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ABSTRACT
Governing and managing water sustainably is a critical issue globally. Given its rapid economic development and the effects of global climate change, China faces serious water challenges including water shortages and pollution. The Chinese government has long been considering governance reforms which will improve water and river management. Conscious of the negative effects of fragmented institutions and the lack of incentives to support environmentally-sustainable management, China has recently established and implemented the ‘He-Zhang’ system - a network of River Chiefs and River Keepers across the country and at all administrative levels. This paper outlines the origins, purpose and structure of the system; summarizes progress with its implementation; and identifies some of its future challenges.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.
Notes
1 A River Chief is a government official with a position of responsibility for rivers, whereas a River Keeper is a non-governmental individual with this responsibility. In Chinese, He-Zhang refers to both with the same pronunciation.
2 The Law of the People's Republic of China on Environmental Protection (January 1, 2015) requires all levels of government and their functionaries to fulfil duties and obligations under an environmental protection accountability system.
3 One of the most important elements of China's strictest Water Resources Management System to date.
4 China has set up the Flood Proofing and Drought Defying Headquarters (FPDDHQ) at different levels in fighting against flood. This mechanism has ensured the successful mobilization of all the necessary resources and sound operation of the flood control system throughout the country.
5 Examples of media coverage of the He-Zhang System include: Jianping Zhao Citation2017, Yongping Zhao Citation2017, Wang Hao Citation2017.
6 Baidu is the main Chinese internet search engine. Baidu Index is a data sharing platform based on massive internet user behavior data. It is one of the most important statistical analysis platforms in the current Internet and even the whole data era. Taking the search volume of Users in Baidu as the data base and taking key words as the statistical objects, it scientifically analyzes and calculates the weighted sums of search frequencies of key words in webpage search. Through the function of “crowd portrait”, the geographical distribution of “key words” can be displayed in a three-dimensional way, and the distribution of key words to visit people in various provinces and cities is provided.
7 This report of the country-wide coverage of the He-Zhang system, strengthening the responsibility for rivers and lakes, appeared in China Environmental Protection Online, 1 November 2017, http://www.hbzhan.com/news/Detail/121285.html
8 China's Surface Water Environmental Quality Standard (GB 3838-2002), classes water quality into categories I, II, III, IV, V, and worst than V. Grade V water is only suitable for agricultural water use and general landscape water use.
9 In Technological regulations for surface water resources quality Assessment (SL395-2007), the standard of evaluation is based on Environmental Quality Standards for Surface Water (GB3838-2002). These standards must take into consideration the quality standards required of the water functional areas into which water bodies are classed.
10 Yongping Zhao, (16th June Citation2017).
11 In 2011, the State Council approved the designation of water functional zones in major rivers and lakes (2011–2030). This defined 4,493 water functional areas across the nation, and zoned 180,000 km of rivers. There are four functional types, namely protected areas, reserved areas, development and utilization zones, and buffers. The main purposes are to clarify the type and function of water use, and to coordinate the relationship between different water-dependent industries. Each functional type has a water quality standard, and the Water Quality Compliance Rate measures the proportion of functional zones compliant with these standards.
12 In China, according to the degree of pollution of nutrients, water body are usually classed into three levels, namely, Oligotrophic, Mesotrophic and Eutrophic. There are 4 classes in the Eutrophic Level, which are eutrophic, light eutrophic, mid-eutrophic and hyper-eutrophic.
13 This is an additional designation for rivers with significant levels of floating rubbish.
14 According to The guide to the remediation of urban black and odorous water, a ‘black and odorous water body' is a water body which presents unpleasant colours (black), and (or) emits unpleasant odour. According to the degree of black and odour, it can be defined as either “mild black odour” and “severe black odour”.