By Gu Shuzhong, Li Weiming, Wang Jianhua & He Fan, Research Team on “China’s Water Treatment”, Research Institute of Resources and Environment Policies, DRC

Research Report No. 48, 2018 (Total. 5323) 2018-3-15

Abstract: As a major innovation of China's water resources management institutional mechanism, the most strict water resource management system has been fully implemented in the water governance projects all around China. As a result, the resources management and control objectives have been realized across the board, and the system itself has also been fleshed out. At the same time, China's water resources management system still faces many challenges in the new era. For example, the relations between the management system and the river chief system need to be further coordinated, the existing legal system still lags behind, the system objectives and tasks need to incorporate more items, the unified management of various river basins need to be strengthened, the difference in different areas is not fully reflected, and the supporting measures of monitoring measurement and management are not adequate. In order to further improve the most strict water management system in China, efforts need to be made to press forward the most strict water resources management system and the river chief system in a coordinated manner, speed up the revision of legislative regulations in the field of water resources, establish redlines for water ecological protection and control, strengthen the supervision and management functions of watershed management institutions in charge of water resources, water environment and water ecology, improve the differential water resources management and evaluation system in light of major regional issues, and enhance the supporting capacity of water resources management.

Key words: water resources management system, watershed management, river chief system, redlines