Abstract
Water governance is of extreme importance in China. The tradition of water governance is as long as the history of the Chinese civilization. As early as in the Spring and Autumn period (770–476 B.C.), a noted statesman Guang Zong stated that a good ruler must first of all eliminate disasters caused by floods and droughts (Gu, 1997). History of this big agricultural country of China shows that accomplished rulers in China, such as the first emperor of the Qin Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, the First Emperor of the Tang Dynasty and Emperor Kang Xi of the Qing Dynasty, all devoted full energy to water governance. All the heydays in Chinese history are associated with the achievements in water governance. When irrigation flourishes, the country would get stable; with political stability, the people would feel secure; when the people feel secure, they would have the zeal for production; when there is enough food, all other trades and services would flourish and the whole society is bound to prosperity; then no foreign enemy would dare to invade. Otherwise, there would be such severe disasters as floods and droughts that would throw the economy into recession and the people into misery, driving people to rise in revolt, thus plunging the country into turmoil and forcing the country to change ruler, even if there is no foreign invasion. So, eliminating floods and building irrigation projects is a matter of great importance in making the country prosper and pacifying the neighbors.
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Notes
- 1.
The Ministry of Water Resources called a number of symposiums centering on the subject. Articles have appeared by the hundreds, which were collected in two volumes of a book entitled “Water Rights, Water Price and Water Market Forum” by the Policy and Law Department of the Ministry of Water Resources in 2001. The China water information website http://www.waterinfo.net.cn opened a special forum in this subject for uploading related information and articles. This resulted in the publication of a number of “Collections of Articles” or books on water rights and water market .
- 2.
Worldwide, water resources are not always owned by the state in the legal sense. In federal states, such as the United States and Canada, water resources are usually defined to be owned by state governments and the cross-state water bodies or watersheds come under the jurisdiction of the federal government. Whatever the legal form, the public nature of water resources determines that the private and public interests must be identical in the exercise of property right s in water resources.
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Wang, Y. (2018). Introduction. In: Assessing Water Rights in China. Water Resources Development and Management. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-5083-1_1
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