Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
the South-North Water-Transfer Project are around the corner, the Sinohydro corporate
headquarters is a block away, and the MWR is down the street.
In an interview, Dr. Yin, a senior engineer at the Institute of Water Resources and Hy-
dropower Research, referred to this fragmentation of authority in the water sector as “sev-
en committees, nine dragons.” In ancient China, where the agrarian tradition and the Con-
fucian ethical worldview favored large families with many male offspring, the saying about
a dragon begetting nine sons (
long sheng jiu zi
) denoted a situation of extremely good for-
tune. But it was good fortune of a sort that could cause a host of practical problems: When
it came time to divide the estate, for example, which son would inherit which parcel of
land? When the parents became old and their health failed, which son would shoulder the
responsibility of caring for them? It is a situation in which no single entity assumes ulti-
mate responsibility.
This provides an apt metaphor, Dr. Yin suggested, for understanding the fragmented
nature of multiagency management that now predominates in China's water sector. As with
many sectors of the Chinese economy during the reform era, the political economy of hy-
dropower development has been shaped by economic liberalization. In 1996, the Nation-
al People's Congress passed the Electric Power Law (Chinese National People's Congress
1996), which required the power industry to begin disentangling electricity producers and
distributors in an effort to create a nationwide market for electricity. In 2002, the State
Electric Power Corporation, the key state-owned enterprise responsible for both power
generation and distribution, was dissolved. Its assets and responsibilities were distributed
among two groups of newly reconfigured state-owned enterprises: those responsible for
electricity generation andthoseresponsibleforelectricity transmission anddistribution, the
largest of which is the State Grid Corporation, which includes various regional subsidiar-
ies. The group responsible for power generation comprises five state-owned enterprises,
often called the “Five Energy Giants” (Wu Da Fadian Jutou), which hold diverse energy
portfolios, including coal, wind, solar, and hydropower (see
figure 2.2
). Sinohydro, a major
state-owned hydropower engineering and construction company, provides consulting ser-
vices in research and development, design of equipment, and facility construction.
