal
wastewater, industrial wastewater and agri-
cultural discharge, enter the natural water cy-
cle again and cause various environmental Figure 3. Decreasing river water inflow (data source:
impacts. Zhang, 1989).
Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Sust. Dev. 9, 24 – 35 (2001)
26URBAN WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
supplies 1 billion cubic metres of additional growth of its water demand, Beijing con-
water to the city in a relatively dry year. The structed many dams and reservoirs upstream,
project was completed and started to function and now controls up to 85% of the total flow
in 1983. Other efforts include sewage water of the Haihe River. From the viewpoint of
treatment and reuse, and use of seawater for water resources, Beijing has predominant
cooling in industry. Treated sewage water is power over Tianjin, and enjoys a higher prior-
intended to be used for agriculture, with up ity in water resource allocation.
to 70% being used for irrigation. Due to insuf- The case of Hebei Province reveals a quite
ficient operating funding of sewage treatment different story. Geographically, it contains
plants, they cannot operate to capacity, result- both Beijing and Tianjin. According to the
ing in a large portion of untreated urban Hebei Water Management Bureau, about half
sewage being used for irrigation. Seawater of the total outflow from mountain areas of
used by the power industry for cooling saves the province goes to Beijing and Tianjin. Sev-
an equivalent of 36 million cubic metres of eral large reservoirs constructed by Hebei
fresh water each year. Province for agricultural use, including the
Miyun, Guanting and Yuqiao dams, supply
Beijing and Tianjin. As a result of the water-
Resource allocation
transferring project from the Luanhe River to
Located at the river mouth, and acquiring Tianjin, the province supplies an additional 1
most of its surface water through river inflow, billion cubic metres of water annually to Tian-
water resources in Tianjin City largely depend jin. Such relinquishments of water rights re-
on how much of a share it receives compared sult from administrative intercession, which
to other areas in the watershed. This section lacks proper compensation schemes. Another
discusses regional distribution issues among issue is untreated urban sewage, which is
three closely related regions: Beijing, Hebei used for irrigation despite prohibition by the
Province and Tianjin. Figure 4 shows priori- government, resulting in concerns about long-
ties and issues of resource allocation among term health impacts. In addition, the total
them. inflow of river water to the province has
Beijing, the capital of China, is located up- declined significantly, as indicated in Figure
stream of Tianjin. It is superior to Tianjin both 3. As a result, the already stressed demand –
politically and geographically. With the rapid supply balance of water resources in Hebei
Figure 4. Priorities and issues of inter-regional resource allocation.
Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Sust. Dev. 9, 24 – 35 (2001)
27X. BAI AND H. IMURA
Province has gone from bad to worse, and highly possible that municipal water use will
water resource problems have become a major increase in the future. The major sources of
limiting factor in the development of industry municipal water are water transferred from
and agriculture. Luanhe River and groundwater.
A similar regional imbalance exists with The major water consuming industries are
water quality. Most river waters entering the chemical, machinery, petroleum, cotton
Tianjin are heavily polluted. Especially during spinning, paper production, food and metal-
times of drought, the city faces serious water lurgical industries. Although the amount of
shortages and water pollution problems. As a water used by these industries has increased,
result, Tianjin City must deal with a much due to improved recycling ratios since the
heavier burden than other cities to clean up beginning of 1980s, water withdrawal by
pollution and improve its water environment. these industries has not changed much. In
The fact that farmers in Hebei Province are 1984, the share of water supplied for indus-
using untreated urban sewage water from trial uses was 14.9% for river water, 27.5% for
Beijing and Tianjin for irrigation is illustrative piped water and 57.6% for groundwater.
of the problems. Overexploitation of groundwater has resulted
It can be seen that on the one hand Tianjin in a drop in the level of the water table by
City is the victim of Beijing’s power, while on over 60 m in the centre of a depression cone.
the other hand the city is mitigating its losses Excessive groundwater abstraction has also
by squeezing Hebei Province. Complaints caused serious land subsidence over an adja-
have been persisting over this situation, espe- cent area of 2300 square kilometres (United
cially in Hebei Province; several conflicts have Nations Economic and Social Commission for
occurred since the 1980s, most of which ended Asia and the Pacific, 1997). The water recy-
with the triumph of Beijing. With no funda- cling ratio reached 74% in the 1990s, equiva-
mental improvements on the horizon, these lent to Japan’s level; further improvements
regional disputes are likely to continue for the will be difficult since large investments will
foreseeable future. be required for only marginal further im-
provements. Tianjin’s industrial production
has grown by more than 10% annually;
Water use: sector-wise use and risks sweeping reforms in production technology
Water use in Tianjin can be divided into agri- as well as industrial structure are necessary if
cultural and urban categories, and the latter this trend is to continue without dramatic
can be further divided into municipal, indus- increases of water withdrawal. The growing
trial and irrigation (for suburban vegetable township and village enterprises usually have
field) uses. About half of the total urban water primitive technology and thus a very low
use in the city is for industrial purposes. water recycling ratio. This part of industrial
Per capita municipal water use in 1996 was water use is still small, but likely to grow
128 litres per day. This level has not increased significantly.
much since 1984. However, the total non- Agricultural water use is mainly covered by
agricultural population1 of the city has in- local surface water and groundwater. Because
creased from 4.3 million to 5.1 million over of the shortage of available water resources,
the period. This newly added urban popula- urban sewage water is also used. In 1984, of a
tion has imposed greater pressure on the wa- total of 1.629 billion tonnes of agricultural
ter supply system of the municipal govern- water use (including 239 million tonnes used
ment. With the improvement in household for suburban vegetable fields), 42.5% were
water supply and sanitation facilities, the from surface water, 43% from groundwater
popularization of the washing machine and and 14.5% from urban sewage. According to a
the development of service industries, it is nationwide survey at the beginning of 1980s,
1
the incidence of cancer and diarrhoea in
A part of the urban population is still engaged in agriculture,
and piped urban water supply is related only to the non- sewage irrigation areas was 0.3 –0.5% and
agricultural urban population. 1.4% higher than in other areas, respectively,
Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Sust. Dev. 9, 24 – 35 (2001)
28URBAN WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
and the mortality ratio by these two diseases brewing, paper mill, cotton spinning, food
was 0.02% higher (Haihe Water Resource processing, leather manufacturing and phar-
Management Committee, 1997). Despite the maceutical industries, accounting for 74% of
agricultural water shortage, irrigation water is industrial pollution discharge. About half of
still used wastefully and with low efficiency, the pollution originates from six districts in
due to leakage from old irrigation facilities, the centre of the city.
outdated irrigation methods such as flood irri-
gation etc. The long-term health risks of pol- Tianjin’s share of pollution discharge in
luted agricultural products are a matter of the Haihe Basin
concern. Table 1 shows the share of Tianjin City in the
Ecological water use is often neglected. A water pollution discharge of Haihe Basin. Al-
minimum amount of water is essential to sus- though Tianjin covers only 3.74% of total area
tain natural ecosystems and hydrological cy- of the river basin, its share in the total pollu-
cles, though the exact amount has not been tion discharge is 18.4%, and in COD discharge
clarified by research. Some changes in the 16.74%. The average intensity of discharge of
natural ecosystem are already noticeable in the Haihe Basin, calculated by dividing total
this area due to human overuse of water. In discharge by area, is 13100 tonnes per square
Bohai Bay, the decreased fresh water inflow kilometre, while for Tianjin it is 64400, or 4.92
from Haihe River has resulted in changes in times the average level. A similar tendency
marine fauna. Dropping groundwater tables can be observed in the case of COD discharge.
accelerate aridity of the soil and lead to deser- These numbers indicate that Tianjin’s contri-
tification. Such changes in natural ecosystems bution to water pollution is quite high, and
may eventually destroy the ecological founda- also that the city cannot solve water quality
tions on which the city relies, and thus need problems on its own.
more attention.
Wastewater treatment
Output: water pollution In order to reduce its wastewater discharge,
the city plans to improve its wastewater treat-
Pollution discharge and sources ment capacity by expanding existing plants
According to 1995 data the total wastewater and constructing new plants. The daily treat-
discharge from the city was 765.6 million cu- ment capacity of the Jizhuangzi Wastewater
bic metres, with industrial wastewater ac- Treatment plant, the first urban sewage treat-
counting for more than 56%. The total ment plant in China, was expanded from 26
chemical oxygen demand (COD) from urban to 40 tonnes per day. In 1996 a new plant with
effluent is 396 400 tonnes of oxygen, 72% of the capacity of 40 tonnes per day was estab-
which is from industrial discharge. Major lished in an eastern suburb. These two plants
polluting industries include the chemical, can treat up to 40% of the city’s sewage
Table 1. Total wastewater discharge in Haihe Basin and the share of Tianjin (data source: cited from an unpublished
research work of Li W. 1998. Plan for Total Pollutant Load Control in Tianjin. Tianjin Research Institute of Environmental
Sciences)
Area Sewage COD (104 t) Discharge per unit area
(104 km2) discharge
(108 m3)
Sewage COD
(104 m3/km2) (t/km2)
Haihe Basin 31.82 41.63 236.8 1.31 7.44
Tianjin City 1.19 7.66 39.64 6.44 33.31
Tianjin City/Haihe (%) 3.74 18.40 16.74 492 448
Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Sust. Dev. 9, 24 – 35 (2001)
29X. BAI AND H. IMURA
discharge, but, due to a lack of operating In order to alleviate the problem of urban
funds, the plants usually cannot be operated water deficiency, the city started to draw wa-
at full capacity. Currently the city is planning ter from dams upstream as well as from other
to build four more sewage treatment plants, river basins. Following several trials of water
two of which will be funded by the Asian transportation from Huanghe, a project to
Development Bank. Funding sources for the transfer water from Luanhe to Tianjin started
two other plants have not been found. While in 1981. This project contributed greatly to the
it is important to install this infrastructure, it improvement of the demand –supply balance
is of vital importance to set up an effective and the quality of drinking water in Tianjin.
financial mechanism to support the full opera-
tion of existing facilities, in order to improve
Measures since the start of the 1980s
water quality and reduce the amount of
Since the beginning of the 1980s, with the
sewage used in irrigation and its negative
rapid urbanization and industrialization of
consequences.
Tianjin and other areas in the basin, the em-
phasis of water resource management in Tian-
jin shifted to enhancement of efficiency in
REVIEW AND EVALUATION OF industrial water use, water conservation in
MEASURES municipal water use, and adjustment of the
industrial structure.
Water conservation. Quotas were set for mu-
Review and future perspective nicipal water use, and water supplies were
rationed. Efforts are being made to install
Measures before the end of the 1970s a water meter in every household, and
Flood disaster prevention was the most im- to replace toilet equipment with water-
portant task of water management from 1949 conserving designs. Due to these efforts,
until the end of the 1970s. During the 10 years per capita daily water use in Tianjin was
from 1964 to 1973, more than 30 waterways to kept at a low level. Even more significant
discharge water more quickly to the sea were achievements have been made in industrial
constructed and 35 medium to large reser- water use. The municipality administers a
voirs were either constructed or refurbished. ‘planned water use system’, which in-
These flood control measures prevented flood cludes penalties for water use exceeding
disaster in the Haihe Basin to a great extent. the given quota. For water use exceeding
However, these projects also resulted in a quotas, enterprises are required to pay two
great deal of alteration of the natural environ- to ten times the normal rate for water. By
ment. Located at the lowest reaches of the introducing water conservation technolo-
river basin, Tianjin once had thousands of gies, the water-recycling ratio was im-
small lakes, marshes, and ponds because of proved from 40% in the 1980s to 74% in
the high groundwater level. Most of these the 1990s, the highest level in China, and
have disappeared as a direct result of flood comparable to Japan’s level. During the 10
control projects and land reclamation under years from 1984 to 1994, water withdrawal
agricultural development policies. These per 10 thousand yuan of industrial produc-
shifted water storage functions from the lower tion was reduced to one-third of the origi-
to the upper reaches of the river. Many of nal level.
these measures are now considered to have Adjusting industrial structure. Since the sur-
been shortsighted because they altered the facing of the problem of shortages of water
natural ecosystem balance and lowered the resources the city has adopted an indus-
flood water storage and resilience of nature. trial development policy to control the de-
However, this perception is limited to scien- velopment of large water using industries
tists and is far from being reflected in policy and allocate its limited resources more ef-
measures. fectively. The share of some industries
Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Sust. Dev. 9, 24 – 35 (2001)
30URBAN WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
such as cotton spinning has decreased traded into inappropriate uses or out of sys-
since the beginning of 1990s, while chemi- tems that are already stressed (OECD, 1998).
cal, metallurgical, automotive and ‘high-
tech’ electronics industries have grown
Evaluation of water management measures of
steadily. The share of the six top water
Tianjin
using industries (excluding township and
village enterprises) in total industrial out-
Effectiveness
put in Tianjin dropped significantly from
Figure 5 shows the trends in water with-
55.4% in 1984 to 37.2% in 19972.
drawal per unit of industrial production in
eight regions of the basin. With the exception
Future perspectives of Tianjin’s
of Neimeng (Inner Mongolia), water with-
water-resource-related policies
drawal per unit of industrial production has
According to estimates by the Tianjin Water
declined significantly, and the most recent
Management Bureau (1996), by the year 2010
figure for Tianjin shows the lowest level of all
the city will have a total water demand of 5.25
throughout the period of comparison. It can
billion cubic metres while the water supply
be seen from the figure that industrial water
will be only approximately 4 billion cubic
use efficiency is improving, and yet large re-
metres in a normal year, which means a water
gional disparities exist. These disparities are
deficit of 1.25 billion cubic metres. This deficit
closely related to geographical location. Water
will increase to 2.64 billion cubic metres in
use efficiency tends to improve as one ap-
relatively dry years. Most of the water use
proaches the river mouth. This relationship
increase will be in the industrial sector: water
might reflect the fact that the water resource
use is predicted to become almost three times
constraints upstream are not as severe as
the 1993 level, while the industrial output will
downstream, and these constraints led to a
grow to 9.6 times. The Bureau recommended
greater improvement in resource efficiency of
the early construction of a major project to
industrial production downstream such as in
divert water from south to north, redirecting
Tianjin.
14.5 to 23 billion metric metres of water annu-
ally from the Yangzi River, in addition to an
Long-term vision and policy integrity
expanded water diversion quota from the
Until the end of the 1970s, because water was
Luanhe, emergency water diversion from the
perceived as the cause of natural disasters
Yellow River in drought years, and further
rather than as a precious resource, measures
development of local water resources includ-
were more focused on flood prevention. Some
ing surface water and the use of seawater.
of these flood control projects, especially
There are arguments over viability as well as
environmental impacts of inter-basin water
transformation in all three geographical re-
gions: the exporting region, the transfer re-
gion and the importing region (Liu and Du,
1985; Caulfield, 1986), and further develop-
ment of local water resources is imposing
more pressure on surrounding regions. While
water transformation and temporary leasing
of water rights may encourage more efficient
water use and the trading of water into
higher-value uses, they must be carefully reg-
ulated, however, to ensure that water is not
2
Calculated based on data from China Statistical Yearbook, Figure 5. Trends in water withdrawal ratio per unit
1997; Urban Statistical Yearbook of China, 1984–1995; Statistical industrial production in Haihe Basin (data source: Haihe
Yearbook of Tianjin, 1997, 1998. Water Resource Management Committee, 1997).
Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Sust. Dev. 9, 24 – 35 (2001)
31X. BAI AND H. IMURA
construction of drainage waterways, played a role. In addition, the water-related jurisdiction
negative role later in water resource preserva- of these bureaus is not clear in many cases. In
tion. A long-term development vision and the case of Tianjin, surface water in central
comprehensive industrial planning was lack- districts and groundwater in suburban prefec-
ing in the past, as one can see from the tures are managed by the water resources
existence of heavy water using industries in a bureau, while the groundwater in central dis-
region that has very limited renewable water tricts is under the control of the Urban Con-
resources. Since the economic, resource and struction Committee of the city. Due to this
environmental policies were not integrated at artificial segmentation, water resources in the
an early stage, the municipality was forced to city cannot be planned and managed as a
deal in a haphazard way with water resource whole. Most people are skeptical about the
problems caused by rapid economic growth. possibility of setting up a new administrative
institution that has integrated supervision au-
Equity thority over water-related issues at the city
A ranking of priority in sector-wise water level.
resource allocation can be recognized from
Tianjin’s case:from urban municipal water use
at the top, to industrial, and then agricultural
water use at the bottom. As discussed above, IMPLICATIONS OF TIANJIN CASE
almost no water is allocated for agricultural STUDY
use in the city, and much of the discharged
urban sewage is used for irrigation. The prob- Typical of water-scarce cities in China, Tian-
lem of sector-wise water use equity links di- jin’s case reveals the complexity of urban wa-
rectly to the health risk of residents in the case ter resource management, with many complex
of Tianjin. As a result, it warrants more atten- factors interacting. As Falkenmark (1999)
tion. Inequity can also be observed in inter- pointed out, the developing world includes
regional resource allocation. Virtually no three phenomena in relation to water re-
economic compensation is given to regions sources – escalating water competition, esca-
that provide water resources to other regions, lating dispute proneness and escalating
and these allocations of water from one region pollution load. At least two out of these three
to another are carried out by administrative can be found in the case of Tianjin, and many
order. Under the ranking system with Beijing other cities, especially those experiencing
at the top, followed by Tianjin and last of all rapid economic growth and urbanization, are
Hebei Province, the people in the latter have a following similar paths. The most important
strong perception of inequity. In the case of lesson to be learned through Tianjin’s case is
water quality, there is also a different kind of that urban water management cannot be car-
inequity. Because of its location at the lowest ried out within the city alone, but rather re-
point downstream of the river, inflows to quires a comprehensive systems approach
Tianjin are already heavily polluted, and pos- including the natural hydrological cycle and
ing a heavier burden on the city for water socio-economic factors in a much wider re-
purification. gional context. Water resource and water
pollution, resource capacity and demand
Institutional arrangements management and inter-regional relationships
Complex administrative arrangements worsen in resource allocation are three major issues
the situation. More than ten administrative which need to be addressed in relation with
bureaus, including a water resource bureau, this systems approach. Concerning the latter
environmental protection bureau, economic issue, the necessity of cooperation between
planning committee, financial bureau and appropriate institutions has been recognized
others, are involved in water resource man- (Ostrom et al., 1999), and there seems a prone-
agement. None of these are subordinate to ness to create institutions that facilitate co-
another, nor can any of them play a leading operation (Falkenmark, 1999). In the case of
Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Sust. Dev. 9, 24 – 35 (2001)
32URBAN WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
Tianjin, the Haihe Water Resource Manage- source management (Lackey, 1998), which
ment Committee exists, but its administra- determines the proper perspective and scale
tive power is too weak to take on co- of the issue (Norton, 1991).
ordinating responsibility. Though the impor- Here the ultimate goal is to achieve sus-
tance of these relations are recognized by tainable management of water resource of a
scientists, there is very limited awareness of certain city. The underlying methodology to
this at the municipal level, and this limited achieve this ultimate goal is an integrated
understanding is not reflected in actual man- approach, not trying to address water re-
agement process in any way. source issues in a single disciplinary context,
but rather in a broader complex system in-
cluding natural, social, and economic con-
texts. Under an overall target, four strategies
STRATEGIES FOR SUSTAINABLE – supply management, demand manage-
WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ment, efficiency management and emission
management – can be adopted to achieve
Management framework the overall goal. Under each of these strate-
What can urban municipalities do to achieve gies, the respective management targets
sustainable water resource management? should be to maximize resource input, keep
Based on the review of Tianjin’s case, a demand within resource capacity, maximize
framework of urban water resource manage- the efficiency of use and limit the discharge
ment is drawn to provide a holistic picture of pollutants within the environmental ca-
of the issues and their relationships, while pacity. Each of these management targets
providing alternative choices for municipal can be achieved through various detailed
decision makers to choose from. In drawing measures. Figure 6 shows the outline of
this framework, the following three aspects such an overall framework.
are considered important. Firstly, it is im-
portant to consider water resource manage-
ment of cities in the context of watershed Implementation regime
management approach, which has emerged The above strategies should be implemented
as a holistic and integral approach, as the together as a whole in order to achieve sus-
way of research, analysis and decision-mak- tainable water resource management goals.
ing at a watershed scale (Montgomery et al., However, the actual situation cities face can
1995). As argued by Voinov and Costanza be very different, and in many cases, mea-
(1999), this certainly implies more than just sures tend to be concentrated in one or two
the regional scale of analysis, but rather the categories that require less effort from inside
necessity to integrate not only physical and and bring more immediate results. This is
biological factors, but also political and particularly true when there are regional
socio-economic ones. Secondly, rather than a disparities among cities that share the same
mystical concepts of holism, which is often water resources. For example, Tianjin City
associated with a dangerous ‘top-down’ tends to adopt the first strategy – to expand
thinking, the holistic view here means a resource availability – which can be seen
limited, contextual holism. As argued by from its past record and also future perspec-
Norton (1991), a contextual holism is a sys- tives. This is because the other strategies ei-
tematic approach which sees the manage- ther require much more laborious efforts or
ment problems from a local viewpoint or the benefits of the strategies are indirect,
perspective, but recognizes also that any lo- and Tianjin City has the ability to take ad-
cal perspective is limited, and that the prob- vantage over other surrounding regions.
lem must be understood also in its larger, Asking cities or regions with different rela-
systematic context, as a part of many larger tive strengths and under evident conflicts
‘wholes’. Thirdly, it is important to deter- of interest to solve the water resource man-
mine the ultimate goal or boundary of re- agement problem in a democracy seems
Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Sust. Dev. 9, 24 – 35 (2001)
33X. BAI AND H. IMURA
Figure 6. Framework for sustainable urban water resource management.
impractical. A similar situation in ecosystem CONCLUDING REMARKS
management has been likened to asking a
pack of four hungry wolves and a sheep to This paper examined the water resource man-
apply democratic principles to deciding what agement issues in Tianjin, focusing on the
to eat for lunch (Lackey, 1998). To deal with major policy measures taken by the municipal
this situation, one might think of bringing government and the effectiveness of these
someone who has supreme power to watch measures. It has been found that cities are
over the situation, educating and persuading large contributors to water-resource-related
the wolves to respect their fellow sheep and issues, and their shares become increasingly
turn vegetarian, watching the process care- important. Inter-sector water allocation in-
fully and being prepared to intervene if the equity is significant. Shortage of agricultural
wolves were to eat the sheep, and bringing in water supply is causing the illegal use of
more sheep and other animals into the discus- untreated urban sewage, which might have
sion to change the situation of four wolves risks for human health. The allocation of re-
versus one sheep. These suggest respectively sources among the province and municipali-
the importance of (i) an institutional arrange- ties concerned is not rationalized, and the
ment that can control and supervise the deci- regional disparities in resource use efficiency
sion making process, (ii) establishing water are significant. Regions that are subject to
ethics which have to be up to date and based stronger water resource constraints tend to
on an understanding of how the life support achieve higher water use efficiency. Regional
systems function (Falkenmark, 1999), (iii) es- allocation of resources is a complex issue that
tablishing effective monitoring, evaluation needs an integrated approach of economic,
and incentive as well as a punishment system social and institutional arrangements. Effec-
and (iv) increasing social involvement in the tive urban water resource management can-
procedure; in water resource management. not be enforced by a single city, but rather
Only with these to ensure the implementation requires cooperative regional measures based
can strategies become practical. on a systems approach with participation of a
Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment. Sust. Dev. 9, 24 – 35 (2001)
34URBAN WATER RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
number of provinces and municipalities Tianjin Municipal Statistical Bureau. 1997. Statistical
sharing water resources from the same water Yearbook of Tianjin 1997. China Statistical: Beijing (in
basin. In addition to traditional measures Chinese).
Tianjin Municipal Statistical Bureau. 1998. Statistical
taken by cities, transformation of social and Yearbook of Tianjin 1998. China Statistical: Beijing (in
economic systems as well as change in citi- Chinese).
zens’ lifestyles is indispensable. A strong im- Tianjin Water Management Bureau. 1996. Medium and
plementation scheme needs to be set up to Long Term Water Supply Plan (1996 – 2000 – 2010). Tian-
ensure a sustainable urban water resource jin Water Management Bureau: Tianjin (in Chinese).
United Nations Economic and Social Commission for
management. Asia and the Pacific. 1997. Study on Assessment of
Water Resources of Member Countries and Demand by
User Sectors: China: Water Resources and Their Use.
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