Op-Ed Contributors

Boosting water reform in rural areas

By Zhou Yaozhou (China Daily)
Updated: 2011-04-20 07:55

But the implementation will require the participation of people from all works of life, including government agencies at central and local levels, researchers, private sector players, and rural workers and farmers.

First, a strategy and action plans have to be formulated and implemented at the central and provincial levels. The emphasis of the strategy and action plans should be on a program-based, not crisis-oriented, decision-making and fund-releasing process. A responsibility mechanism, too, is needed for centralized and decentralized implementation. This is to allow better adaptation of program components to suit local circumstances and ensure that the implementation is accountable to the public. And coordination is needed between relevant agriculture and energy policies while formulating the strategy and action plans, for that is necessary for the reform and development of water management in rural areas.

Second, the government is changing its traditional engineering-focused approach to water resources management to a more holistic and resources-oriented approach. Hence, more balanced structural and non-structural measures to solve rural water development problems should be promoted during actual formulation and execution of water conservancy programs. Non-structural measures may include establishment of forecast and warning systems, effective management measures, eco-compensation, and emergency preparedness and response plans. There is scope to test and scale up green infrastructure technology, too.

Third, greater use should be made of innovative and market-based instruments in water resources management and rural infrastructure development. Market-based instruments can provide incentives to encourage stakeholders, including local governments, enterprises and farmers, to participate in the management and development of rural water supply and irrigation systems.

Fourth, governments at all levels should consider an effective mechanism to operate and maintain the completed water conservancy projects. They should explore different cost recovery mechanisms to decide how much of the cost needs to be recovered, how much subsidies should they give, and how much the users, including farmers, should contribute.

Fifth, a practical management information system and results-based performance evaluation system has to be established. The central and local governments are likely to make huge investments in rural water conservancy projects in drought-prone areas. Timely information will be needed on cost-sharing arrangements among the central government, local governments and beneficiaries; the financial and physical progress of the projects; the water supply and irrigation systems and their functioning; and more importantly their impact (contribution to local economies, different groups of beneficiaries including the poor, and water savings and productivity gains). Such a database is necessary for adequate monitoring, planning, implementation and performance evaluation.

The Asian Development Bank is pleased to be associated with the Chinese government's water reform and development agenda over the past decades and will continue this relationship. It will finance several projects in China from 2011 to 2013, too, to support water reform and development.

The author is a water resources specialist at Asian Development Bank.

(China Daily 04/20/2011 page9)