Optioning Water Rights:A Potential Alternative to the Hanjiang-Weihe River Water Transfer Project,China

China has started shifting from relying on supply management to demand management strategy in addressing its water shortage problems.Water option,a financial derivative for water commodity,has been utilized to manage water demands in the United States and Europe since the 1990 s but is still novel to China.In this study we analyzed the pros and cons of China’s existing system for water rights transfers and proposed an alternative,flexible trading instrument-water options for China.Incorporating the uncertainty to water option pricing,this study first conducted an empirical analysis of the water option in the water-receiving area of the Hanjiang-Weihe River Transfer Project of China,and then evaluated the benefits of the water option applications.Results show that water option trading can bring water cost saving and increase the potential industrially added value for industrial enterprises in the receiving area,and trading of short-and-medium term water options is more favorable than the long-term water options trading.The novel water option trading proposed in this study,once verified through pilot studies,will be helpful in addressing water shortage problems in China.

Problems and Development Countermeasures of Agricultural Water-Saving Irrigation

Agriculture is the biggest water user in China,and the development of agricultural water-saving has great significance to the national economy and social development. In this paper,the present situation of water used in agriculture irrigation and water-saving potential were analyzed,and the ＂ bottleneck＂ and main problems existing in water-saving irrigation in China were discussed. From the aspects of engineering investment channels,agricultural water-saving policies and management system,reform of agricultural water price and water right transfer,improvement of farmers＇ water-saving consciousness,and promotion of rural land transfer,suggestions were proposed for the development of China＇s agricultural water-saving in future,which will provide a technical support for the sustainable use of agricultural water resources in China.

On the Duty of the Government to Safeguard the Right to Water

The right to water is an emerging sort of human rights aiming to protect the right to water indispensable for the survival and development of individuals. From the perspective of International Human Rights Law, the paper analyzes the standards stipulating the international obligations to safeguard the right to water, inspects the state quo of the protection of the right to water in China and demonstrates the lawful suggestions to safeguard the right to water.

Toward a socio-political approach to water management: successes and limitations of IWRM programs in rural northwestern China

In rural north-western China,the tension between economic growth and ecological crises demonstrates the limitations of dominant top-down approaches to water management.In the 1990s,the Chinese government adopted the Integrated Water Resources Management(IWRM)approach to combat the degradation of water and ecological systems throughout its rural regions.While the approach has had some success at reducing desertification,water shortage,and ecological deterioration,there are important limitations and obstacles that continue to impede optimum outcomes in water management.As the current IWRM approach is instituted through a top-down centralized bureaucratic structure,it often fails to address the socio-political context in which water management is embedded and therefore lacks a complete treatment of how power is embedded in the bureaucracy and how it articulates through economic growth imperatives set by the Chinese state.The approach has relied on infrastructure heavy and technocratic solutions to govern water demand,which has worked to undermine the focus on integration and public participation.Finally,the historical process through which water management mechanisms have been instituted are fraught with bureaucratic fragmentation and processes of centralization that work against some of its primary goals such as reducing uncertainty and risk in water management systems.This article reveals the historical,social,political,and economic processes behind these shortcomings in water management in rural northwestern China by focusing on the limitations of a top-down approach that rely on infrastructure,technology,and quantification,and thereby advances a more holistic,socio-political perspective for water management that considers the state-society dynamics inherent in water governance in rural China.

Causes of Sandstorm Disaster and Strategies against Desertification——A Case Study of Hexi Corridor in Northwest China

This case study outlines the problems faced by the peoples of the Hexi Corridor. These problems are serious and urgent, and are representative of those faced by other communities right across western China. The root causes are outlined and some remedies are suggested. The practical measures proposed under China's National Action Plan to Combat Desertification are described and discussed.