China and Water: ‘Sponge’ Cities
This mini-series will cover China’s complicated relationship with water. There are both major scarcities and over-abundances across the nations. The way it manages this is an insight into how the nation functions, and how its government is dealing with one of the most pressing issues of our time; climate change
The series in focus
The earliest civilisations in the world sprang up around river valleys as the basis for life, this is no difference for China, whose earliest civilisations began around the yellow and yangtze rivers. For this reason, the history of humanity is often intertwined with that of water, and our attempts to control and use it for development, survival, and security. Today, China, like many other countries around the world has a set of new challenges it faces with regards to water. This series of articles will explore these challenges and what China is doing to tackle them. Some of the topics that will be covered are:
How China is dealing with flooding
A number of countries have attempted to use intelligent infrastructure projects to help deal with flooding, whether it be river dredging or greening a city, some have been successful and some not.
China’s regional water inequality problem
Inequality is not an uncommon occurrence between nations, but some countries such as China face a very specific inequality - the inequality of access to water.
How climate change is exacerbating China’s drought problem
Many countries around the world are experiencing droughts that are worsening due to climate change and China is no stranger to this.
Chinese Dams and their regional consequences
The Mekong is one of the most important rivers in the world, running through much of continental South East Asia. China’s Dam building programme in the upstream sources of the Mekong found in Tibet threaten the river.
China’s ‘sponge’ cities
The problem
It is widely known that China has seen a rapid rise to global superpower status over the last few decades. Its economic miracle has spawned a huge urban expansion, often seen as unrivalled in human history. This has presented a number of problems in terms of water management as we will explore in this series of articles. First we will explore a problem of excess water - flooding. The problem of flooding has been increasingly difficult for China to manage, not only due to its rapid urbanisation but also due to climate change and an increase in extreme weather events. Two recent examples can be found in Southwestern China in 2020 which caused an estimated $26 billion in damages and more recently in the Summer of 2022 all across China following a heat wave, necessitating the evacuation of millions. China is attempting to innovate and find new solutions to the long-standing and ever worsening struggle against flooding which is not only costing billions in damages but also costing lives.
Image: images/Xinhua
The proposed solution
Launched in 2013, China’s Sponge City Pilot Scheme or SCP, though not the only scheme of its kind practised in the World, is where the term ‘sponge city’ originated. The SCP consists of changing grey (mainly water management) infrastructure such as seawalls, dams and pipes into blue-green infrastructure such as canals, wetlands, fields and parks. This infrastructure switch is intended, as the name suggests, to absorb the excess water from floods instead of merely pushing it somewhere else or holding it back as grey infrastructure is designed to do. The Chinese Government aims to encourage cities and regions to invest in their cities to become ‘sponge cities’ by offering funding, which can be up to $78 million depending on whether it is a provincial capital or not. They are also offering other financial incentives to regions to increase their blue-green infrastructure.
Analysis
The overall aim of the pilot scheme as per the Chinese government is by 2030 to turn 30 cities into ‘sponge cities’, with 16 being chosen initially in 2015 and another 14 chosen a year later. This would mean that 80% of the cities reach the goal of 70% of rainwater being reused by 2030. What has the progress been so far on these goals?
In the summer of 2021, the effectiveness of the SCP was put to a test. In the central province of Henan can be found its Capital, Zhengzhou. The city faced torrential flooding in 2021 wth a year’s worth of rainwater hitting the city in just three days. It displaced over a million people and killed at least 63. This is all despite Zhengzhou being one of China’s ‘sponge cities.’ Some pointed at this as an example of the lack of efficacy of the pilot, noting that it didn’t do enough to help reduce or manage the flooding, whereas some argued that this was unfair. They argued that the rain that hit the central province was a once in a generation event, arguing that the $7.7 billion dollars spent on transforming the city did not amount to a waste. They argued that the sponge city scheme helped Zhengzhou in removing much water which could have made the flood worse. Overall, we cannot come to a final conclusion about the successes and failures of the scheme. Whilst the scheme may have some efficacy in reducing the impact of floods, it may not be far enough as ‘once in a lifetime’ storms become more and more common.
The example of Wuhan, once called the ‘city of a hundred lakes’, also offers a look into the efficacy of the programme. Many commentators also note that the scheme has a lot more to offer than just flood and water management. A working paper by the University of Leeds agreed, noting that the $600 million spent by Wuhan also generated a ‘wider social and environmental benefit’ which improved biodiversity, public health, as well as reduced carbon emissions.
Image: Turenscape
Part of a wider plan?
It is well known that during the Trump regime when the US faltered in their commitment to tackling climate change, China attempted to position themselves as a new global leader in tackling climate change. It can be argued that the SCP scheme fits conveniently in this plan and in China’s plan to be a global leader in green technology. As Fu and Zevenbergen discuss in their paper, the use of technology could ensure China plays a leading role in both sustainable water management and strategic planning in resource management in decades to come. Accordingly, the paper discusses how crowdsourced data can be utilised through use of sensors on users' smartphones to detect water levels. In combination with new data analytics, this sort of data collection would help in predicting floods and forecasting water management. The potential benefits of such a project in the technological space shows the benefits of China’s regime - the idea of rolling out a pilot in such a coordinated fashion in a country as big as China would likely have been much more difficult and politically turbulent without the centralised power to the Communist Party. Increasing the frequency of ambitious environmental projects places China in good stead to leapfrog the US and other western countries in creating their own technological dominance in areas such as crowdsourced data analytics and resource management.
Conclusion
China’s move into green innovation and nationwide projects to avert natural disasters shows their power to utilise their centralised power in Beijing to roll out a complex and ambitious scheme. Whilst the benefits of the scheme have yet to be fully realised, there are undoubtedly some promising cases and great potential still remains for the future of the project. It is an example of how China is seeking to manage one of its most pressing modern challenges, and exemplifies to the world its might in facing the 21st century's greatest trials.