（Vice Mayor of Tianjin Municipal Government）

Ladies and gentlemen:

Hello, everybody. I wish to take this opportunity to make a speech on strategic concepts for the sustainable development of the water resources of Tianjin (China) in early 21^st century.

1. Basic situation of the water resources of Tianjin

Being one of the municipalities directly under the Central Government, Tianjin is a metropolis in the world. The water resources topic that this symposium studies is a major one on population, environment and resources faced by human beings. It is of vital importance to the future development of Tianjin in the 21^st century.

North China region is one with inadequate water resources. Tianjin is located in the north China region, being a part of the region with inadequate water resources. It is also located on the lower reaches of the Haihe river basin. Special natural and geographical environment determines the shortage of local water resources of Tianjin.

Occupying a total land area of 11,000 kilometers, Tianjin has a population of over 9 million. Its perennial average precipitation is 590 millimeters. The perennial average value of the runoff from local precipitation (autogenetic water) is 986 million cubic meters and is 250 million cubic meters in an extremely dry year.

Tianjin is on the Bohai Sea. Except the 1,500 square kilometers of underground complete fresh water region in front of the mountains in the north, other nearly 9,000 square kilometers are all regions with salt water. The annual minable amount of ground water within the whole city is 702 million cubic meters.

The perennial average value of the total amount of local autogenetic water and ground water resources of Tianjin is 1.688 billion cubic meters and its possession of water resources per capita is only 160 cubic meters. Industrial water and agricultural water mainly depend on entry water. With the construction of many water stop and storage projects on the upper reaches in the 60’s and 70’s, amount of water entering the city dropped sharply and water for urban use was tighter and tighter day by day. In the 50’s of the 20^th century, amount of water emptying into the sea through our city was 14.4 billion cubic meters. It was 8.1 billion cubic meters in the 60’s and 4.4 billion cubic meters in the 70’s. In the 80’s, it was only 960 million cubic meters. In the past, the Central People’s Government and fraternal provinces and cities gave Tianjin enormous support to solve its use of water. The Miyun Reservoir of Beijing, the Yuecheng Reservoir and Gangnan Reservoir of the Hebei province once all supplied water to Tianjin. Due to consecutive droughts in the north China region, the State Council of China decided in 1981: Due to limited water storage capacity, the Miyun and Guanting Reservoirs will only supply water to Beijing from now on and will no longer supply water to Tianjin and Hebei province. To alleviate the water shortage in Tianjin, water from the Yellow River will be diverted temporarily for regulation. Ever since the 70’s, Tianjin has diverted water from the Yellow River for 4 times totally, including the diversion of 447 million and 630 million cubic meters of water from the Yellow River in 1981 and 1982 respectively.

Analysis based on hydrological data shows that in the 70’s and early 80’s, there appeared in Tianjin consecutive drought years (1970-1972, 1974-1976 and 1980-1984) and Tianjin was bogged down in crisis of water shortage for a long time. Due to shortage of water, agricultural water has to be used as urban domestic and industrial water, thus area that uses domestic sewage for irrigation in agriculture has become larger and larger day by day.

Under the care of the Party Central Committee and the State Council and the support of the fraternal provinces and cities, people of Tianjin worked hard and built the “Diversion of the Luanhe River Water to Tianjin” large water diversion project in 1983 after more than 1 year of efforts. It was the lifeblood project of Tianjin and helped to solve the extremely urgent water shortage of Tianjin and people of Tianjin no longer drank bitter and salt water. Water diverted from the Luanhe River helped alleviate the crisis of water resources of Tianjin and brought about enormous benefits to the economic development of Tianjin and people’s life. However, with the development of urban and economic construction, it is less likely for the water source diverted from the Luanhe River to meet the water demands of Tianjin.

During the 5 decades ever since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, water conservancy has made tremendous achievements in Tianjin, marked by the construction of such water storage projects as 3 large reservoirs and 11 medium-sized reservoirs whose water storage capacity reaches 1.65 billion cubic meters and the formation of a pattern of water supply characterized by diversion of the Luanhe for urban water supply and ground water and local surface water for countryside water supply. They supply more than 3 billion cubic meters of water for industrial and agricultural production and people’s life of the whole city, thus basically ensuring social stability and economic development.

2. Strong support and guarantee for water resources needed for the sustainable economic development of Tianjin

Survival and development of the human beings depend on water and water conservancy is the basic industry for the development of the national economy and the society. After entering the new century, water conservancy has played a more and more important role in serving as the lifeblood and basis for the sustainable development of the national economy and the society.

(1) Basic frame of economic development of Tianjin in early 21^st century

Tianjin is a famous old industrial and commercial city of China, where a rather complete economic system shaped up in modern times, and its industry, commerce, trade and finance rank among the first within the whole country. After the founding of new China, especially since the reform and opening, Tianjin has become the largest city opening to the outside world in northern China. It carries out the “Three, Five, Eight and Ten” plan actively, which contributes to the tremendous changes attracting worldwide attention in its overall appearance. It enjoys a solid industrial basis and advanced domestic and foreign trade, its urban infrastructure is being perfected gradually and living standards of its residents have been greatly improved, thus laying a solid material basis for its development in the new century.

In December 1997, leaders from the State Council came to Tianjin to announce the decision of the Central Government on the development orientation of Tianjin as a city. In August 1999, the State Council gave a reply to the Urban Overall Plan of Tianjin (1999-2010) and made clear the orientation of Tianjin as a city. It stressed that Tianjin was one of the municipalities directly under the Central Government and the center of the rimland of the Bohai Sea. Construction and development of Tianjin should adhere to the strategy of coordination between population, economy, society, environment and resources for sustainable economic development, improve urban functions repeatedly subject to the demands for establishing a socialist market economic system and bring into full play the roles of a central city to make efforts to build Tianjin into a modern port city and the key economic center in northern China with prosperous economy, civilized society, advanced science and education, well equipped facilities and beautiful environment.

According to this orientation, the Tianjin Municipality has put forward the economic and social development targets in the early years of the new century: through optimization and upgrading of the industrial structure and great increase of the tertiary industry in its ratio of the GDP marked by the formation of several new pillar industries by the year 2005; rational adjustment and restructure of big and medium-sized state-owned enterprises, through transformation of backward technology and great improvement in overall technical level; basic formation of the overall layout of modern economy and improvement in the strength and level of modern industrial base in the new coastal areas; further opening to the outside world and unity of economic operational rules and international ones; even further changes in the appearance of the city and countryside, large growth in people’s income and obvious improvement in living quality; further perfection of the service functions of a central city and further increase in its radiating and leading functions. By the year 2010, it will do all it can to build Tianjin into a modern port city and the key economic center in northern China to become one of the regions taking the lead in basically achieving modernizations within the country.

(2) Further increase in the dependence on and demands of water resources of the economic development of Tianjin

Realization of the above development targets and historical leap of the economy of Tianjin depends on the strong support and guarantee of water resources. The sustainable economic and social development of Tianjin in the new century places the following demands on water conservancy:

—— Take the initiative to adapt to the demands on water of the new pattern of Tianjin after adjustment of its economic structure during economic globalization and strategic adjustment of the economic structure of China. The keys to the adjustment of economic structure of Tianjin are: adjustment of regional economic layout, transformation of old city proper, inventory of available assets, strategic eastward movement of industries and construction of new coastal area. There are more than 300 square kilometers of wasteland for development between the city proper and port of Tianjin, which is on the Bohai Sea and owns crisscross network of rivers, which is rare among the coastal cities of China. Construction of new coastal area should be sped up by taking these advantages to create a situation characterized by the concurrent development of both the old and new and joint development as soon as possible. By the year 2003, the new coastal area will take the lead in the city to establish a perfect socialist market economic system and operational mechanism. By 2010, the new coastal area will be constructed into the leader of economic development in northern China, an internationally advanced comprehensive industrial base and new modern economic area with high degree of opening and the functions of a free port. The key prerequisite for speeding up the development of the new coastal area is to quicken the construction and transformation of key infrastructure in this area, especially the construction of water conservancy projects, including flood and sea tide control, water supply and drainage and sewage treatment projects, which are essential components of infrastructure.

—— Take the initiative to adapt to the demands on water environment of the new changes due to the entry of the WTO of our country and further opening to the outside world. Owning excellent deepwater port and the biggest container and bulk cargo terminals in China, Tianjin is the biggest import and export port in the northwest, north and northeast of China. Efforts should be made to build an investment, management, humane, recreational, urban and legal environment complying with socialist market economic law and international practice in accordance with the standards for building a modern international port metropolis, which also include a beautiful and clean water environment, of course. These conditions are the key indexes for testing whether the comprehensive functions of a city or region are sound and perfect.

—— Take the initiative to adapt to the demands on highly efficient water-saving agriculture of the new thinking about developing coastal metropolitan agriculture and basic realization of agricultural modernization in Tianjin first. It is our target to basically realize agricultural modernization by 2010, when the major economic and social indexes of the countryside will reach those of the moderate developed countries at the end of the 80’s and in early 90’s. To solve the water shortage problem in the countryside when agricultural water is in great shortage, it is necessary to stick to the road of water-saving agriculture, plus development of resources of flood and sewage discharged from a city. Basic realization of agricultural modernization contains acceleration of the urbanization process of the countryside. Under the guidance of the overall plan of Tianjin and based on the development idea that big cities promote satellite towns, connect with small towns and radiate to the countryside, construction of the districts with agriculture, sites of the government of the various counties and central towns should be strengthened to contribute to the formation of a development pattern characterized by mutually complementary economy, industries that link up and integration of city and towns. By the end of 2010, villages in the countryside of the city will basically be cancelled for establishment of towns and urbanization rate of the countryside will reach 50%. To develop small towns, there must be complete infrastructure and service facilities. Both the problems should be solved of centralized supply of production and domestic water within the area and discharge of sewage and waste water. This places a very high demand on the rational use of water resources.

Therefore, it can be seen that the development of Tianjin in the future will depend more and more on water resources. Smooth realization of the set development targets of Tianjin depends to a large extent on the timely formulation and regulation of the relevant policies concerning water resources in consideration of sustainable development to realize rational development, scientific use, optimized distribution and effective protection to bring into full play the economic and social benefits of the limited water resources to better serve economic and social development.

3. Strategic ideas on sustainable use of water resources of Tianjin

Based on the present situation of the water resources of Tianjin and demand on water resources by economic development, the keys for the water resources in early 21^st century to ensure the sustainable economic and social development of Tianjin are to adapt to the needs of the continuous development of the socialist market economic system, economy and society, realize the shift from engineering water conservancy to resources and modern water conservancy, strengthen the unified management of water resources, establishment of a complete water resources legal system and make a good job of the tapping of new sources, reduction of consumption, protection and distribution of water resources based on science and technology to realize the rational distribution, economical use and scientific protection of water resources. After preliminary consideration, I think that they should start from the following:

(1) Realization of the strategic adjustment characterized by the shift from traditional water conservancy to modern and sustainable development water conservancy. It is the need of the sustainable use of water resources in the 21^st century, as well as the natural trend of development of water conservancy to shift from the construction of flood control projects laying stress on harness of water disadvantages in the past to comprehensive management of water resources development and use from the angles of economy, environment and society to change water disadvantages into water advantages to realize the harmonious coexistence and perfect unity of the human beings and the nature in the end.

(2) Shift from the attention to the development and use of water resources in the past to the rational protection and distribution of water resources according to natural law and economic value. Attention to the coordination of the dynamic relations between water resources and economic, social and environmental development is an effective means to solve contradictions of shortage of water. The present situation of water resources of Tianjin and demands of economic development on water resources determine that rational distribution of water resources is an arduous, complicated and long-term task and further reflect the importance of the task. Realization of the rational distribution of water resources needs to strengthen management of demands on water, effective water supply and protection of water resources. In terms of demands on water, industrial structure and labor force layout should be adjusted and unified management of water resources should be strengthened to bring into full play the regulatory role of water price as an economic lever to inhibit the rapid growth of needs of water. In terms of water supply, necessary water stop and storage projects should be built subject to the demands of economic and social development to stop and store floods to enter the sea to increase amount of use of water resources. Work for the early stage proof of the China Yangtse River South Water to North Project should be strengthened to strive for the early construction of the project. Natural space-time distribution of water resources should be adjusted and changed and virtuous operational mechanism of the development of resources of sewage should be set up. Rains and floods should be tapped effectively to use their potentials and coastal industrial area and projects for direct use of sea water should be constructed to adapt to the available layout of labor force and future development. In terms of protection of water resources, development and use should be carried out in a planned manner to avoid limitless mining, and polluted water body should be controlled strictly to ensure water quality.

(3) Realization of the mode of management of water resources paying attention to both tapping of new sources and reduction of consumption and dominated by the latter. In view of both the present situation and long-term development, the only way out for solving the shortage of water resources of Tianjin is to devote major efforts to advocate water saving and strictly practice planned use of water. Water saving and highly efficient scientific use of water will become the basic features of the society of Tianjin in the new century. A new mechanism for the management of water resources characterized by the joint participation of the public of the society should be set up by means of establishing a mechanism for the development, use and harness of water resources characterized by the combination of social regulation and governmental macro-economic control. Meanwhile, accessory construction should be perfected for the Diversion of the Luanhe River into Tianjin project to intensify transformation of water supply management and pipe network transformation to reduce water transmission loss rate and pipe network leakage rate. Various advanced water-saving devices and equipment should be popularized in an active manner to speed up the pace of the construction of water-saving projects and improve the effective rate of use of water resources. Saving of agricultural water contains saving of engineering water and agronomic water and saving of industrial water mainly involves reduction of water consumption per unit product and improvement in the reuse rate of water. In general, we’ll build Tianjin into a water-saving city by every means, such as administrative, economic, or legal means.

(4) Control of water and management of water resources according to law. Legislation should be strengthened to establish and perfect local water laws and regulations to practice unified management to water resources, so that there are laws and regulations to go by for all water activities of the city and water administration can be brought into a legal orbit gradually. Law enforcement should be intensified and acts related to water in violation of law should be investigated and prosecuted stringently to ensure the healthy development of the water conservancy cause.

Based on the above-mentioned guiding principles, we are working out the Plan for the Support of the Sustainable Development of Tianjin by Water Resources in Early 21^st Century for the purposes of guiding the flood and waterlogging control and urban and town water supply of Tianjin in the future, as well as the development and use of water resources and protection of water environment.

The above ideas are just brief ones. Scholars and experts are welcome to spare your comments.

Thank you, everybody.