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Grow in Concert with Nature : Sustaining East Asia's Water Resources through Green Water DefenseAs countries develop, the demand for water increases while water supply becomes less certain and is often not enough to meet demand. In general, pressures from both environment and human activities can increase the likelihood of water scarcity. Such pressures include increased socio-economic development and population growth, change in people's diets, competition for available water among different user sectors and growing climate variability. Climate change is likely to exacerbate the existing demand and supply stresses, particularly when more frequent and extreme droughts and floods, as well as rising sea level are becoming more evident. In temperate, sub-temperate regions, less rainfall and longer dry seasons are expected. In tropical areas, rainfall is predicted to be similar or greater in terms of annual average volumes, more intense and severe storms and seasonal droughts (IPCC, 2007). These pressures will test the effectiveness of water resource management systems in providing a consistent and secure water supply for all users, with minimum externalities. This study will assess advances in management practices, institutional and technological innovations for managing water scarcity sustainably under a changing climate. This study of 'sustaining East Asia's water resources through Green Water Defense (GWD) is a sub-study of the 'towards GWD in East Asia' study and is complemented by another sub-study 'green water defense for flood risk management in East Asia' that focuses on flood management in delta regions.
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China Country Water Resources Partnership Strategy (2013-2020)This report presents the outcome of the World Bank's analytical and advisory work to assess the status of water resources development and the key water issues and challenges facing the country. The Bank has also reviewed its history of cooperation with the Government of China in recent decades, and notes the remarkable achievements China has made in developing the water sector. The report proposes solutions for tackling the enormous challenges facing China in the sector. The central priority is to ensure sustainable utilization and management of water, land and related resources at the national, basin, regional and local levels. Despite relatively poor endowments of land and water by international standards, China's economy has developed extremely rapidly over the last three decades, supporting 21 percent of the world's population with 9 percent of the world's arable land and only 6 percent of the world's water while simultaneously lifting some 400 million people out of poverty. It is noted in the national water resources master plan recently completed by the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) and the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) that China's water resources are under stress from the combined demands of agriculture, industrialization, urbanization, population increases and improving living standards. The impact is evident in regional falling water tables, inadequate flows to the environment, pollution, and so on.
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Berg Water Project : Communication
 Practices for Governance and Sustainability ImprovementThe past decade has witnessed a major
 global shift in thinking about water, including the role
 that water infrastructure plays in sustainable development.
 This rethinking aims to better balance the social, economic,
 and environmental performance aspects in the development and
 management of large dams. Additionally, it reinforces
 efforts to combat poverty by ensuring more equitable access
 to water and energy services. There is also growing
 appreciation of how broad-based policy reforms come into
 play and influence decisions around issues related to dams.
 Apart from democratization of the development process
 itself, it is increasingly recognized that infrastructure
 strategies must complement strategies for water,
 environment, and energy security; they must also address
 emerging concerns to reduce vulnerability in water resource
 systems due to the probability of climate change.
 Communication comes to the forefront in modern approaches to
 dam planning and management in several respects.
 Communication is central to multi-stakeholder dialogue and
 partnerships at all levels needed to achieve sustainability
 and governance reform in water resource management and
 infrastructure provision. At the same time, communication
 drives the advocacy to mobilize political will and public
 support for beneficial change and continuous improvement in
 practices. This case study emphasizes that it is important
 not only to mobilize all opportunities to reconcile water
 demand and supply in river basins facing increasing levels
 of water stress, but also to effectively integrate
 governance and anticorruption reforms and sustainability
 improvements into all stages of the planning and project
 cycle-adding value for all stakeholders, not just for some
 of them.