Same longitude, different latitudes: Institutional change in urban water in China, North and South

Abstract

The problem of bringing sufficient water of adequate quality to urban areas and treating it once used is becoming increasingly complex, requiring and eliciting innovative political and institutional responses in all parts of China, wet as well as dry. The focus here is on a range of recent institutional innovations in Beijing, in the dry Hai River basin, and in major municipalities of the water-rich Pearl River Delta, in the areas of cross-boundary interactions, retail water pricing and the establishment of urban-based water services bureaux (shuiwu ju). Genuine institutional change, while necessary, is often difficult to achieve, due to a political system that, for all its accomplishments in promoting growth, inhibits the development of economic pricing, administrative integration, or social capital. © 2006 Taylor & Francis.