Características de la población

Water diversion projects are e↵ective in easing water shortages and have been adopted in many countries. Various studies can be found on interbasin water diversions. The interbasin water transfer project in Brazil was compared with two international cases by de Andrade et al. (2011): the Colorado-Big Tompson Project in the US and an Australian water diversion project. Their studies revealed the environmental, political, and economic complexities associated with these large water diversion projects. Another water diversion project in Brazil was examined for its suitability to supply the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo, using a dynamic systems simulation model (Gonzalez et al., 2011). When possible water diversions from the North American Great Lakes were analyzed within a game theory

framework (Becker and Easter, 1995), states and provinces along the lakes would divert water even it is unnecessary, because they would lose more by not diverting water. Their decisions result in a Tragedy of the Commons.

The last decade has witnessed increasingly serious water shortages in North China due to industrialization and population growth, while South China has su↵ered from frequent flooding. The increasing water demand in the North China plain calls for more water supplies. A possible solution is to divert water from regions with abundant water resources, so the water rights are transferred from users in one basin to another. The theory of water rights defines the total amount of available water and rules to divide it among users (Speed, 2009a; Xie, 2008). Water rights are enforced, and tradable in markets (Productivity Commission, 2003). In China, rights-based water allocation systems have not yet been developed (WET, 2006). China’s 2002 water law marks a great e↵ort toward establishing

“an initial water distribution system” and “a water trading system” (State Council, 2006).

These systems are designed to transfer water within a given river basin (Speed, 2009b).

The Yellow River basin in the North China plain is already short of water, and it is planned to transfer water to it from other river basins. This is currently feasible, as water is defined in the constitution as public property shared by the people (Speed, 2009a). Thus, water transfer projects in China are implemented by the Central Government.

The South-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP), depicted in Fig. 3.1, was pro-posed to ease the water scarcity in the North China Plain. This huge project includes three main water transport routes: Eastern, Central, and Western. The eastern route is being constructed following the Grand Canal, starting from Jiangdu, a town along the lower Yangtze River, to the city of Tianjin. Along the eastern route are the most

indus-trialized and highly populated areas of China. Tunnels carry the diverted water beneath the Yellow River (Huang He). This route can meet industrial and urban demands in the eastern part of the North China Plain, and provide water for agricultural use if necessary.

The central route starts from Danjiangkou Reservoir, China’s largest artificial freshwater lake, located in Hubei Province. The water is to be diverted from the reservoir to Beijing via canals and tunnels. The water will flow through Henan, Hebei, and Beijing, where it will be used for urban and industrial purposes. During and after the construction of the Danjiangkou Reservoir, large populated areas will be inundated, forcing residents to relocate. Tunnels will divert the water across the Yellow River near Zhengzhou, the cap-ital of Henan Province. The western route is planned to connect the Yangtze River and the Yellow River in the Tibetan Plateau. Water shortages in the Yellow River can be alleviated by transferring water from the Yangtze River. This project is controversial on account of some unresolved technical difficulties in construction. Moreover, as the headwa-ters of many international rivers flow from this region, the project may a↵ect water usage in neighboring countries. This megaproject could have significant impacts on local soci-eties and their environment. Provincial governments, residents, and other stakeholders are involved and their interests and rights may be dramatically a↵ected. Conflicts are arising along all three routes. On the eastern route, there are disputes over water usage between Beijing and eastern provinces along the Yangtze and Huai Rivers, such as Jiangsu and Anhui provinces. Frequent droughts have also been reported in recent years in some east-ern provinces (Buckley, 2011), intensifying the existing disputes. It is challenging for the Central Government to satisfy all users while maintaining the profitability of this project (Chen et al., 2013).

Figure 3.1: The location of the South-North Water Diversion Project (Source: fran-cistopia.edublogs.org, 2011)

On the central route, many residents must be relocated, resulting in dissent from the residents due to inadequate compensation. However, local governments may seek profits through corruption while executing these policies, particularly in the distribution of funds for compensation. They may even block the residents petitions from reaching the Central Government. Nevertheless, corruption is risky for local governments, since they will be harshly punished if the corruption is revealed to the public (McCormack, 2001; Gleick, 2009).

The western route will a↵ect water usage in neighbouring countries, as water will be diverted from some international rivers in the Tibetan Plateau. A large number of dams and reservoirs have been built in the upstream of the Yangtze River, significantly a↵ecting water flows in the Tibetan Plateau (Zhang et al., 2012). Opposition has arisen in these countries, where there have been calls for negotiations (Holslag, 2011).

Many studies have focused on issues and conflicts related to the SNWDP in China. The risk of water shortages caused by this project in areas around the Danjiangkou Reservoir has been determined and evaluated (Gu et al., 2012). Monthly flow data in the reservoir were simulated for optimized operation at minimum risk; a case study in the Yellow River Basin provides approaches to allocate water resources taking into account a flexible limit to water storage (Shao et al., 2009). Accompanied by the approaches put forward to optimize water usage, SNWDP is believed to be e↵ective in solving the water crisis in the Yellow River Basin.

During the implementation of the project, conflicts have taken place among various stakeholders. For the Central Government of China, ignorance of these conflicts is risky because it may increase the dissatisfaction of other stakeholders. It is important to

sys-tematically investigate these conflicts to obtain strategic resolutions.