This report highlights that the trends in the quality and availability of China’s water resources can, to a large extent, be explained by the drivers in the economy, the nation’s geological and hydrological conditions and by the patterns of water use. These factors have made the water resource management challenges particularly potent in North China, where a combination of water scarcity and poor water quality greatly jeopardizes the sustainability of water resources. Most of China’s water systems today are characterized by a combination of organic pollutants (BOD, COD), nutrients (ammonium nitrate), and various forms of heavy metals (lead, mercury and cadmium), particularly in the tributaries. This report shows that, while industrial pollution sources, which had historically been the main contributor to water pollution, have to some extent stabilized or have even declined, growing residential wastewater discharges from urban areas have partially offset these improvements, resulting in a continued overall poor water quality. The report identifies key institutional, regulatory, policy and investment barriers to improved water quality management and proposes some priorities for focus in this area, including improved horizontal and vertical coordination and inter-agency communication at the institutional level; strengthening the institutional capacity for more effective regulations, policies, monitoring and enforcement; and increased use of economic instruments in pollution management policies.

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• World Bank

• Water Monitoring

• Market

• Regulation

• Water Quality

• China

• 9/1/2006

• Article