By Gu Shuzhong, Li Weiming &Wang Yufei, Research Team on "National Water Security Protection Mechanism", Research Institute of Resources and Environment Policies of DRC

Research Report No 30, 2015 (Total 4715)

Abstract:

A perfect and effective water-saving system is key to realizing the goal of water saving in the long run and it is also the basic principle for protecting national water security. In current China, water is wasted and polluted severely, which is mainly caused by the unreasonable water-saving system, relating to people's water-saving awareness, compensated utilization of resources, water pricing mechanism, sewage discharging management, water property right transaction market, resource asset accounting, investment and financing mechanism and cadres' performance review. Therefore, through optimizing the basic structure of China's water-saving system, a water-saving system with Chinese characteristics should be built as soon as possible. It is suggested that a national water-saving awareness to cherish and protect water resources be fostered. As regards the government, it needs to establish a system of compensated use of water and a scientific and workable water pricing system, improve the system of discharging sewage water in compliance with relevant standards with charges, and the system of water property right transaction. In addition, it needs to systematically and positively promote water resource asset accounting system, strengthen the support mechanism for water-saving input and the system for the assessment of leading cadres' performance on water-saving projects.