Abstract

Since the mid-1990s, the water quality of Chao Lake in Anhui Province in the floodplain of the Yangtze River has been steadily deteriorating. In 1996, the central government identified Chao Lake as one of the top three priority lakes in the country for environmental rehabilitation. It is among the five largest freshwater lakes in the country. The Government of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) have provided large amounts of resources to control municipal and industrial pollution in the lake catchment. These investments have improved water quality, but they have not addressed all dimensions of the problem with the lake’s persistently poor water quality. This case study on Chao Lake contributes to ADB’s body of knowledge on the success factors for reviving lakes and wetlands in the PRC. Expensive water cleanup programs across the PRC are not leading to substantial improvements in overall water quality. Rapid, unrestrained economic growth has led to dramatic ecological changes. Based on comparative case study work, ADB has identified four success factors to rehabilitating lakes and wetlands in the PRC: strong and consistent political leadership, integrated planning and analysis, effective management structures, and effective financial management. Rising to the growing challenge of improving Chao Lake’s water quality, the Anhui Provincial Government (APG) has initiated the most progressive reforms in lake management in the PRC. Reform, especially through integrated water resources management, is a long-term process and one the APG has only just begun. Although the APG has adopted many success factors from national experiences, it has not yet implemented them comprehensively. The ADB-supported Anhui Chao Lake Environmental Rehabilitation Project, which was approved in 2012, supports the strengthening of the Chao Lake Master Plan and the Chao Lake Management Authority (CLMA) by introducing even more integrated approaches, continuing strides made in municipal wastewater treatment, and making new investments in nonpoint source (NPS) pollution control. The project will include a $3 million pilot to test various technologies, financing, and institutional innovations.