The Ministry of Water Resources is working to improve efforts to conserve water and control floods. Water security is seen as an essential part of China's pursuit of high-quality development. CGTN spoke about this with Water Resources Minister Li Guoying.

TANG BO CGTN Reporter "2021 was a year of extreme weather events in the country, from unprecedented rainfall in central China to spring and winter droughts in the south. How did national water resources withstand these tests?"

LI GUOYING Water Resources Minister "Flood and drought disaster prevention is the bounden duty of water resources authorities. In the face of extremely severe flood and drought conditions, the water conservancy system is doing its best to do three things. First, having a firm goal of prioritizing the protection of people's lives and property. Second, adhering to the four precautions, namely forecasts, early warnings, rehearsals, and pre-arranged plans. Third, sticking to the line of defense. When a dangerous situation is discovered, we will resolutely take control of it as early as possible to prevent it from growing bigger."

TANG BO CGTN Reporter "China's Ministry of Water Resources and top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission, released a joint plan in January to improve water security during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, which covers the years 2021 to 2025. What are the major tasks from this plan?"

LI GUOYING Water Resources Minister "The overall goal of the plan is to comprehensively enhance the national water security capability. It has four secondary goals, one is to improve the ability to prevent floods and droughts, and the other is to improve the ability to use water resources in an intensive and economical way. The third is to improve water resources and optimize the allocation capacity. The fourth is to enhance the ecological protection and governance of large rivers and lakes."

TANG BO CGTN Reporter "Chinese President Xi Jinping called for follow-up work during his inspection of the South-to-North Water Diversion Project last year. What is your ministry's plan in terms of follow-up work? And what will a national water resource network do for regional development?"

LI GUOYING Water Resources Minister "The South-to-North Water Diversion Project has attracted worldwide attention. In accordance with the requirements of President Xi Jinping, the Ministry of Water Resources has focused on three aspects of work. The first is to organize the overall planning evaluation of the project. The second is to carry out research on major issues such as the construction, operation, and project management. The third is to improve the planning and design of the follow-up projects. Of course, the work to promote the follow-up project does not stop there. The most important of which is to build the national water network in order to comprehensively improve the national water security capacity."

TANG BO CGTN Reporter "The Yangtze River Protection Law and a regulation on groundwater management came into effect last year. A draft of the Yellow River Protection Law was reviewed in December. Can we expect more of such laws and regulations? And what can be done to better implement the ones already in place?"

LI GUOYING Water Resources Minister "The construction of the water conservancy legal system has two aspects, one is water conservancy legislation, and the other is water administrative law enforcement. In terms of legislation, the next step is to focus on reviewing the draft Yellow River Protection Law and the water conservation regulations. We also need to work on the pre-legislative work of the regulations on river sand mining management and promote the revision of the Water Law. In terms of law enforcement, the next step is to establish and improve several mechanisms, including the cross-regional linkage mechanism, the cross-departmental joint mechanism and so on."

TANG BO CGTN Reporter "The Lancang-Mekong Cooperation Mechanism for water resources has been fast-tracked, after its launch five years ago. Some reports claim China is controlling the downstream countries of the Mekong River with the mechanism. What's your take? What can be done to improve cooperation on water resources under the Lancang-Mekong mechanism, and even the Belt and Road Initiative?"

LI GUOYING Water Resources Minister "China is in the upper reaches, and its development and utilization of the Lancang River is mainly hydropower. These hydropower projects can regulate natural runoff. China's water conservancy and hydropower projects on the Lancang River have been adhering to the principle over the years, that is, to adjust peaks and make up for withered waters. The water production of the Lancang River only accounts for about 15 percent of the total water resources in the entire Lancang-Mekong River Basin. China's water consumption in the region only accounts for one percent of the river basin's total water resources. The figures show that China's consumption of water resources in the upstream has limited impact on the downstream. In December last year, I attended the 2nd Lancang-Mekong Water Resources Cooperation Forum together with water ministers of the five Lancang-Mekong countries. In line with the principle of negotiating and doing things as necessary, we hope to keep strengthening upstream and downstream cooperation, taking care of each other's concerns, deepening pragmatic cooperation in information sharing, people's livelihood projects and so on."