Seeking Cleaner Water, China Streamlines River Oversight

Provincial cadres and local officials in China will now be directly responsible for managing rivers in their areas, a move aimed at clarifying who is responsible for reducing pollution, maintaining water quality, overseeing waterway usage, and other issues.

The Communist Party’s Central Committee and the State Council announced policy guidelines Sunday that local governments should develop a system in which each major river or lake is assigned at least one “water manager” at township, county, city, and provincial levels of governance. If a body of water passes through more than one region, it will be assigned a water manager in each region.