China’s Drinking Water Problem - Payment for Environmental Services

Nearly 300 million people in China do not have access to clean drinking water. Rising levels of agricultural and household water pollution has degraded China's rivers, threatening both environmental conditions and human health factors in China’s cities. In response to this problem, the Chinese national government issued new standards for drinking water quality in June 2005. The new regulations updated the previous 20-year-old standards in response to these deteriorating water conditions. Reaching these new standards could require that the Chinese government build costly infrastructure systems to treat and deliver water.

This project will explore an alternative resource management model that might be more cost-effective at addressing China’s drinking water problem - the payment for environmental services (PES) model. PES establishes a payment system between beneficiaries of clean water - such as hydropower dams and urban dwellers - and providers of ecological services, such as communities in watershed areas. Payments to watershed communities are used to provide environmental services, such as reforestation and erosion prevention, which have the potential to reduce water treatment costs and provide other ancillary environmental benefits. A long-term payment system to upstream rural communities could also serve as an economic development tool for rural areas of China, many of which are economically depressed. The PES management system has been used by many cities, including New York City, where the NYC residents have avoided spending billions of dollars on flitration expenses.

Research funding for this project will be used to support a research trip to identify areas in china that might benefit from the PES model, as well as exploring implementaton challenges to PES programs in China.

This summer, both project members will be working with the Chinese Academy of Sciences to explore the use of the PES model in the Hai River watershed.

Project mission:

Determine if the Payment for Environmental Services (PES) model is an effective means of reducing the cost of improving drinking water and supporting economic development in rural areas of China. This summer, both researchers will be hosted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences' State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology based in Beijing to explore the effectiveness of PES in the Hai River watershed.

Potential impact:

Provide an alternative to costly water treatment plants, improve environmental outcomes, and support sustainable economic development in rural areas of China.

Required resources:

1. Total project needs: $4,010
2. In-kind contribution needs: Data on China’s water quality and information on local watershed management systems used in China.

Our sponsors:

10/19/06 - Sonya Schaefer