Water management and supply: the biggest threat to China and Asia’s security?

Our economy runs on water. This Blue Gold is vital for agriculture, health, industry and energy production, but it is increasingly threatened by pollution, climate change, mismanagement and underinvestment in infrastructures and water saving technologies. Only 3% of the world's water reserves are fresh water and this share is decreasing at an alarming rate. Water scarcity could cause massive population displacement and affect economic growth and social stability, thus leading to domestic and international security crises.

China has to meet the needs of 20% of the world’s population, with only 7% of the world’s freshwater reserves, and a remarkable North-South divide with respect to water availability. Decades of booming industrialisation has heavily polluted China’s already scarce water resources. . According to the Ministry of Environmental Protection more than 30% of the country’s major rivers are “polluted” or “seriously polluted”; in 198 cities inspected in 2012, more than 57% of the groundwater was rated “bad” or “extremely bad”.

With current consumption patterns as they are, the water supply will not meet China’s demand by 2030. Going beyond the traditional emphasis on flood control, water management and conservation have received increasing attention in PRC government policy. The 12th Five-Year Plan sets ambitious environmental targets in terms of water and energy efficiency. Will the Chinese government be able to positively address the food-water-energy nexus? How can China manage to provide enough water to power its economy and meet the needs of its population, while avoiding further damage to the environment?

China did not sign the UN Watercourses Convention, nor is it a member of regional transboundary water organisations. China therefore has the ability to unilaterally determine the development of its water infrastructures. Its heavy investment in hydropower plants and the growing water needs of its Eastern Regions could have disruptive effects on downstream riparian states, particularly in the Mekong River Delta, the Tibetan plateau and Central Asia. However, China is also showing growing interest in promoting closer regional cooperation in areas such as trade and energy infrastructures, i.e. through the Silk Road initiative. What is the future outlook for cooperation and conflict on transboundary waters issues in Central and South-East Asia?

The World Water Day on 22 March 2015 is dedicated to water and sustainable development, highlighting the need to mainstream water issues in the broader framework of development cooperation. How are water conflicts addressed by Europe’s diplomacy? How is the cross-cutting issue of water security embedded in European environmental and development cooperation policies?

Session #1 – Water: a global issue and a domestic challenge in China

• Kitty van der Hejden (Director, World resource institute – Brussels)
• Josh Weinberg (Programme Manager, Stockholm International Water Institute)
• Meine Pieter van Dijk (Prof. of Urban Management at ISS of Erasmus University Rotterdam)

Session #2 – Water & China: the geopolitical dimension

• Li Zhifei (Assistant Research Fellow, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences - CASS)
• Sebastian Biba (Research Fellow, Goethe-University, Frankfurt)
• Joëlle Hivonnet (Senior Policy Officer, European External Action Service, Division China, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Mongolia)
• Huang Yiyang (Counsellor, Head of Political Section, Chinese Mission to the EU)