Political Economic Analysis Of Water Rights Allocation In The Yellow River

The problem related to the allocation and management of water resource had become a common concerning mater in recent history.If there is no the trend of global climate warming,rapid growth of population,and continuing development of economy,water shortage would not appear.But in recent years,how to allocate water resource had become a core question related to human being's surviving and development.Over the past thousands years,The Yellow River has been playing a very vital role in north China.People live along the river,use water in the river to keep alive and production.But the soil around the river is so special that much soil and mud had been taken into the river,make the bank higher than sea level in the middle and lower reaches.Sometimes storms would cause serious flood that could submerge villages,towns and the field,that is why government had paid great attention to construct and repair the bank of the river in the ancient history.From The Ming and The Qing dynasty on,with the development of economy and population growth rapidly along the river,water shortage became more and more serious,conflicts about the use right of water among people in different regions were very often,and had caused some serious violence.Government had to begin to solve the disputes among people lived along the river.From 1949 on,government constructed many water conservancy project to make water available for people,and The Yellow River Conservancy Commission has been made great progress to control flood in The Yellow River.From The third plenary session of the 11 th congress of the CPC was held in 1978,with the development and population growth along the river,water shortage problem became the major problem in The Yellow River basin.From 1970 s on,the Yellow River began to break stream,the time and length of zero-flow in the river had been growing year by year.Only rely on government's great financial input,cannot supply enough water for the production of industrial and agriculture,and for people's living and environment development in the mean time.Even water shortage crisis in The Yellow River is very serious,on the other hand,people in some area along the river are wasting water,disputes about water usage among people in different regions could not be solved for a long time.To stop the disorder of water usage in The Yellow River,the State council issued The Yellow River available water allocation scheme in 1987,The Yellow River Conservancy Commission began to enforce this scheme in 1999,from 2000 on,stream in the river keep flowing even in the driest years.Because of its great effort and achievement,The Yellow River Conservancy Commission won top awards in the International Water Week Meeting held in Singapore in 2010.Because government's plan is too rigid and the market system is scarce,people are not willing to conserve water,the situation of water wasting and water shortage are still existing along the river.The third Plenary Session of the 18 th CPC Central Committee pointed out,market should play a key role to allocate resources,research result of scholars around the world also found that water demand will change with the price,improving water price will cause decrease of water usage.If we use market system to encourage people conserve water instead of water wasting,then we transmit the conserved water to the area which can make more profit,in this way,we can improve welfare of the society in whole.A Chinese scholar study about the drying up of The Yellow River pointed out,the reason why water is so short in the river that had caused zero-flow is not because of natural factor,the real reason is absent of market mechanism.If we let market allocate resource,we can make economy development,benefit people,and maintain environment healthy.But analyze the models of water resource usage and management in the world,we can find that only rely on government's plan or market system,cannot resolve the water shortage crisis,on one hand,we must let government's plan and market system work together,only in this way,we can guarantee people have equal right to use water,and we can improve the efficiency of water usage in the mean time,perhaps the mixed model which make government and market cooperate together,may resolve the water shortage problem in The Yellow River.In July 2014,Ministry of Water resource started to test water right trade in 7 provinces in China,3 provinces such as Inner Mongolia,Gansu,Henan provinces in The Yellow River Basin were included.To develop water right market in The Yellow River Basin,we should implement The third Plenary Session of the 18 th CPC Central Committee's decision,make the market play a key role to allocate water resource and let government play a better role,in the meantime,decrease the cost of regulations and the cost of organization,save transaction cost of the water right market,based on government's supervision and protection rights,design the legal subject's rights,duty and obligations rationally,to improve economic and social output of the water usage,and benefit environment.In the process of allocation of water right in the Yellow river,we should rely on the mixed model which emphasize the function of government and market system,in the first water allocation stage dominant by the government,we should introduce more market and price system,and in the water market,we must rely on government to prevent the market from failing and cut the cost of transaction.We can believe that if we rely on the mixed model to allocate water right,the water resource in the Yellow River may benefit economy,society and the environment in the mean time.