How does the river chief system promote lasting river governance? An analysis of the long-term water management mechanism
From now on, the top party or government leaders of China's 31 provincial-level administrative regions will have a new title: "general river chief." According to the "Opinions on Fully Implementing the River Chief System" issued on the 11th by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council, building on nearly a decade of practice in some provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, the "river chief system" - under which leading party and government officials at all levels are responsible - will be rolled out nationwide.
Party and government chiefs take responsibility, tackling water security the way they tackle food security
In May 2007, blue-green algae erupted across a large area of Taihu Lake, the water source deteriorated, and residents rushed to buy purified water. River channels had gone long without dredging, enterprises discharged pollutants illegally, and agricultural non-point source pollution was severe... Water pollution - diagnosed by look, smell, touch and feel, in red, orange, yellow and green, and stinking unbearably - was the symptom. The "causes" were countless and tangled, but in the end they came down to unclear authority and responsibility, vague performance assessments, and imprecise rewards and penalties.
In August of that year, Wuxi City issued the "Wuxi City River (Lake, Reservoir, Pond, Ji) Section Water Quality Control Targets and Assessment Measures (Trial)", incorporating water quality test results at river sections into the performance assessment of the main party and government leaders of each city, county and district. If any city, county or district failed to report on schedule, or refused to report or falsified water quality test results, responsibility would be pursued in accordance with relevant regulations.
In June 2008, Jiangsu promoted the "river chief system" throughout the Taihu Lake basin: each river would have a "river chief" jointly held by leaders at the provincial and municipal levels. The main party and government leaders at each level were the first responsible persons for river management and protection. The results were immediate. The Taige South Canal, one of the main rivers flowing into Taihu Lake, had long suffered from pollution problems. The "river chiefs" at the Jiangsu provincial and Yixing municipal levels conducted on-site inspections of pollution sources and discharge outlets, and the river's water quality and riparian ecology were substantially restored. From 2011 to 2016, the comprehensive compliance rate for water quality at 79 river sections managed under the "river chief system" basically remained above 70%.
After that, the "river chief system" spread across the country, from the Songhua River basin in the north to Dianchi Lake in the south. Beijing, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, Fujian, Jiangxi and Hainan implemented the "river chief system" across their entire territories, while 16 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities implemented it in some areas.
The "river chief system" marked a key step from a "departmental system" to a "chief-official system." "With party and government sharing responsibility and chiefs taking charge, if we tackle water security the way we tackle food security, we will certainly succeed," Li Yuanyuan, vice president of the General Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Planning and Design of the Ministry of Water Resources, told reporters.
Innovation in management and protection mechanisms achieves flowing rivers, clear water, green banks and beautiful scenery
"The core of the river chief system is the responsibility system of party and government chiefs, breaking down deep-seated institutional obstacles and changing the awkward situation where 'environmental protection does not go into the river, and water resources does not come ashore,'" said Wang Shiqin, director of the Water Affairs Bureau of Jing'an County, Jiangxi.
Vertically, provincial-level main leaders, municipal party secretaries and mayors, district party secretaries and district heads, town party secretaries and town heads, and village party branch secretaries and village committee directors - "river chiefs" at every level - form a "chain of chief responsibility" for water governance; horizontally, departments for development and reform, finance and taxation, water resources, land and resources, agriculture, transport, environmental protection, economic and trade affairs, housing and urban-rural development, industry and commerce, public security, and even supervision, organization and personnel affairs each have their own division of labor and their own missions. Limiting pollutant discharges into rivers and lakes, preventing and controlling water body pollution, and strictly prohibiting encroachment on riverbanks and arbitrary mining and digging - the river chief system is responsible not only for rivers "meeting water quality standards," but also for managing the water resources, water environment and water ecology of the entire river.
People often say: "Water has no fixed course." Water flows and does not stay in place, so it cannot be divided according to administrative boundaries. Another feature of the "river chief system" is "joint governance" by upstream and downstream areas and by the left and right banks.
"In the past, more than 20,000 pigs were raised here, pollutants were discharged directly, and the water surface churned with foam. Today, all the water quality worse than Class V has been brought up to the Class II standard." Recently, the main leaders of five counties and districts in Quzhou City, Zhejiang, took office at the same time, and the first thing they did after taking office was to identify rivers, patrol rivers, sign letters of commitment to river chief duties, give solemn pledges, and shoulder the burden of river chief. Quzhou is Zhejiang's ecological barrier and sits at the source of the Qiantang River. "Treating the five waters together to ensure a clear river reaches downstream" is regarded as a political responsibility.
As an important estuary area, Tianjin has numerous river systems. For a long time, responsibility for river channel management was unclear and duties were undefined, and in recent years less water, dirty water, poor water flow and water pollution gradually increased. To solve the problem thoroughly, Tianjin implemented a three-level river chief system at the district, town and village levels, explicitly requiring that the river chief at each level be held by the administrative chief in charge. What used to be stage-by-stage treatment has become routine administrative action.
Hundreds of millions of river chiefs among the people, building an ecological civilization together across society
In 2016, the "Protect the Mother Lake - 'Citizen River Chiefs' in Action" citizen river chief appointment ceremony was held in Kunming on December 3. Thirty-six groups and enterprises were designated "citizen river chief" units, and citizens such as Zhang Jiaqiang and Gu Zhongguo were designated individual "citizen river chiefs." Entrepreneurs said they would lead by example, develop a water-saving, low-carbon economy, take the lead in protecting water, supervise illegal acts and promptly report problems found during river patrols.
As some put it vividly: the "river chief system" means upgrading the target of the invitation to "please have the leaders swim in the river" from bureau directors to party secretaries and mayors. In fact, the real changes and long-term effects are much deeper and far-reaching than "inviting more senior leaders into the river." Moving from the "river chief system" to "lasting river governance" depends on participation by the whole of society.
In Wujin District, Changzhou City, Jiangsu, village residents Guo Yinsheng and Yang Xiliang, appointed as "civilian river chiefs" on a pilot basis for the Caoqiao River, have already carried out their duties for nearly half a year for the Caoqiao River and its surrounding waterways. To ensure that civilian river chiefs can carry out their work, Wujin District established relevant mechanisms to link the work of official river chiefs and civilian river chiefs: when civilian river chiefs report problems or opinions and suggestions, official river chiefs must promptly assign them and urge the responsible units to respond; civilian river chiefs are invited to attend meetings on Taihu Lake governance work and planning formulation.
The "river chief system" led by party and government chiefs is forming a top-down and bottom-up pattern of mutual reinforcement with tens of thousands of "civilian river chiefs." The power of the public is being set in motion.