2.2.6 Water pollution and its monitoring and assessment

The major industry cities in the Yellow River Basin are: Lanzhou, Yinchuan, Baotou, Sanmenxia etc. on the main stream, Xining, Taiyuan, Xi¡¯an, Luoyang, Tai¡¯an etc. on the tributaries. With the growth of population and rapid development of industry and agriculture production, a great deal of industry sewage has been directly drained into the river without treatment which results in worse of water quality.

The Water Resources Protection Bureau of the Yellow River Basin was set up in 1975. A number of works has been done in the water resources protection regarding monitoring of water quality, scientific research, water environment management and planning in the past 20 years. The water quality monitoring work in the Yellow River Basin started in 1972, which was conducted by the Department of Public Health along the Yellow River at that time. The Yellow River Conservancy Commission (YRCC) has formally managed the monitoring work on the intakes of main stream and tributaries since 1978. And water quality monitoring work for each tributary has been done by each provincial(region) water conservancy bureau and environment protection bureau. By the end of 1994, 340 water quality monitoring stations, 30 analysis labs have been built up on the whole basin to monitor 40 ODD items of water. Through these practices, 1.2 million data on water quality has been acquired and 3,300 odd station year data of water quality and 70 odd station year monitoring data have been issued, water quality database has been established so as to provide basic information of water quality on whole river.

Based on monitoring data, 2.1 billion ton sewage had been drained into the river in the early stage of 1980s. Since 1990s, sewage drained into the river has sharply increased up to 4.17 billion ton. At present, there are 300 major pollutant sources on the main stream. According to analysis on the 1997 water quality monitoring data, the river length with which water quality can meet drinkable water standard of category II and III only takes 17% of the total assessing river length. The severe water quality pollution aggravates the shortage of water resources in certain extent. The shortage of water resources and worse of water quality has become unfavorable condition to restrict economic development of the Yellow River Basin, and lead to water environment issue on the Yellow River Basin.

Based on ¡°Water Pollution Protection Law¡± issued by the China government, the construction of legal system on water resources protection is under going, and some local water resources protection regulations, and standard for drained pollutants has been formulated, and ¡°Water Resources Protection Act on the Yellow River Basin¡± is under modification. And each province along the Yellow River has adopted effective measures to control water pollution, taking enterprises as an example, they firstly dispose ¡°three wastes¡¯ internally and then, gradually establish sewage treatment system combining a number of scaled treatment in city and township with internal treatment of enterprises.

2.2.7 Anti-drought and hazard reduction

Facing successive occurrence of drought on the Yellow River basin, various level local governments have adopted a series of drought-fighting and prevention measures, such as constructing water conservancy projects, developing irrigation, conducting soil conservation, constructing capital farmland, water-saving projects. And another measures also adopted, for example, establishing drought-fighting squad, extending prevention technology of rain fed agriculture, applying chemical mehod for drought-fighting and hazard reduction etc. In order to alleviate the situation of dry river and solve water demand for drought-fighting of major cities beyond the river basin, water has been transferred from upper reservoirs to lower reservoirs, from inside river basin to outside which plays an significant role in development of local economy.

By the end of 1996, the accumulated investment by the State government was 42 billion Yuan on the following projects: 10077 large, medium and small-sized reservoirs, ponds and dams, 33355 pumping stations, 380000 wells, hundred sluice gates and lift stations. With accomplishment of a number of irrigation projects, which further upgrades guarantee rate of the water supply for the irrigation area between Ningxia and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, and irrigation have been basically realized in Guanzhong plain. And irrigated areas in Shandong and Henan have been extended quickly. Irrigation area inside river basin and on the lower reach has increased rapidly which create favorable condition for stable and high yield of crops and increase ability of fighting against drought. Taking Shandong as an example, 70 years drought occurred in 1989, the grain has increased by 1.6 million ton with irrigation and decreased 1.35 million ton without irrigation.

2.2.8.  Development of water resources and water saving policy

2.2.8.1 Policy of Development of Water Resources utilization

l     Strictly Excuting ¡° A Plan of Distribution of the Available Supply Water of the Yellow River¡±

In order to well coordinate the water demand of the multi-users in different area and different user within the Yellow River basin and along the Yellow River, with the approval of the State Council on principle, the administrative office of the State Council approved and transmitted the Plan of the Available Supply Water Distribution by Guo Ban Fa (1987) No. 61 Official Document before the operation of the Water Transferring From North to South Project, throughout all the Provinces and autonomous regions, and strongly request carrying out water-saving measures in all cases and formulating individual water usage planning dependent upon the plan of the Available Supply Water Distribution of the Yellow River.

l      Implementing Water Fetch Permits System by Law

Based on the ¡°Water taking Permits Implementation Action¡± and related regulations, Yellow River Conservancy Commission (YRCC), is responsible for implementing, supervising and managing the Yellow River basin water fetching permits, and fully and partially in charge of the management of the water fetching from the main stream and the major joint-tributaries over the next province, and implementing total water volume usage in control for each province and autonomous regions along the Yellow River.

l      Unified Water Management for Main Stream

On Dec. 1998, with approval of the State Council, China State Development and Planning Commission (CSDPC) and Ministry of Water Resources issued and implemented A plan of Annual Available Water Supply Distribution and Water Volume Regulation of the Main Stream of the Yellow River and Terms of Water Volume Regulation & Management by ¡°Ji Di Qu (1998) No. 2520 Document¡±. Such Plan and Terms stipulates that the unified management and regulation for water of the Yellow River is on the responsibility of the YRCC and formulates the regulation principle, limits of authority, usage application and examination and approval, and the water usage monitoring and supervising as well as the rule of readjustment of  pre-scheme of regulation of water in real time.

2.2.8.2 Water Saving Policy

l      Increasing Investment on Water Saving Works and Greatly Supporting Farming Water Saving Projects.

Farming water saving irrigation practices is the key issue in terms of implementing the water saving all over the Yellow River basin. Condition 26 of Chapter 4 of the ¡°Policy of Water Resources Industry¡± of the State Council stipulates: various government project approval authorities should select and list the farming water saving project on priority with additional investment. As for water saving project, which is matchable to the conditions of loan and has capability of repayment, National Development Bank and Agricultural Bank should firstly arrange loan. Various level people¡¯s government should arrange financial sources as interest deduction for the farming water saving project according to different condition. The ¡°Policy of Water Resources Industry¡± of the State Council defines the guidelines and directives of vigorously supporting the farming water saving irrigation project in all ways.

l      Raising Water Price

 For a long time, due to water price too lower resulting in flooding irrigation is the major reason of water wasting in usage. The condition 20 of Chapter 3 of the ¡°Policy of Water Resources Industry¡± of the State Council defines that the water price supplied by the original water supply works should be made be operational and in place within 3 years gradually (during the ¡°Ninth-five Year Plan) referring to the state water price policy and cost compensation, the principle of rational benefit charge and different usage purpose, and timely readjustment of the charges by changes of water supply cost. At present, the rational water price at the head of the canal on the lower Yellow River has been submitted to the SDPC for approval.

l     Raising Charge for Excessive Quota of Water Usage

Implementing different water price charge and adopting progressive rate for excessive quota of water usage is one of the effective measures of dealing with water saving domestically and overseas. The Condition 27 of Chapter 3 of the ¡°Policy of Water Resources Industry¡± of the State Council clearly defines: Extra fee should be added up in case of water usage excessive the quota.