Emergency Plan for Water Supply in Consecutive Droughts and Sustainable Water Resources Management in Beijing

Beijing, the capital city of China, has suffered from acute water shortage, with only 300 m3/a of water resources available per capita. In addition, Beijing has experienced a prolonged period of consecutive droughts from 1999 to 2010. Water crisis has constrained the socio-economic development of Beijing. Meanwhile, the national "South-to-North Water Transfer"（STNWT） project, which is expected to provide some relief to the water crisis in Beijing, is still under development. In order to ensure the security of water supply in Beijing before the completion of the STNWT project, several measures have been implemented to cope with droughts, including pumping groundwater from emergency well fields,water saving, recycling of water, rain and flood water harvesting, and the diversion of water from neighboring rivers and groundwater basins. Groundwater from four emergency well fields contributes the most to the public and domestic water supplies in Beijing, supplying a total volume of 1.8×10;m;.The water crisis is supposed to be mitigated by the completion of the STNWT project. After the completion of this project, more sustainable management of water resources will be implemented,including the use of aquifers as groundwater reservoirs and conjunctive use of surface water and groundwater resources.

Water System Management in Emergency Situations

This article deals with the issue of water system management and emergency management of water supply systems based on experience with the operation of water systems in EU （European Union） Member States. The options available for prevention/elimination of the hazard of limited drinking water supply to the public are described. Current climate and, in some countries, also the existing social conditions pose barriers to a smooth water supply to the public. Various hazards endangering the quality and amounts of water produced emerge. Since the risk of water supply outages due to natural or anthropogenic factors cannot be completely eliminated （for instance, hacker attacks pose a new threat to the water companies＇ control systems）, in other words, emergency situations where smooth water supply is disturbed cannot be ruled out, efforts must be made to at least minimise adverse impacts of such events on the users. Organisational and technical conditions minimising such hazards must be set up. A water production and distribution organization and management system must be introduced, which will be able to prevent and address such hazards and emergency situations. How to tackle this complex task in the real water system management conditions and to assure some minimal amount of water at least for strategic consumers is discussed in this article. The results of a water system operation risk analysis are presented, feasible methods to minimize such risks are described, and options to prevent and address such risks are proposed. A water company organisation and management system taking into account the possibility of development of emergency situations is set forth. Focus is on the use of a telemetric system as a system means that facilitates the prevention and possible addressing of any emergencies occurring during the operation of a water supply system.