Achievements

Flood Control: Dams and Reservoirs

China has set up a flood control system by integrating dams/reservoirs with dykes, river channel management, flood diversion zones, and other non-project measures (e.g. afforestation and reducing soil and water erosion). Dam and reservoir construction is a major flood control measure and has been a major focus of the Chinese government. China has built 87,873 dams and reservoirs of all sizes. In 2010, the total storage capacity of reservoirs was 716.2 billion m3, accounting for almost 10% of the world’s total storage capacity. China’s total hydropower generation was 721 billion kW h in 2010, accounting for around 21% of the world’s total hydropower. This was equivalent to 17.4% of the total electricity generated in China.

The first stage of dam construction was the “slow-growth” stage in the 1950s. The government had realised the importance of water conservancy, but due to technical limitations and capital constraints, large-sized dam construction was very difficult. The number of dams of all sizes was almost doubled from 1222 dams in 1949 to 2301 dams in 1957.

The second period was the “fast-growth” stage between the 1960s and 1970s. Both the number of dams and storage capacity increased greatly. The number of dams rose sharply to 86,822 by 1980 and the total storage capacity of reservoirs increased substantially.

The third period has been the “stable in number but increasing in storage capacity” stage. After 1980, the increase in number of dams fluctuated from year to year. However, the reservoir storage capacity continued to increase, and particularly after 2000, the rate of increase was higher than before. This has been due mostly to large-sized dams with heights over 30 metres.

Development of dams since 1950s


Irrigation: Water Supply to Agriculture

Ever since the 1950s, the Chinese government has paid more attention to the development of irrigation infrastructure. The effective irrigated area in China had been approximately 15 million hectares in the early 1950s, but boosted greatly to 40.04 million hectares by 1985, and to 60.35 million hectares in 2010. (MWR, 2011a and State Statistics Bureau, 2010). Additionally, the number of wells, both electrical and mechanical, increased from 114,000 in 1961 to 5.01 million in 2010, showing vast improvements. There are 402 large irrigation districts with more than 20,000 hectares of irrigated area in each, and the large irrigation districts account for only 12 per cent of total arable land, while producing 25 per cent of total national grain.


Water Transfer: For Better Water Allocation

Currently, China has over 20 major inter-basin water transfer projects with a total length of over 7200 km, 16% longer than the Yangtze River. A key attribute of the spatial distribution of the projects is that they are mainly located in northern China. According to statistics in 2006, the amount of water diverted by interbasin water transfer projects accounts for 2.5% of total surface water resources; the ratio may increase to 10% upon the completion of the South North Water Transfer Project in 2050. SNWTP, with its total length of 3187 km, is the longest water diversion project in the world.