Hai River Basin Integrated Water Resources Management

The Hai River discharges into the Bohai Sea which adjoins the Yellow Sea. Both seas contain globally important ecological resources that provide significant fishery benefits to China, North and South Korea and Japan. The Hai River is also a major source of irrigation and drinking water for tens of millions of people who live in its basin. However, the river and its tributaries are severely polluted (most above Class V, the worst category), and the basin’s groundwater resources are in some cases polluted and being rapidly depleted. Addressing the river basin’s twin problems of water pollution and depletion is critical to the health and well-being of its inhabitants and to the environmental sustainability of the Bohai and Yellow Seas and the livelihoods of the many people who depend on their natural resources. One of the major barriers to tackling these problems is the lack of sectorally and institutionally integrated actions to address them. The project’s overall objective is to catalyze an integrated approach to water resource management and pollution control in the Hai River Basin in order to improve the Bohai Sea and Yellow Sea environments. Specifically, the Project will (i) improve integrated water and environment planning and management in the Hai Basin, (ii) promote institutionally-coordinated and effective local, municipal/provincial, and basin-wide water and environment planning and management, (iii) enhance local capacity in water and environment knowledge management and implementation, and (iv) reduce wastewater discharges from small cities along the rim of the Bohai Sea. The project is intended to demonstrate new technologies and management approaches and to apply the lessons learned throughout the Hai Basin and in other basins boarding the Bohai and Yellow Seas. The project will also complement and strengthen two related and on-going World Bank-financed water and environmental operations in the Hai Basin: the Second Tianjin Urban Environment and Development Project (TUDEP2 - FY03) and the Water Conservation Project (WCP - FY01).