Water Ethics and Water Resource Management Ethics and Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific (ECCAP) Project

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Water Ethics and Water Resource Management Ethics and Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific (ECCAP) Project UNESCO Bangkok Regional Unit for Social and Human Sciences in Asia and the Pacific Water Ethics and Water Resource Management Ethics and Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific (ECCAP) Project Working Group 14 Report Water Ethics and Water Resource Management Jie Liu Amarbayasgalan Dorjderem Jinhua Fu Xiaohui Lei Huajie Liu Darryl Macer Qingju Qiao Amy Sun Keisuke Tachiyama Lilin Yu Yi Zheng Published by UNESCO Bangkok Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education Mom Luang Pin Malakul Centenary Building 920 Sukhumvit Road, Prakanong, Klongtoey Bangkok 10110, Thailand © UNESCO 2011 All rights reserved ISBN 978-92-9223-358-7(Print version) ISBN 978-92-9223-359-4 (Electronic version) The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this book and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization. Edited by Darryl R.J. Macer Design/Layout by Alessandra Blasi (cover), Darryl Macer, Raine Boonlong and Sirisak Chaiyasook (content) Cover photo by © UNESCO/S. Chaiyasook Printed in Thailand SHS/11/OS/003-1000 CONTENTS Preface ...........................................................................................................................................................................................v Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................................................. 1 1. Water and Life ...................................................................................................................................................................... 2 1.1 Basics of Water ......................................................................................................................................................................................2 1.2 Uses of Water ........................................................................................................................................................................................4 1.3 Water for Energy Production ......................................................................................................................................................7 1.4 Water Resources, Availability and Stress ..............................................................................................................................9 1.5 Water and Conflict ..........................................................................................................................................................................11 1.6 Water, Culture and Religion ......................................................................................................................................................14 2. Water Ethics.......................................................................................................................................................................... 16 2.1 Roles of Water Ethics .....................................................................................................................................................................16 2.2 Frameworks for Water Ethics ...................................................................................................................................................16 2.3 Principle of Human Dignity and the Right to Water ..................................................................................................18 2.4 The Principle of Equity in Availability and Applicability of Water: The Right to Water ........................18 2.5 Ecosystem Requirements and a Healthy Environment ...........................................................................................19 2.6 Principle of Vicinity .........................................................................................................................................................................20 2.7 Principle of Frugality ......................................................................................................................................................................20 2.8 Principle of Transaction................................................................................................................................................................20 2.9 Principle of Multiple and Beneficial Use of Water ......................................................................................................21 2.10 Principle of Mandatory Application of Quantity and Quality Measures .......................................................21 2.11 Principle of Compensation and User Pays .......................................................................................................................22 2.12 Principle of Polluter Pays ............................................................................................................................................................22 2.13 Principle of Participation .............................................................................................................................................................22 2.14 Principle of Equitable and Reasonable Utilization ......................................................................................................22 2.15 Future Reflections on Water Ethics ......................................................................................................................................23 3. Problems in Current Water Management – The Need for Water Ethics ..........................................................24 3.1 Overview ..............................................................................................................................................................................................24 3.2 Pollution ................................................................................................................................................................................................25 3.3 Water Governance ..........................................................................................................................................................................27 3.4 Access Rights to Water in Practice .......................................................................................................................................31 4. Policy Options and Construction of Practical Water Ethics.................................................................................33 4.1 Lifestyle Change and Motivation .........................................................................................................................................33 4.2 Valuing Water ....................................................................................................................................................................................33 4.3 An Overlaping Kind of Water Ownership ........................................................................................................................34 4.4 Ensuring Water Quality ...............................................................................................................................................................36 4.5 Policies to Overcome Water Scarcity ...................................................................................................................................36 4.6 Modeling Method – A Useful Decision Support Tool ...............................................................................................37 4.7 The Roles of Experts, Stakeholders and Decision Makers ......................................................................................37 4.8 Education .............................................................................................................................................................................................38 4.9 Balancing International Governance with National Sovereignty ......................................................................41 5. Conclusions ..........................................................................................................................................................................42 CONTENTS 6. Case Studies .........................................................................................................................................................................43 Case Study 1: The Need for a More Efficient Aquaculture Industry ............................................................................43 Case Study 2: Computer-Aided, Community-Based Water Planning: Gila-San Francisco Decision Support Tool .................................................................................................................................................................. 51 Case Study 3: The South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China .........................................................................57 Case Study 4: Review on Chinese Water Ethics .......................................................................................................................68
Recommended publications
  • Chapter 11. Water Resources Element
    Humboldt County General Plan Planning Commission Approved Draft Chapter 11. Water Resources Element 11.1 Purpose This Element addresses water planning issues including river and stream water quality, stormwater runoff, groundwater management, water needs of fish and wildlife, water consumption, conservation and re-use methods, and state and federal regulations. 11.2 Relationship to Other Elements These and other water-related topics can be found throughout the General Plan. Water availability for development is addressed in the Land Use Element. The Conservation and Open Space elements address riparian corridors, wetlands, wildlife protection, fishery resources, other biotic resources, water-oriented recreation, and soil erosion. The Community Infrastructure and Services Element addresses public water and wastewater systems. 11.3 Background Surface and Groundwater Abundant water resources Large rivers and biologically rich watersheds are defining characteristics of Humboldt County. These resources provide local water supply, spawning habitat for fisheries, recreation opportunities, and local wealth for the fishing and tourism industries. The Eel, Trinity, and Klamath rivers extend well beyond county borders linking Humboldt to the complex regional, state, and interstate water resource and habitat management issues affecting their respective watersheds. The average annual runoff of the rivers running through the county reflects almost 30% of the state’s total runoff. Significant sections of these rivers and the Van Duzen River have been designated by the California legislature as wild, scenic, or recreational under the California Wild and Scenic River System. North Coast watersheds retain some of the last viable salmon and steelhead populations in the state and are a focal point for regional, state, federal, and tribal habitat recovery efforts.
    [Show full text]
  • Water Resources Compared
    Water Resources Overview The goals of the Water Resources Chapter are listed below: - Protect the water supply from pollution and encroachment of developments. - Provide an adequate and safe drinking water supply to serve the existing and future residents of the City of Frederick. - Provide an adequate capacity of wastewater treatment with effluent meeting all necessary regulatory requirements for existing and future residents of the City. - Restore and protect water quality and contribute toward meeting the water qualityby striving to meet or exceed regulatory requirements. for water quality. This will require addressinginclude current water quality impacts as well as future impacts from land development and population growth. - Develop adequate stormwater management. - Protect the habitat value of the local and regional rivers and streams. - Efficiently use public dollars for infrastructure that ensures sustainable, safe, and adequate supply of water for all residents. The City is committed to ensuring water and wastewater (sewer) capacity for both existing and new developments andwhile minimizing the negative impacts of stormwater runoff. In 2002, the City established the Water and Sewer Allocation System to make certain that adequate treatment capacity for potable water and wastewater is in place for new growth prior to approval. In 2012, Ordinance G-12-13 was adopted which updated the allocation process and combined it with it the Impact Fees payable for water and sewer service. The City adopted an Adequate Public Facilities Ordinance (APFO) in 2007 that allows development to proceed only after it has been demonstrated that sufficient infrastructure exists or will be created in the water and wastewater systems.
    [Show full text]
  • A Thesis Submitted to the Department of Environmental Sciences And
    A thesis submitted to the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy of Central European University in part fulfilment of the Degree of Master of Science AN ANALYSIS ON SYNERGIC EFFORTS ON ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY AND POVERTY ALLEVIATION TOWARDS ACHIEVING MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS IN NEPAL CEU eTD Collection arjun DHAKAL July, 2007 Budapest Notes on copyright and the ownership of intellectual property rights: (1) Copyright in text of this thesis rests with the Author. Copies (by any process) either in full, or of extracts, may be made only in accordance with instructions given by the Author and lodged in the Central European University Library. Details may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. Further copies (by any process) of copies made in accordance with such instructions may not be made without the permission (in writing) of the Author. (2) The ownership of any intellectual property rights which may be described in this thesis is vested in the Central European University, subject to any prior agreement to the contrary, and may not be made available for use by third parties without the written permission of the University, which will prescribe the terms and conditions of any such agreement. (3) For bibliographic and reference purposes this thesis should be referred to as: Dhakal, A. 2007. An analysis on synergic efforts on environmental sustainability and poverty alleviation towards achieving Millennium Development Goals in Nepal. Master of Science thesis, Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Central European University, Budapest. Further information on the conditions under which disclosures and exploitation may take place is available from the Head of the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, Central European University.
    [Show full text]
  • Effects of Climate Variability on Evaporation in Dongping Lake, China, During 2003–2010
    Hindawi Publishing Corporation Advances in Meteorology Volume 2013, Article ID 789290, 11 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/789290 Research Article Effects of Climate Variability on Evaporation in Dongping Lake, China, during 2003–2010 Yuan Rong,1,2 Hongbo Su,1 Renhua Zhang,1 and Zheng Duan3 1 Key Laboratory of Water Cycle and Related Land Surface Processes, Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China 2 University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China 3 Delft University of Technology, Stevinweg 1, 2628 CN Delft, The Netherlands Correspondence should be addressed to Hongbo Su; [email protected] Received 24 May 2013; Accepted 27 August 2013 Academic Editor: Xiangzheng Deng Copyright © 2013 Yuan Rong et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Based on two long-term, hourly (10:30–11:30 and 13:10–14:10) meteorological over-lake observations and data from Shenxian meteorological station, nearby Dongping Lake, the Penman-Monteith equation and reference evaporation ratio algorithm were used to calculate lake evaporation in Dongping Lake, China, from 2003 to 2010. The variation trend of evaporation of Dongping Lake was analyzed, and the influences that caused changes in lake evaporation were also discussed. The results show that (1) the total annual evaporation in Dongping Lake increased
    [Show full text]
  • Policy Brief POLICY BRIEF February 2018
    TERI Policy Brief POLICY BRIEF FEBRUARY 2018 The Energy and Resources Institute Measures to Control Air Pollution in Urban Centres of India: Policy and Institutional framework Background and Objective Many Indian cities including New Delhi are included in the list of most polluted cities in the world (WHO 2014, Cheng et al. 2016). About 80 per cent of cities in India violate the prescribed standards of ambient air CONTENTS quality (CPCB 2014). Multiple sources contribute to the problem and, hence, sector-specific strategies are required for control of air quality. • Background and Objective 1 This policy brief aims to analyse the whole issue in terms of key drivers, • Drivers of Air Pollution 1 such as rapid urbanization, transportation, industrialization, power • Growth of Pollutant Emissions in generation, and agricultural activities, that subsequently lead to air India 2 pollution at different scales in India. These drivers lead to generation • Impacts of Air Pollution in India 2 of pressures on the air quality through release of pollutants. The brief • Urban Air Pollution Source assesses the contribution of different sources of emission and pollutant Apportionment Studies 4 concentrations at urban and national scales and the impact on human • Strategies for Control of Air health and other important receptors and discusses the key measures Pollution in Urban Centres 4 required for improvement of air quality in urban centres of India. • Conclusions 18 Drivers of Air Pollution Authors Urbanization, transportation, industrialization, power generation, and Sumit Sharma, Fellow agricultural activities are the key drivers that lead to air pollution through Jai Malik, Research Associate release of emissions.
    [Show full text]
  • Jiangsu(PDF/288KB)
    Mizuho Bank China Business Promotion Division Jiangsu Province Overview Abbreviated Name Su Provincial Capital Nanjing Administrative 13 cities and 45 counties Divisions Secretary of the Luo Zhijun; Provincial Party Li Xueyong Committee; Mayor 2 Size 102,600 km Shandong Annual Mean 16.2°C Jiangsu Temperature Anhui Shanghai Annual Precipitation 861.9 mm Zhejiang Official Government www.jiangsu.gov.cn URL Note: Personnel information as of September 2014 [Economic Scale] Unit 2012 2013 National Share (%) Ranking Gross Domestic Product (GDP) 100 Million RMB 54,058 59,162 2 10.4 Per Capita GDP RMB 68,347 74,607 4 - Value-added Industrial Output (enterprises above a designated 100 Million RMB N.A. N.A. N.A. N.A. size) Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery 100 Million RMB 5,809 6,158 3 6.3 Output Total Investment in Fixed Assets 100 Million RMB 30,854 36,373 2 8.2 Fiscal Revenue 100 Million RMB 5,861 6,568 2 5.1 Fiscal Expenditure 100 Million RMB 7,028 7,798 2 5.6 Total Retail Sales of Consumer 100 Million RMB 18,331 20,797 3 8.7 Goods Foreign Currency Revenue from Million USD 6,300 2,380 10 4.6 Inbound Tourism Export Value Million USD 328,524 328,857 2 14.9 Import Value Million USD 219,438 221,987 4 11.4 Export Surplus Million USD 109,086 106,870 3 16.3 Total Import and Export Value Million USD 547,961 550,844 2 13.2 Foreign Direct Investment No. of contracts 4,156 3,453 N.A.
    [Show full text]
  • Supplement of a Systematic Examination of the Relationships Between CDOM and DOC in Inland Waters in China
    Supplement of Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 5127–5141, 2017 https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-5127-2017-supplement © Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Supplement of A systematic examination of the relationships between CDOM and DOC in inland waters in China Kaishan Song et al. Correspondence to: Kaishan Song ([email protected]) The copyright of individual parts of the supplement might differ from the CC BY 3.0 License. Figure S1. Sampling location at three rivers for tracing the temporal variation of CDOM and DOC. The average widths at sampling stations are about 1020 m, 206m and 152 m for the Songhua River, Hunjiang River and Yalu River, respectively. Table S1 the sampling information for fresh and saline water lakes, the location information shows the central positions of the lakes. Res. is the abbreviation for reservoir; N, numbers of samples collected; Lat., latitude; Long., longitude; A, area; L, maximum length in kilometer; W, maximum width in kilometer. Water body type Sampling date N Lat. Long. A(km2) L (km) W (km) Fresh water lake Shitoukou Res. 2009.08.28 10 43.9319 125.7472 59 17 6 Songhua Lake 2015.04.29 8 43.6146 126.9492 185 55 6 Erlong Lake 2011.06.24 6 43.1785 124.8264 98 29 8 Xinlicheng Res. 2011.06.13 7 43.6300 125.3400 43 22 6 Yueliang Lake 2011.09.01 6 45.7250 123.8667 116 15 15 Nierji Res. 2015.09.16 8 48.6073 124.5693 436 83 26 Shankou Res.
    [Show full text]
  • Acknowledgements
    Acknowledgements First of all, I sincerely thank all the people I met in Lisbon that helped me to finish this Master thesis. Foremost I am deeply grateful to my supervisor --- Prof. Ana Estela Barbosa from LNEC, for her life caring, and academic guidance for me. This paper will be completed under her guidance that helped me in all the time of research and writing of the paper, also. Her profound knowledge, rigorous attitude, high sense of responsibility and patience benefited me a lot in my life. Second of all, I'd like to thank my Chinese promoter professor Xu Wenbin, for his encouragement and concern with me. Without his consent, I could not have this opportunity to study abroad. My sincere thanks also goes to Prof. João Alfredo Santos for his giving me some Portuguese skill, and teacher Miss Susana for her settling me down and providing me a beautiful campus to live and study, and giving me a lot of supports such as helping me to successfully complete my visa prolonging. Many thanks go to my new friends in Lisbon, for patiently answering all of my questions and helping me to solve different kinds of difficulties in the study and life. The list is not ranked and they include: Angola Angolano, Garson Wong, Kai Lee, David Rajnoch, Catarina Paulo, Gonçalo Oliveira, Ondra Dohnálek, Lu Ye, Le Bo, Valentino Ho, Chancy Chen, André Maia, Takuma Sato, Eric Won, Paulo Henrique Zanin, João Pestana and so on. This thesis is dedicated to my parents who have given me the opportunity of studying abroad and support throughout my life.
    [Show full text]
  • The Framework on Eco-Efficient Water Infrastructure Development in China
    KICT-UNESCAP Eco-Efficient Water Infrastructure Project The Framework on Eco-efficient Water Infrastructure Development in China (Final-Report) General Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Planning and Design, Ministry of Water Resources, China December 2009 Contents 1. WATER RESOURCES AND WATER INFRASTRUCTURE PRESENT SITUATION AND ITS DEVELOPMENT IN CHINA ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 CHARACTERISTICS OF WATER RESOURCES....................................................................................................... 6 1.2 WATER USE ISSUES IN CHINA .......................................................................................................................... 7 1.3 FOUR WATER RESOURCES ISSUES FACED BY CHINA .......................................................................................... 8 1.4 CHINA’S PRACTICE IN WATER RESOURCES MANAGEMENT................................................................................10 1.4.1 Philosophy change of water resources management...............................................................................10 1.4.2 Water resources management system .....................................................................................................12 1.4.3 Environmental management system for water infrastructure construction ..............................................13 1.4.4 System of water-draw and utilization assessment ...................................................................................13
    [Show full text]
  • Fearnside, PM 1988. China's Three Gorges
    The text that follows is a PREPRINT. Please cite as: Fearnside, P.M. 1988. China's Three Gorges Dam: "Fatal" project or step toward modernization? World Development 16(5): 615-630. ISSN: 0305-750X Copyright: Pergamon The original publication is available at: CHINA'S THREE GORGES DAM: "FATAL" PROJECT OR STEP TOWARD MODERNIZATION? Philip M. Fearnside Department of Ecology National Institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA) C.P. 478 69011 Manaus-Amazonas BRAZIL August 9, 1987 Revised: November 8, 1987 March 9, 1988 In Press: World Development 16(5) (May 1988) 1 CHINA'S THREE GORGES DAM: "FATAL" PROJECT OR STEP TOWARD MODERNIZATION? Philip M. Fearnside(1) National Institute for Research in the Amazon (INPA), Manaus, Brazil Summary. -- China's plans for the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangzi River are a focus of controversy both inside and outside of China. The dam is one of the "Fatal Five" World Bank projects criticized by environmental groups in the United States. The dam entails strategic, social and cultural costs that go far beyond its substantial monetary price. Strategic vulnerability is a major concern. The consequences would be catastrophic should the dam fail as a result of warfare, earthquakes, or other causes. Resettlement of population displaced by the reservoir, especially farmers, presents a formidable obstacle in the mountainous and already-crowded land around the reservoir site. Resettlement could affect minority groups if population is moved to border areas. The reservoir would sacrifice cultural landmarks holding great significance for many Chinese. Erosion and reservoir siltation may impede navigation within a few years, and in the longer term will reduce storage volume, thereby reducing power generation and flood control effectiveness.
    [Show full text]
  • China's Past, China's Future Energy, Food, Environment
    China’s Past, China’s Future China has a population of 1.3 billion people, which puts strain on her natural resources. This volume, by one of the leading scholars on the earth’s biosphere, is the result of a lifetime of study on China, and provides the fullest account yet of the environmental challenges that China faces. The author examines China’s energy resources, their uses, impacts and prospects, from the 1970s oil crisis to the present day, before analyzing the key question of how China can best produce enough food to feed its enormous population. In answering this question the entire food chain – the environmental setting, post-harvest losses, food processing, access to food and actual nutritional requirements – is examined, as well as the most effective methods of agricultural management. The final chapters focus upon the dramatic cost to the country’s environment caused by China’s rapid industrialization. The widespread environ- mental problems discussed include: • water and air pollution • water shortage • soil erosion • deforestation • desertification • loss of biodiversity In conclusion, Smil argues that the decline of the Chinese ecosystem and environ- mental pollution has cost China about 10 per cent of her annual GDP. This book provides the best available synthesis on the environmental conse- quences of China’s economic reform program, and will prove essential reading to scholars with an interest in China and the environment. Vaclav Smil is Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Environment, University of Manitoba, Canada. He is widely recognized as one of the world’s leading authorities on the biosphere and China’s environment.
    [Show full text]
  • CONTROLLING the YELLOW RIVER 2000 Years of Debate On
    Technical Secretariat for the International Sediment Initiative IHP, UNESCO January 2019 Published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), 7, place de Fontenoy, 75352 Paris 07 SP, France, © 2019 by UNESCO This publication is available in Open Access under the Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 IGO (CC-BY-SA 3.0 IGO) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/igo/). By using the content of this publication, the users accept to be bound by the terms of use of the UNESCO Open Access Repository (http://www.unesco.org/open-access/ terms-useccbysa-en). The present license applies exclusively to the text content of the publication. For the use of any material not clearly identified as belonging to UNESCO, prior permission shall be requested. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of UNESCO. ©UNESCO 2019 DESIGN, LAYOUT & ILLUSTRATIONS: Ana Cuna ABSTRACT Throughout the history of China, the Yellow was the major strategy of flood control. Two River has been associated with frequent flood extremely different strategies were proposed and disasters and changes in the course of its lower practiced in the past 2000 years, i.e. the wide river reaches. The river carries sediment produced and depositing sediment strategy and the narrow by soil erosion from the Loess Plateau and the river and scouring sediment strategy. Wang Jing Qinghai-Tibet plateau and deposits the sediment implemented a large-scale river training project on the channel bed and in the estuary.
    [Show full text]