From principles to localized implementation: villagers' experiences of IWRM in the Shiyang River basin, Northwest China

Abstract

Understanding perceptions of resource users and influencing factors that affect these perceptions has significant value in evaluating the success or failure of IWRM (integrated water resource management) reforms. This article explores villagers' experiences of China's recent powerful enforcement of IWRM and the locally perceived impacts through three in-depth case studies. Results show that neither villagers' perspectives nor the implementation processes and outcomes are monolithic. Political trust plays a key role in shaping villagers' perspectives and responses towards IWRM, which is constantly shaped and reshaped by understanding, experiences and negotiation among different stakeholders in the embedded physical, socio-economic and political environment.

Spatial Preference Heterogeneity for Integrated River Basin Management: The Case of the Shiyang River Basin, China

“…To ease water shortage and address ecological deterioration in the basin, the local and regional water resources bureaus and the provincial government have recently proposed several IRBM restoration projects [9,31,34]. Planned investment in ecological restoration amounts to over 4.749 billion RMB in the period 2006-2020 [35].…”

“…The limited water resources in the lower basin are virtually all allocated to households and economic activities leaving no water for ecological functions, which leads to ecological degradation, in particular desertification and sandstorms, both within and beyond the sub-basin. To mitigate the crisis, integrated water resources management programs have been running in the Basin, though expectations of benefits from them and support for them among the local residents are still low [9]. The core objective of the programs is to find a sustainable solution to the overwhelming ecological crisis, which is encroaching from the lower basin to the middle and upper sub-basins.…”

“…Residential location relative to the improvement site will usually be a determinant of whether one will benefit more or less than others. Generally speaking, the agents in the center, or downstream of the ecological crisis will benefit to a greater extent from restoration than the upstream agents [9,10]. Hence, beneficiaries may have heterogeneous preferences that may or may not align with the objectives of IRBM.…”

“…Hence, beneficiaries may have heterogeneous preferences that may or may not align with the objectives of IRBM. For example, Yu et al [9] provides indirect evidence on this issue based into their research on the perceptions of the Shiyang River Basin residents with respect to the ongoing integrated water management process in their region. They found that the villagers' perspectives are non-uniform in that political trust, experience and expectations with respect to the outcomes of the ongoing projects significantly shape their perception.…”

Governance of the irrigation commons under integrated water resources management – A comparative study in contemporary rural China

“…Realized the pressing water problems, the government initiated water reform towards integrated water resources management (IWRM) in 2007, aiming at controlling overuse and exploitation of water resources especially groundwater resources in the basin (Yu et al, 2014). Under this reform, drastic actions have been taken including cutting irrigated land areas, reducing the number of pumping wells and controlling abstraction of groundwater.…”