Op-Ed Contributors

A fickle river and power of a good idea

By Leong Ching (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-07-16 07:59

The Yellow River is the lifeblood of China, but it has an inconvenient trait - flooding when it pleases, submerging crops and depositing sediment as high as rooftops. At other times, it can shrink to a trickle, refusing to travel all the way to meet the sea.

This fickle behavior of the "Mother River" has caused long stretches of drought along some of the most densely populated and farmed regions of China. In the 1990s, many bird and fish species became extinct. From 1990 to 1996, the economic cost of this environmental disaster totaled 21.64 billion yuan ($3.2 billion).

Then, in the mid-1990s, some spontaneous alchemy led the local people, more than 160 academics, ministers and administrators to come together to restore harmony to the Yellow River. Today, their efforts can be seen in the golden glow of a healthy river that flows into the Bohai Sea. For the past 10 years, it has flowed unabated, meeting the needs of industry and agriculture, as well as the people who live along the river.

This month, the river commemorates its 10th sluicing, under which water from Xiaolangdi Dam sweeps away the plaque of sedimentation while watering thirsty farms.

For this important work, the Yellow River Conservancy Commission (YRCC) was awarded the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize at the Singapore International Water Week recently. At $215,000, and named after Singapore's first prime minister, this is the highest valued water prize in the world and received more than 50 nominations this year.

The question is how did the YRCC succeed in its endeavor? After receiving the prize in Singapore, YRCC Commissioner Li Guoying was asked how he resolved the competing demands on the river, balancing between the needs of industry, the environment, as well as local people.

In an hour-long speech, he narrated the regulatory and legislative measures. He spoke about the centralization of decision-making, the strict enforcement of water quotas. A graduate of the North China University of Water Resources and Electric Power, he spoke at length about the engineering involved in the sluicing of the river. But his most telling remarks came in an informal tea session after the lecture.

He related a common scenario: farmers want water for their crops and businesses want more water so that they can expand their industries. Yet it is a zero-sum game since water quotas are fixed for each year. Everyone went to him asking for more water.

"We cannot give more water. But we gave them an idea." The idea was this: Every year, a lot of water is lost through seepage and leaks, what is called "unaccounted for water". Why not ask the businesses to fix this so that, for the same quota, more water reaches the end users? In this way, they will get more water for economic expansion, the government will be happy to save expenditure and the farmers will be happy to irrigate their land faster because of higher water pressure.

It is a simple idea but a win-win-win solution for all. The biggest lesson learned from the YRCC therefore is not one of law or regulation. It is simply that an idea should have the power to solve problems, no matter how intractable they are. The YRCC has shown us that one man can stand against a raging torrent, and one idea can make the difference between victory and despair.

The problem of the Yellow River's caprice is 2,500 years old. In modern times, its impact has been even more severe because about 140 million people and 160,000 million sq km of farmland rely on the river's flow.

Indeed, before the YRCC reform, the administration of the Yellow River was characterized by "a multitude of dragons managing the waters". The ministries of water resources, power, environmental protection and agriculture all were responsible for managing the Yellow River. Since it flows through nine provinces, it naturally meant that nine provincial governments had to look after their local interests.

Taming this "dragon" was a monumental task. Fixing pipes was only a small part of a very big picture. Yet ideas and a concerted effort by stakeholders made a big difference.

The YRCC offers a global lesson as we struggle to contain environmental damage that can appear too big for us to tackle. People all over the world must know they can make a difference just by thinking up a good idea.

The author is a researcher with the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.

(China Daily 07/16/2010 page9)