The international effort to manage at-risk water resources needs China’s support

Danilo Turk and Sundeep Waslekar applaud China’s recent moves to cooperate more closely with its neighbours on the management of shared rivers, and call on it to do more on the global front

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The international community needs to come together in one voice in favour of active water cooperation.

Published: 5:34pm, 21 Mar 2016Updated: 5:34pm, 21 Mar 2016

Since the United Nations proclaimed water as a sustainable development goal last September, a number of new initiatives and high-level panels have been launched by various groups of nations. China is not part of any of these initiatives, but it has begun to introduce substantial water policy decisions on its own, without engaging in the international discourse.

In January, President Xi Jinping announced in Chongqing that Beijing would no longer allow large-scale development on the Yangtze River, in order to protect its ecology. This decision was the continuation of a new policy outlined by Premier Li Keqiang earlier. Li had proposed, at an Association of Southeast Asian Nations meeting in Myanmar, a plan to cooperate with neighbouring countries in the management of the Lancang-Mekong River.

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Much like the Yangtze River, which suddenly turns from the south to the north near Shigu town in Lijiang, Yunnan, creating a spectacular view, the decisions announced by Xi and Li reflect a change of course for China’s water policy. Aside from these decisions, it is already cooperating more closely in other ways: it has intensified dialogue with the Mekong River Commission, and is supplying a daily flow of information to India on the Yarlung Tsangpo River during the flood season.

It could be argued that China should become a fully fledged member of the commission and extend cooperation on flow data with India from the flood season to throughout the year. Yet, a beginning has been made.

Vietnamese farmers try to catch fish on an almost dry canal at drought-hit Long Phu district, in the southern Mekong delta province of Soc Trang. Photo: AFP

However, while China is taking cooperative measures in its neighbourhood, it has chosen to remain quiet on the global front.

The international community needs to come together in one voice in favour of active water cooperation. All UN member states, including China, have endorsed the goal of sustainable management of our water resources. To achieve this, cooperation is vital, and China could do more for the global campaign.

The international effort to manage at-risk water resources needs China’s support

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