Sichuan water-sharing deal aids thirsty Ningxia

The parched Ningxia Hui autonomous region in Northwest China will soon find some relief after winning the right to use 15 million cubic meters of water from the Yellow River over the next three years.

The water will be transferred by the Aba Tibetan and Qiang Autonomous Prefecture Water Affairs Bureau in Southwest China's Sichuan province to the Management Committee of the Ningdong Energy Chemical Industry Base in Ningxia.

In November, the bureau and the committee signed an agreement in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, to give Ningxia permission to use the river water.

Minister of Water Resources Li Guoying praised the deal. He said Ningxia completed China's first cross-provincial water rights transaction to resolve its water shortage woes as it strives to boost its socioeconomic development.

Ningxia's arrangement with Aba started with a trip to the autonomous prefecture by an investigative team from Sichuan's water resources department in March. Ningxia's water resources department discussed the region's water shortage with the team, which was tasked with researching ways to mitigate water costs.

The autonomous region mainly relies on 4 billion cubic meters of water from the Yellow River allocated by the central government.

The Yellow River experienced a dry year last year, and weather experts said there may be consecutive or extremely dry years to come. Ningxia's total water shortage is forecast to reach 1.42 billion cubic meters in 2035.

Sichuan, which has access to more water resources, saw a surplus from its Yellow River water allocation last year, said Song Yuangsong, a member of the investigative team.

"I proposed that both sides engage in a cross-provincial trading of water resources," Song said.

The central government allocates 42 million cubic meters of water from the river to Sichuan, and 41 million cubic meters are given to Aba.

As the prefecture has adopted water-saving measures, it has only needed to use an average of 33 million cubic meters of its water allocation from the Yellow River each year since 2015.

With the approval of the Ministry of Water Resources and its Yellow River Conservancy Commission, Ningxia and Sichuan signed the agreement in November, which allowed Ningxia to pay 18 million yuan ($2.5 million) to Aba for the right to use a total of 15 million cubic meters per year from the river starting this year through 2026.

The deal signaled to areas with relatively abundant water resources that they can also sell their water surpluses to others, said Deng Shunjie, deputy director of the office for water rights and price reform of Sichuan's department of water resources.