Sept 10 – 16 2006, PWTC, Kuala Lumpur

CHINA’S POLICY INNOVATIONS ON WATER SAVING IRRIGATION

Dr. Zhijun Chen1

ABSTRACT

China is an agriculture-based economy with very limited water resources per inhabitant.
Following rapid economic development in the past two decades, the country is facing serious
water shortage problem, especially in the northern part. Water competition among different
users and uses is becoming more and more exciting. Irrigation is the biggest water consumer,
and is facing the biggest challenge under the current situation. While most of the water
resources, technically and economically feasible, have already been developed, water saving
irrigation becomes a major option for sustainable irrigation development. Water-saving
irrigation in China is expected to benefit not only the farmers and agriculture, but also the
whole society and environment sustainability. Since previous policy system and market
mechanism did not enable a favorable environment for nation-wide adoption of water-saving
irrigation, the Chinese Government adopted a series of policy innovations in recent years
including strengthening water resources governance, reforming institutional structures, improving
infrastructure systems and disseminating technologies. While great achievements were obtained,
weaknesses and potential risks still exist. Some of these are imperfect implementation of some
policies, incomplete water users’ organizations, insufficient technical preparation for some
engineering programmes, and unclear implications of various water-saving irrigation options
to local environments and ecosystems. Lessons and experiences drawn from China could be
very valuable to other countries. But one must note that they are rooted in specific Chinese
nature, economic and social conditions, and cannot be adopted in general or by all countries.
Specific considerations are needed to identify adoptable aspects at national, specific climatic
zone or river basin levels. This paper presents major policy innovations adopted in China in
recent years, reviews their outcomes and results, and analyzes issues that need to be further
addressed.

1
Water Resources Development and Conservation Officer, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Maliwan
Mansion, 39 Phra Aiti Road, Bangkok 10200, Thailand, Tel: (66-2) 697 4329; Fax: (66-2) 697 4445;
Email: Zhijun.Chen@fao.org

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CHINA’S POLICY INNOVATIONS ON WATER SAVING IRRIGATION

Dr. Zhijun Chen1

The 3rd Asian Regional Conference
13-15 September 2006
Kuala Lumpur Malaysia

ABSTRACT

China is an agriculture-based economy with very limited water resources per inhabitant.
Following rapid economic development in the past two decades, the country is facing serious
water shortage problem, especially in the northern part. Water competition among different
users and uses is becoming more and more exciting. Irrigation is the biggest water consumer,
and is facing the biggest challenge under the current situation. While most of the water
resources, technically and economically feasible, have already been developed, water saving
irrigation becomes a major option for sustainable irrigation development.

Water-saving irrigation in China is expected to benefit not only the farmers and agriculture,
but also the whole society and environment sustainability. Since previous policy system and
market mechanism didn’t enable a favorable environment for national wide adoption of
water-saving irrigation, Chinese Government adopted a serials of policy innovations in recent
years including strengthening water resources governance, reforming institutional structures,
improving infrastructure systems and disseminating technologies. While great achievements
achieved, weaknesses and potential risks still exist, such as imperfect implementation of
some policies; incomplete water users’ organizations; insufficient technical preparation for
some engineering programmes and unclear implications of various water-saving irrigation
options to local environment and ecosystems.

Lessons and experiences drawn from China could be very valuable to other countries. But
one must note that they are rooted in specific Chinese nature, economic and social conditions,
and can not be adopted in general or by all countries. Specific considerations are needed
to identify adoptable things at national, specific climate zone or river basin levels. This paper
presents major policy innovations adopted in China in recent years, reviews their outcomes
and results; and analyzes issues need to be further addressed.

1
Water Resources Development and Conservation Officer, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific, Maliwan
Mansion, 39 Phra Aiti Road, Bangkok 10200, Thailand, Tel: (66-2) 697 4329; Fax: (66-2) 697 4445; Email:
Zhijun.Chen@fao.org

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1. INTRODUCTION

1) Water stress in China

Average water availability in China is about 2,200 m3 per inhabitant, far below the world
average. Affected by the monsoon climate and topographic conditions, limited water resources
in China are unevenly distributed both temporally and spatially. In most areas,
precipitation of the four wettest months takes up 70% of the local annual precipitation. On
the other hand, river basins northern to the Yangtze River take up 64% of the national territory
but only 19% of the national water resources. Rivers in China are grouped into nine basins
namely, the Songliao, Hai, Huai, Yellow, Yangtze, Pearl, Southeast Coastal, Southwest and
the Inland river basins as shown in Figure 1. (Gao Zhaiyi, 2004). The drainage areas and
mean annual water resources of nine river basins of China are given in Table 1 (Dajun Shen
and Ruiju Liang,et.al, 2003 ).

Figure 1. Nine River Basins in China

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Table 1. Water Resources Distribution by River Basin in China (Km )

Over the past two decades, China has witnessed rapid economic development and increase
of water use. As development of new water resources becoming more and more difficult and
costly, water shortage has become a major constraint to social and economic development.
Negative climate change further worsened the situation and threatened environmental
sustainability, especially in northern China. In recent 20 years, total water resources amount
in Yellow, Huihe, Haihe and Liaohe River reduced by 12%; annual runoff reduced by 17%.
In Haihe River, water resources amount reduced by 25%; annual runoff reduced by 41%.
Large numbers of lakes and wetlands shrunk and disappeared. Some 164 ground water
overexploitation areas occurred in China, covering 190,000 km2 of total area. Annual ground
water overexploitation amount reached 10 billion m3, among which 8 billion occurred in
northern China. Total ground sinking area reached 64,000 km2, involving more than 50
cities.

Under the scenario of normal hydrology year and non-over-extraction of ground water,
China’s annual water deficit is 40 billion m3. Average draught impacted farmland area
accounts to 20 million ha, and annual food production losses due to draught accounts to 28
million tons. Among its total of 660 cities, more than 400 (mostly with more than 500,000
residents) suffer from insufficient water supply with 100 in severe water shortage. Among its
171 large cities (each with more than 1 million residents), 30 are suffering permanent water
shortage. Under water-saving society scenario, by the year 2030, when the national
population reaches 1.6 billion, even water-saving is well adopted in all sectors, total water
demand will still reach 700-800 billion m3, which is almost the total useable water recourses
amount in China. Hence Chinese Government takes it as a crucial and urgent task to build
a water-saving society to improve water use efficiency and productivity and to enable
sustainable social and economic development.

2) Necessity of water saving irrigation

Annual irrigation water use accounts for 65% of annual national water use in China. Most
of the irrigation schemes in China were developed in the 1950-70s. Technical standard and

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construction quality of these systems were generally low. Some systems were uncompleted.
After several decades’ operation, a considerable number of equipments and facilities are
obsolete and deteriorated, leading to poor performance and low water productivity. Currently,
national wide irrigation water use efficiency in China is 45%; average irrigation water
productivity of food crops is around 1.0kg/ m3. Chinese Government thinks that there are
still ample room to move in improving irrigation water use compared with 70-80% of irrigation
water use efficiency and 2.0 kg/m3 of food crop water productivity in advanced countries,
hence anchored irrigation as the major field for water saving.

By the year 2020, to maintain national food security, China needs to increase national food
production capacity by 200 million tons, which needs to increase national irrigation area by
6.67 million ha. Accelerated industrialization and urbanization in the past two decades has
exacerbated water competition between different sectors, and this will continue. The
Government planned that for the next two decades, newly developed water resources will be
mainly allocated to domestic and industrial uses; agriculture sector will have to maintain food
security for larger population with the current amount of water supply.

3) Evolution of water saving irrigation

Development of water-saving irrigation in China dates back to early 1980s. In 1980s,

activities focused on technology introduction, development and dissemination; field testing
and engineering piloting of pressurized irrigation systems for cash crops in east coast areas,
low pressure pipeline irrigation for dry crops in groundwater irrigation areas in northern
part, and intermittent irrigation for rice crops in southern part; combined with irrigation
management reform.

In 1990s, with the deteriorating of water shortage, water saving irrigation was identified as
high priority on the government agenda. Investments for both technology dissemination and
engineering construction increased gradually from central and local governments. Water
saving irrigation was disseminated from horticulture to large fields, from cash crops to food
crops, from small ground water irrigation areas to large surface water irrigation schemes.
Relevant technical standards and regulations were formulated; capacity building was carried
out to prepare for the implementation of large-scale water saving irrigation development.
Pilot irrigation improvement and modernization projects were carried out in some areas.

From 1998, the Centre Government declared a new era of setting up a water-saving society
on all fronts, and water saving irrigation was listed at the top of all water saving options.
National wide water saving irrigation strategy, plan and programs were formulated and were
put into implementation. In addition to traditional technical, engineering and managerial
options, new policy innovations were adopted to define and adopt systematic approaches
in promoting water saving irrigation.

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2. POLICY INNOVATIONS ON WATER SAVING IRRIGATION

1) Strengthening water governance

Legislation China revised its Water Law in 2002, defining that the State shall strictly enforce
water saving; devote major efforts to pursuing water saving measures; extend up-to-date
water saving techniques and arts; develop water saving industry, agriculture and services;
and set up water-saving society. At macro level, it states that national and river basin economic
scales and structures need to be adjusted to fit their respective water availabilities; requests
the establishment and implementation of macro-control targets of water use through
formulation of national and river basin water strategies and plans on water development and
allocation; emphasizes the completing and improving of relevant systems on legislation,
water-rights, water monitoring and control and broader social awareness. At micro level, it
states that water use efficiency and productivity of each individual enterprise and product
need to be promoted; requests the establishment of micro-quota targets through formulation
of technical regulations and standards; emphasizes relevant options on experiment study,
infrastructure completion and upgrading, financial incentives and technical innovation.
Detailed rules for implementation have been formulated and issued by central government
and each provincial and municipal government. These provided legal basis and detailed
regulations for the development of water saving irrigation.

Administration From the beginning of the 2000s, China started to reform its water
administrative systems at provincial, district and county levels, to incorporate water
management responsibilities, which were previously distributed into different departments,
such as surface water vs. ground water, agriculture water supply vs. domestic water supply,
water resources development vs. water resources protection, etc., into comprehensive water
affairs administrations. So far, 1,251 water affairs administrative agencies have been
established at provincial, prefecture and county levels, accounting for 53% of peer agencies
in China. Beijing and Shanghai cities, Heilongjiang and Hainan provinces have established
municipal or provincial level water affairs administrations. Further more, the revised Water
Law legally defined the solemn authorities of the Seven River Basin Commissions, namely
the Songliao, Hai, Huai, Yellow, Yangtze, Pearl and Taihu River Basin Commissions, on
integrated river basin water resources planning and management.

Regulation Following the instruction of the revised Water Law on defining “macro-control
targets” and “micro-quota targets” for water resources development and allocation, and
determining region-specific, sector-specific, department-specific, enterprises-specific and
crop-specific water use permissions, National Agriculture Water Saving Development
Outline was formulated, including water saving irrigation options for irrigated agriculture
areas and water conservancy options for rainfed agriculture areas. 100 national level
Irrigation Experiment Stations and more provincial level stations all over the countries were
restored and improved. Water-saving irrigation rations for 167 major crops over the country
were developed and tested, which provided scientific foundation for the formulation and
implementation of macro-control targets and micro-quota targets for agriculture water
management. Technical standards and regulations related to irrigation planning, design and

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construction were revised in consisting with water-saving concepts and new crop irrigation
rations to better guide the development of new irrigation systems and upgrading of existing
irrigation schemes.

Planning Integrated water resources development, utilization and protection plans are under
formulating for each major river basin; some have been finished and approved by the State
Council. Water function zones are under defining to determine the carrying capacities and
pollutant-discharge limitations of water bodies. Economic scale, structure and development
models are under evaluating and adjusting to confine them within the limitation of carrying
capacity of water bodies in each specific river basin. In parallel, a National Plan on the
Development of Comparative Advantageous Agriculture Zones was formulated. While
encouraging water saving species in water shortage areas, water consumptive species are
restricted. Wastage discharge permission and water quality control systems are under
establishing according to identified pollutants discharge limitations. Agriculture development
and irrigation water saving is a major concern during these planning processes. By
incorporating irrigation development into these river basin development planning, irrigation
water management is been merging into integrated river basin water resources management.

2) Adopting systematic approach

Integrated river basin water resources management New water policies highlighted the
importance of integrated river basin water resources management, and defined that all water
saving irrigation activities shall follow the national, regional, especially river basin water
resources plans concerning the development, utilization and protection of water resources,
taking full consideration of benefits of all stakeholders and paying sufficient attention to
hydro-cycle as in rainwater, surface water, ground water and ecosystems. The setting up of
water saving agriculture shall be planned and implemented in conjunction with the setting
up of water saving industries and water saving cities to set up water saving society in all-front,
with special attention to irrigation water saving. Currently, water saving society is under
piloting in some selected Provinces and Municipals.

Comprehensive strategy for agriculture water saving Within the agriculture sector,
government policies emphasize the adoption of comprehensive options to improve water use
efficiency and productivities in all areas, including water saving irrigation in irrigated
agriculture area; water conservancy farming in rainfed areas; and low-cost water-saving and
deficit irrigation in transitional areas combined with small water harvesting systems. A
National Water Saving Office and an Agriculture Water Saving Association were established
under the Ministry of Water Resources to facilitate water saving activities. According to
government reports, during the past decades, 4.64 million water-harvesting-water-saving
irrigation systems were established in dry mountain areas of China (suffering from seasonal
drought like in Southeast Asia) where annual rainfall is normally less than 600mm. These
systems formed 1350 million m3 of total water storage capacity, provided drinking water to
23.8 million rural residents and irrigation water to 1.5 million ha of farm land, and provided
food security to 17.4 million rural farmers.

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3) Providing multiple incentives

Financial policy During the last two decades, government investment for water-saving
irrigation has been continuously increased. Annual Central Government investment for water
saving irrigation grew from US$ 5 million in 1996 to US$ 500 million in 2005. Since 1998,
central and local governments have invested US$ 2.5 billion, mainly for water-saving
improvement of large-scale irrigation scheme and establishment of various small-scale water
saving irrigation demonstration projects.

Loan policy Since 1985, a special loan programme has been implementing jointly by the
Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Finance, China Agriculture Bank and China
Agriculture Development Bank, a total of about US$ 212 million special loan has been
provided to water saving irrigation development, US$ 25 million of finance funds were
provided as subsidy to loan interest, mainly for demonstrating of 600 agriculture water saving
counties.

Fiscal policy Water saving has been recognized as a primary national policy in China.
Relevant industries on development, production and dissemination of water saving irrigation
technologies, equipments and materials are listed on the national encouraging industry list.
Special policies were adopted for these industries covering registration of enterprises,
application of bank loan and taxation, including special importing tax rate for micro irrigation
systems and water saving irrigation materials, special domestic tax rate for enterprises
producing and delivering water saving irrigation equipments and materials.

4) Establishing water right and water market systems

Water right transfer China is exploring for the establishment of water right and water
market systems. Comprehensive study had been done during the past five years. Relevant
policies were drafted. Identification of initial water right has been piloted in Liao River Basin.
Eight large-scale Industry projects just signed water transfer agreements with irrigation
schemes in Ningxia Province and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The irrigation
schemes will receive funds from the industry projects to conduct water saving activities. In
return, they will reallocate part of their saved water amount to the industry projects.

Water price reform National policies on water price reform were also formulated and
enforced. Average price of water provided by hydraulic engineering in 2003 reached US$
0.0041/m3, which is 230% of that in 1991. Most provinces have shifted from centralized
and standardized pricing to two-steps pricing system which accounts both irrigation area and
actual water use amount, to better facilitate water saving. Public consultation procedure is
also practiced for water pricing. Such as in Hetao Irrigation Scheme, one of the large-scale
irrigation schemes at the upper reach of Yellow River (with 0.55 million ha of irrigation area),
consultation meetings have been organized for recent water price adjustments. The meetings
were chaired by local government and attended by the irrigation administration,
representatives from water users’ organizations and local communities, and invited experts

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and scholars. Financial status of the irrigation system, analysis on farmer’s economic
conditions and proposals on water price adjustment were reported, discussed and debated.
At the end of each meeting, agreements were reached for the adoption of the government.

5) Facilitating public participation

Decentralization and privatization of small scale systems In 2003, the Ministry of Water
Resources launched management reform for small-scale water projects in rural area, focusing
on decentralization and privatization of management and property rights of small scale water
projects from government departments to local communities, farmers’ organizations and
individual farmers. Twenty-three provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities issued
implementation methods, and over 7 million small scale water projects (accounting for 35%
of the total number) completed reforms in various forms such as contracting, leasing, auction,
and share holding.

Water users’ participation in medium and large scale systems Water users’ Association
were established in large and medium scale irrigation schemes to coordinate benefits of
different water users and uses and promote system operation and management. By July of
2005, over 20,000 water users’ associates were established, commanding over 6.67 million
ha of irrigation areas.

Private and commercial investments Private and commercial investments in water projects,
especially in water saving irrigation were encouraged and facilitated by government
departments at all levels. In some provinces, non-government capital investment has reached
10% of the total annual water project input. Such as in Hubei Province, US$ 100 million of
private and commercial investments were mobilized into water conservancy activities in
recent years. In Hunan Province, the figure was US$ 125 million.

3. OUTCOMES AND RESULTS

Since 1998, China has conducted a number of water saving irrigation programmes, including
partly water-saving improvements in 255 large-scale irrigation schemes (larger than 20,000
ha) and 120 key medium-scale irrigation schemes (between 20,000 ha and 3333.3 ha);
demonstration of 600 agriculture water-saving counties; piloting of large numbers of small
water saving irrigation projects. Government reported three major achievements:

Softened local water stress National water saving irrigation area increased by 6.67 million
ha. Total water-saving irrigation area (according to China national standard) reached 21.3
million ha, accounting for 36% of national effective irrigation area. Non-engineering water
saving options, such as intermittent rice irrigation, straw stalk mulching, water conservancy
farming, were disseminated over 20 million ha of irrigation areas. In addition, 6.67 million
ha of deficit and spot irrigation areas were developed. During the past 10 years, national
wide irrigation water use amount reduced from 7935 m3/ha to 6450 m3/ha; national wide
irrigation water use efficiency improved by around 10%; annual water saving capacity is
estimated as 30 billion m3. From 1980 to 2004, national aggregate water consumption
increased by 25%,

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while aggregate irrigation water use was maintained between 340-360 billion m3 and its
proportion in national aggregate water consumption declined from 81% to 65%, as shown
in Table 2. and Figure 2. (Li Yuanhua, 2006).

Table 2. Irrigation Aggregate Water Use in China

Figure 2. The Trend of Irrigation Water Use in China

Supported national food security Without increase of aggregate irrigation water use,
national irrigation area increased by 5.4 million ha; more existing irrigation areas were
restored and improved; which increased comprehensive food production capacity by 20
million tons. In average, each 1 US Dollar’s investment in water-saving irrigation produced
6.3 m3 of water saving capacity and 5.8 kg of food production capacity. During the past 20
years, over 200 million poverty population in rural areas gained food security. China has
successfully fed 22% of the world population with only 6% of the world’s renewable water
resources and 9% of the world’s arable land.

Increased farmers’ income To facilitate farmers’ participation, water saving irrigation

activities in China were combined with agriculture intensification, diversification,
restructuring and establishment of comparative advantageous agriculture production zones.
On the other hand, improvement of engineering systems and introduction of high efficiency
irrigation technologies and equipments facilitated high-quality and high-efficiency agriculture
development and led to increased farmers’ income and reduced farmers’ inputs. Investigation

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in Yantai City, Shangdong province, one of the agriculture water saving demonstration
prefecture found that farmers’ annual net income increased by 280%. In Qingtongxia
Irrigation Scheme, Lingxia Province, one of the large-scale irrigation schemes at upper reach
of Yellow River, farmers’ annual irrigation operation costs reduced by US$ 1.5 million.

Besides these cheerful achievements, weaknesses and potential risks still exist. Table 3. gives
examples of two piloting large-scale irrigation schemes in China, which have been involved
in recent years’ water-saving improvement programme. While inspiring achievements have
been made, some issues are still remaining, such as segmented water management system
which impacted optimal water use; incomplete water users’ organization which held farmers’
full participation; insufficient technical preparation for some engineering works and unclear
implications of water-saving irrigation to local environment and ecosystems. These issues are
representative in Chinese irrigation system, and need to be further addressed. Other important
issues include imperfect implementation of some policies, especially in the area of integrated
water resources management and water protection where government policies were clearly
defined and issued but were not fully followed. It is the major cause of continuously water
pollution cases in China in recent years.

4. ISSUES NEEDS TO BE FURTHER ADDRESSED

Learning from Chinese experiences and lessons, the following issues needs to be further
analyzed and addressed by each specific country according to its specific natural, economic
and social conditions.

How far can water-saving irrigation go? It actually depends on what kind of implication it
has to local social, environment and ecosystem. The multiple roles of irrigation systems have
been widely recognized by experts, agencies and governments. To decide how far water-
saving irrigation can go is actually to decide the minimum water amount needed for irrigation
and maintaining sustainable environment and ecosystem systems and valuable social and
culture heritage. It will ultimately depend on specific climate, environment and economic
development conditions in each specific country. China is a big country covering diversified
climate conditions and farming styles. Half of its irrigation area is located in arid and semi-
arid regions, only half in south monsoon areas; about 55.3% of its total irrigation area is
irrigated by small scale irrigation systems (less than 666.7 ha), only 44.7% is irrigated by
large and medium scale irrigation systems. In total, only about a quarter of its irrigation area
is irrigated by large and medium scale rice irrigation systems. So the overall national
irrigation efficiency could be targeted at a higher level. But the issue, like in Zhnaghe, still
needs to be carefully addressed. For most of Southeast Asian countries, it may not be feasible.

How fast can water-saving irrigation go? It depends on what kind of policy innovations
can be adopted; what kind of incentives can be provided; and consequently how much efforts
and resources could be mobilized. Ultimately, these depend on the scarcity situation of local
water resources and the level of economic development. The vigorous water-saving irrigation
development in China is rooted in its rapid economic development and severe water scarcity
in past two decades. Monsoon countries and least development countries may not have the
incentives or ability to put such efforts and resources in water-saving irrigation development.

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How to incorporate efforts from all stakeholders? This is important for a smooth
implementation of water-saving progrmmes. It could be done through systematic approach
and standard procedures to bring together the efforts of government departments, institutions,
universities, irrigation administrations, local communities and farmers to promote water
saving irrigation from all-front, including engineering rehabilitation, institutional reform,
management evolution and technological innovation to improve irrigation performance and
enhance overall productivity of all possible water resources, including surface water, ground

Table 3. Rapid Appraisal Result of Zhanghe and Jiamakou Irrigation Scheme, China
(FAO RAP and Chinese National Committee on Irrigation & Drainage, 10-24 May 2006)

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water and rain water. Especially, irrigation options shall be closely combined with agronomic
options to better facilitate farmers incentives.

What kindly of preparation is needed? Before enter into large scale engineering
construction stage, technical preparation is essential to renew technical notions; revise
technical standards and regulations; improve university and college curricula; strengthen
local capacity building. This will lead to wiser investment decisions; improved engineering
plan, design, construction and management; and smoothed project implementation. For each
individual project, careful feasibility study is important by using systematic methods, such as
multi-scale approach, to analyze and balance objectives of different levels, such as national,
river basin, irrigation system and farmer levels.

Who need to be more benefited from government incentives? At the piloting stage, water
saving irrigation used to start from pre-urban areas where farmers are more affordable to
matching funds, or horticulture areas where farmers can draw higher economic return.
Entering large-scale implementation stage, government funds shall more focus on major food
production areas where big water saving potential exists, and marginal areas where farmers
are more in need of government help.

What kind of options is more effective? Many people believe that establishment of water
users’ associations and farmers’ full participation in irrigation planning, construction,
operation and management will improve system performance and promote water use
efficiency and productivity. A recent study in four large irrigation districts in Ningxia and
Henan provinces, China, shows that incentives to managers led to water saving; participation
of farms has not played a role in saving water (Jinxia Wang, 2006). It might be varied with
local conditions in different countries and areas. So, one of the government objectives is to
identify the most effective options and to adopt policy innovations to promote better
application of such options.

5. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Après 20 ans de développement économique et social rapide, la Chine est confrontée à une
sévère pénurie d’eau. L’agriculture irriguée est le plus gros consommateur d’eau, et fait face
au défi le plus considérable. Au cours des prochaines décades, l’irrigation devra augmenter
sa contribution à la sécurité alimentaire nationale sans accroitre sa consommation d’eau
totale. Une des options majeures est de développer les économies d’eau d’irrigation. LA Chine
a adopté cette option dès les années 80, et commencé par l’introduction, l’étude et la
dissémination de technologies d’irrigation efficiente et des projets pilotes d’ingéniérie.
Depuis 1998, la Chine est entrée dans une nouvelle phase de développement d’une société
d’économie de l’eau sur tous les fronts, et l’économie de l’eau d’irrigation a été identifiée
comme une haute priorité de l’agenda du gouvernement.

Les dix dernières années ont vu l’adoption d’une série de politiques visant au développement
de l’irrigation économe de l’eau, y compris le renforcement de la gouvernance de l’ eau :
législation, administration, régulation et planification ; l’adoption d’approches systématiques

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à travers la gestion intégrée par bassin, des stratégies globales et des options conjointes pour
l’économie d’eau en irrigation; la mise en place d’incitations liées aux investissemenst
publics, tels que prêts bonifiés et rabais fiscaux; l’établissement de systèmes de droits et
marchés de l’eau ; la facilitation de la participation publique à travers la décentralisation et
la privatisation des systèmes d’irrigation de petite échelle, la création d’associations d’usagers
de l’eau dans les systèmes de moyenne et grande échelle, et la stimulation d’investissements
publics et privés dna l’irrigation économe d’eau.

Ces politiques ont favorisé le développement rapide de l’irrigation économe d’eau en Chine,
mitigé les pénuries d’eau locales, appuyé la sécurité alimentaire nationale, augmenté les
revenus des paysans dans les zones des projets et ralenti la dégradation de l’environnemtn
par endroits. Les leçons de l’epérience chinoise incluent: un environnement politique favorable,
des incitations publiques suffisantes et une préparation technique sont nécessaires pour une
mise en œuvre harmonieuse de l’irrigation économe d’eau ; les activités liés à l’économie
d’eau doivent tre combinées aux opitons agronomiques ; une attention accrue devrait etre
portée aux greniers de production vivrière et aux zones marginales lors du développement
à grande échelle de l’irrigation économe d’eau ; les paysans devraient avoir un role plus
important dans la prise de décision ; il y a un besoin urgent d’étudier la durabilité des
différentes options en irrigation économe d’eau.

6. REFERENCE

Baruch Boxer, 2001, Contradiction and challenges in China’s water policy development,
Water International, Volume 26, September 2001, Washington, DC, USA.

Erin Henry, 2004, Water scarcity in the north China plain: water saving irrigation and it’s
implication for water conservancy, Michigan University, USA.

Gao, Zhanyi, 2004, Chinese national consultation report, County Policy Support Programme,
ICID, 7 August 2004, Beijing, China.

He Changchui, 2005, Water resources conservation and saving, Special session of China
development fourm, China: building a resources efficient society, June 2005, Beijing,
China.

Jinxia Wang and Zhigang Xu and Jikun Huang and Scott Rozelle, 2006, Incentives to managers
or participation of farmers in China’s irrigation systems: which matters most for water
savings, farmers’ income, and poverty? Agriculture Economics, 34 (2006) 315-330

Ke Li Dan and Zhang Hai Lun, 2004, the perspective of water supply and demand for
sustainable development in China, UNESCAP, Water Resources Journal, December
2004, Bangkok, Thailand.

Li Yuanhua, 2006, China’s irrigation development strategy, FAO irrigation modernization

training workshop, May 2006, Jingmen, Hubei, China.

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Wang Shucheng, 2003, Promote sustainable social and economic development with sustainable
utilization of water resources, Ministry of Water Resources, P. R. China, Address at
the Ministerial Conference of the 3rd World Water Forum, 22 March 2003, Kyoto.

Wang Shucheng, 2005, Managing water resources and ensuring food security in China,
Ministry of Water Resources, P. R. China, March 2, 2005.

The Ministry of Water Resources, P. R. China, 2004, Water resources in China, Annual Report,
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Zhai Haohui, 2004, Irrigation, drainage and agriculture development in China, the 55th ICID
Executing Meeting, 13 September 2004, Moscow, Russian

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