WP 5 Analysis of present IWRM practices - Brahmatwinn

length of 372,4 km. Water conservancy facilities in Lhasa area have difficulties to guarantee the
agricultural irrigation water.
Institutional framework in China and the Tibetan Autonomous Region
There are four water related laws in China.
Water Law of the People's Republic of China
Flood Control Law of The People's Republic of China
Law of the People's Republic of China on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution
Law of People Republic of China on Water and Resources Management
The major provisions of the water law in relation IWRM are as follows:
• The law highlights that the states encourages strict economy on the use of water, greatly promotes
water conserving measures and builds a water conserving community among other things.
• For the purpose of protecting water resources, the state adopts effective measures such as
protection of vegetation, planting of trees and grass, conservation of water resources, prevention
and control of soil erosion and water body pollution, and improvement of ecological environment.
• The State has applied the system under which management of river basins is combined with
management of administrative regions.
• The institutions for river basin management are set up by the administrative departments for key
water resources under the State Council for the key rivers and lakes defined by the State.
• There are seven river basin commissions in China, but no one for the Yarlung Tsangpo. The
administrative department for water resources under local people's government is responsible for
unified management of and supervision over the water resources.
• The state formulates strategies plans for water resources across the land. The plans are divided into
river basin plans and regional plans. While developing and utilizing water resources, the principles of
combining promotion of beneficial uses and eliminating harmful impacts should be taken into
account of upper and lower reaches and on both the right and left banks of a river.
• The development and utilization of water resources shall first satisfy the need of the urban and rural
inhabitants in their domestic use of water and give overall consideration to the agricultural and
industrial need for water as well as to the need of navigation. In areas where the water sources are
insufficient, the scale of the urban area and the development of industrial and agricultural
undertakings which use a large amount of water shall be restricted.
The revised Water law issued in 2002 clearly provides adoption of a system of water administration
based on combined river basin administration and administrative division; and provides the system
of water resources planning, river flow allocation, water function zoning and management of total
pollutant discharge, water abstraction permitting, paid use of water resources, water saving,
progressive pricing for above norm uses, and supervision and monitoring of law enforcement etc.
Following river commissions exists in China:
• Yangtze River Water Resources Commission
• Yellow River Water Resources Commission
• Huaihe River Water Resources Commission
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