Material 2 for the Press Conference of the State Council Information Office

Background Material of the Opinion on Comprehensively Promoting the River Chief System

(December 12, 2016)

Ministry of Water Resources (“MWR”), P. R. China

I. The background for launching the Opinion on comprehensively Promoting the River Chief System

(i) Basic conditions of rivers and lakes in China

According to the results of the first national water resource survey from 2011 to 2013, China has altogether 45,203 rivers with a drainage area over 50km2, and the total length of these rivers amounts to 150,850,000 km. There are 2,865 lakes whose average water area throughout normal years is 1 km2 and above, and the total area of such lakes amounts to 78,000 km2, including 1594 freshwater lakes, 945 saltwater lakes, 166 salt lakes and 160 other lakes.

(ii) China’s river and lake management system

According to current laws and regulations, the river and lake management system in China is implemented both in river basin level and administrative region level, and is carried out both in a centralized manner and a hierarchic manner. The water administrative department in the State Council is responsible for the centralized management and supervision of national water resources. It is the leading authority for riverways (including lakes) and it sets up river basin commissions for important rivers and lakes as determined by the State Council. Local administrative departments in charge of water resources above the county level are responsible for centralized management and supervision of water resources within the administrative region according to the stipulated duties, and are the authorities for riverways (including lakes) in the respective administrative regions. Relevant government departments at various levels are responsible for relevant work on water pollution control, water environment treatment and water ecological protection according to their assigned responsibilities.

(iii) Background for promoting the River Chief System

The CPC Central Committee and the State Council attach great importance to the protection of water security and river and lake management. President Xi Jinping stresses that the crisis of rivers and water sources is the crisis of environment and national survival; we should raise our awareness of water concerns and water crisis, and pay close attention to resolving the problem of water security from the strategic perspective of comprehensively building a well-off society and realizing the sustainable development of the China. Premier Li Keqing has pointed out that water resources in China are unevenly distributed in time and space, China has the most complicated water situations, the most arduous task of water management, and the most difficult problems in river management in the world. He said that rivers and wetlands are green treasure endowed by nature to mankind and they should be cherished. The Ministry of Water Resources, on the basis of deepening research and summarizing experience, has formulated the guiding opinion on strengthening river and lake management to actively promote the River Chief System nationwide. In July 2016, “Formulating the Opinion on Comprehensively Promoting the River Chief System” was listed as a key annual task for the central leading team for comprehensively deepening reform.

(iv) The important significance for promoting the River Chief System

First, to comprehensively promote the River Chief System is an inevitable requirement for fulfilling the idea of green development and promoting the construction of ecological civilization. The CPC Central Committee attaches great importance to the construction of ecological civilization and has prepared a series of major strategic deployment, giving top priority to the protection of rivers and lakes. The Opinion of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Accelerating the Construction of Ecological Civilization clearly proposes that party committees and governments at all levels should be generally responsible for the construction of local ecological civilization, and that all relevant departments should coordinate and cooperate closely with each other according to division of responsibilities and form a powerful joint force for the construction of ecological civilization. Rivers and lakes bear important resource, ecological and economic functions, and are a vital component of ecological system and national land space. Adhering to the concept of green development means we must include river and lake management into ecological promotion, and vigorously promote the River Chief System on the basis of strengthening responsibilities of party committees and administrative departments on protecting rivers and lakes, so as to ensure the sustainable socio-economic development.

Second, to comprehensively promote the River Chief System is an effective measure for resolving the complicated water problems and maintaining the health of rivers and lakes in China. In recent years, measures have been actively adopted in various places to strengthen governance, management and protection of rivers and lakes, with significant comprehensive results achieved. However, with the rapid economic and social development, river and lake management and protection in China has been facing new problems, such as drying of rivers and shrinking of lakes, deterioration of water environmental conditions and degeneration of river and lake functions, which constitute serious challenges to guaranteeing water security. To resolve these problems, it is imperative that we vigorously promote the River Chief System, promote protection of river and lake systems and the overall improvement of the water ecological environment, guarantee the sustainable use of river and lake functions, and maintain the health of rivers and lakes.

Thirdly, to comprehensively implement the River Chief System is an institutional innovation for improving water governance system and guaranteeing national water security. River and lake management and protection is very complicated, involving upstream and downstream, left and right banks, covering different administrative regions and industries. Therefore, we should vigorously implement the River Chief System, establish and improve the river and lake management and protection mechanism, determine division of responsibilities, and strengthen coordination to form a new river and lake ecological pattern for the harmonious development of man and nature.

II. Basic conditions of the River Chief System

(i) The connotations of the River Chief System. The River Chief System is an institutional innovation for river and lake management and protection emerging in recent years. Each place constructs a river and lake management and protection mechanism with defined responsibilities, orderly coordination, strict regulation and vigorous protection to provide institutional guarantee for maintaining the health of rivers and lakes and realizing the sustainable use of river and lake functions according to the current laws and regulations, sticking to being problem-oriented, led by party and government with coordinated efforts of different departments, and with the protection of water resources, control of water pollution, improvement of water environment and treatment of water ecology as the main tasks.

(ii) Origin of the River Chief System. In the summer of 2007, due to deterioration of water quality in Taihu Lake as well as adverse meteorological conditions, blue algae bloom broke out in large areas in Taihu Lake, giving rise to water crisis in Wuxi, Jiangsu. With this painful experience, the local government came to realize that the blue algae bloom caused by water quality deterioration showed symptoms in water but its root cause was on the shore. To resolve these problems, they should not only work in water but also work on the shores; not only control pollution in local areas, but also coordinate the joint control and treatment of upstream and downstream, left and right banks of rivers; not only rely on such departments as water resources, environmental protection and urban construction for effective fulfillment of responsibilities, but also require party and government leading, departmental coordinated efforts and social participation. In August 2007, Wuxi took the lead to implement the River Chief System. Party and government leaders at various levels acted as river chiefs of 64 rivers to strengthen the treatment of pollutant sources and are responsible for supervising the improvement of river water quality. Since the implementation of the River Chief System, obvious effects have been achieved. The water qualification rate of water functional areas within Wuxi improved from 7.1% in 2007 to 44.4% in 2015, and the water quality in Taihu Lake has also been significantly improved.

(iii) The implementation of the River Chief System. By far, eight provinces (municipalities) including Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi and Hainan have launched documents to implement the River Chief System across the province (municipalities); and some cities, counties or river basins of sixteen provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) including Shanxi and Liaoning have implemented the River Chief System.

From the practices of various places, the implementation of the River Chief System has preliminarily realized the following results: rivers and lakes are strictly and well managed by people; river and lake functions have been gradually restored, and protection of water resources, management of water area shoreline, control of water pollution and treatment of water environment have been vigorously promoted.

III. The overall requirements for comprehensively implementing the River Chief System

(i) “River Chief” structure. A four-tier river chief system covering provinces, municipalities, counties and townships is established comprehensively. A general river chief is set up for all provinces (regions and municipalities), which is to be acted by a main principal of the party committee or government; a river chief is set up for main rivers and lakes within the administrative region of each province (region and municipality), which is to be acted by a provincial principal; a river chief is set up for each level and section of each river and each lake in the respective city, county and township, which is to be acted by a principal of the same level. A relevant river chief system office is to be established for river directors at the county level and above, and the specific structure is to be determined by various places according to local reality.

(ii) River chiefs’ responsibilities. River chiefs at various levels are responsible for organizing and leading the management and protection of relevant rivers and lakes, including water resource protection, water area shoreline management, water pollution control and water environment treatment, leading and organizing the remediation of such outstanding problems as occupation of watercourse, reclamation of lakes, pollution emission exceeding standard, illegal sand mining, destruction of shipping routes and killing of fish by electricity, and coordinating solution of major problems, supervising the duty performance of relevant departments and the next level of river chiefs, and assessing the completion of objectives and tasks. Incentive and accountability should be strengthened. River chief system offices take up the organization and implementation of specific work of the River Chief System and implement the tasks determined by river chiefs. Various relevant departments and units should coordinately promote various tasks according to division of duty and responsibility.

(iii) Assessment of the River Chief System. Differentiated performance evaluation and assessment is implemented according to different problems in different rivers and lakes. River chiefs at the county level and above are responsible for organizing evaluation of river chiefs of the next level of relevant rivers and lakes. The results of evaluation should be taken as an important basis for the comprehensive assessment and evaluation of local party and administrative leaders and cadres and important reference for the auditing of natural resource assets of leaders and cadres when leaving their positions. Those who bring any damage to the ecological environment should be strictly subject to investigation for liabilities.

IV. The main tasks for comprehensively implementing the River Chief System.

(i) Strengthen water resource protection. Implement the strictest water resource management system and strictly guard the “three red lines”, water resource development and use control, and water use efficiency control and pollutant discharge limitation in water functional areas. Strengthen the responsibilities of local governments at various levels, and strictly conduct evaluation, assessment and supervision. Implement dual control actions, namely controlling the total amount and intensity of water resource consumption. Prevent unreasonable added taking of water, and effectively determine demands, and take actions and measures according to water conditions. Give priority to water conservation, and comprehensively improve water use efficiency. In the areas short in water resource and vulnerable in ecology system, highly water-consuming projects should be strictly restricted, agricultural, industrial, urban and rural water saving technical renovation should be accelerated, and waste of water should be strictly curbed. Reinforce supervision and management in water function areas, implement pollutant emission within standard, effectively supervise river and lake drain outlets, and strictly control the total amount of pollutants discharged into rivers and lakes according to the carrying capacity of pollutant and limited total amount of pollutant discharge determined for water function areas.

(ii) Strictly manage and control water ecological space such as water area and shoreline, and delimit the scope of river and lake management according to law. Implement the requirements for shoreline partitioned management in planning, and strengthen shoreline protection and conservative and intensive use. Strictly forbid any occupation of riverway, reclamation of lakes, and illegal sand mining, solve prominent problems such as occupation misuse of shoreline, and restore the ecological functions of water area shorelines of rivers and lakes.

(iii) Implement the Action Plan for Water Pollution Control, determine objectives and tasks for water pollution in rivers and lakes, coordinate water and shore pollution control, improve the river and lake pollutant discharge control mechanism and assessment system. Examine and investigate pollutants discharged into rivers and lakes, strengthen comprehensive control, and strictly control the pollution from industrial and mining enterprises, urban households, livestock and poultry breeding, aquaculture, agriculture and shipping waste in ports, and improve water environment quality. Optimize the layout of pollutant outlets in rivers and lakes, and dredge pollutant outlets of rivers and lakes.

(iv) Enhance water environment governance. Strengthen the management of quality targets of water environment and determine the water quality protection objectives of various water bodies according to water function zones. Effectively ensure the safety of drinking water sources, conduct standardized construction of drinking water sources, and remove illegal structures and pollutant outlets within the drinking water source protection areas according to law. Strengthen the comprehensive treatment of river and lake water environment, promote the grid and IT application construction for water environment control, and establish and improve the water environment risk evaluation and reduction, and precautionary warning and response mechanism. In light of the overall urban planning, construct water-friendly ecological shorelines according to local conditions. Step up efforts in treating polluted water, and restore clear and beautiful river and lake environment. Focusing on treatment of household sewage and wastes, comprehensively rehabilitate rural water environment and promote the construction of a beautiful countryside.

(v) Strengthen water ecology restoration. Promote ecological treatment and protection of rivers and lakes, delimit the scope of river and lake management according to law, forbid the occupation of such water source conservation spaces as natural rivers, lakes and wetlands. Stably restore farmland to lakes and wetlands and restore fishing ponds to lakes, restore the natural connections between river and lake water systems, strengthen the conservation of aquatic living resources, and improve the bio-diversity of water areas. Conduct health assessment of rivers and lakes. Strengthen the control of mountains, water, forests, fields and lake systems, step up efforts in conserving river source areas, water source conservation areas and ecologically sensitive areas, actively advance the establishment of an ecological conservation compensation mechanism, strengthen the prevention supervision and comprehensive treatment for loss of water and soil, establish ecologically clean small watersheds, and maintain the ecological environment of rivers and lakes.

(vi) Establish and improve the law and regulation system, step up efforts in river and lake management, protection and supervision, establish and improve the whole departmental joint law enforcement mechanism, and improve the connection mechanism for administrative law enforcement and criminal and judicial administration. Establish a daily supervision and surveillance system for rivers and lakes, and implement dynamic supervision for rivers and lakes. Arrange responsible subjects, personnel, equipment and fund for law enforcement supervision for the protection of rivers and lakes. Strictly combat any violation against laws on rivers and lakes. Resolutely prohibit such activities as illegal pollutant discharge, barrier setup, breeding, sand mining, reclamation, and occupation of water area shoreline.