With the rapid economic development and accelerated urbanization, Shenzhen has been expanding far beyond the expected scale. High-intensity development and high-density human settlements have posed severe challenges to water resources, water environment, and water ecosystems in the city. At present, there are six major goals for future water management, and to reach them, each has its outstanding issues.

Water-saving The non-conventional water sources take a relatively low proportion in the water resources portfolio. Shenzhen lags behind the international benchmark in terms of water use efficiency, and the water pipeline leakage ratio is quite high. Currently, the number of government agencies, companies, and schools included under the water-saving initiative is inadequate. The water resources from rainfalls and floods in the small-size reservoirs are not effectively utilized.

Water supply The tap water supply relies heavily on similar and limited sources, and the water supply network is not robust enough. Additionally, the water quality needs to be improved, and there is a gap between the current water supply and the estimated future water consumption.

Flood control The city faces the challenge of rectifying the insufficient control and prevention capacity for extreme storms and floods as well as existing weaknesses in the standing infrastructure. Some areas still suffer from outstanding waterlogging issues, while in others, buried culverts are found with safety hazards.

River and lake eco-landscape Most rivers are of poor water quality. The weak rain-sewage shunting pipeline network makes it difficult for rivers to reach quality standards during the rainy season. The sewage management is not delicate and comprehensive enough to cover more details and stronger water pollution source control is in urgent need. Meanwhile, river channels, commonly canalized and hardened with deterioration lack sufficient shoreline space for effective management thereby posing challenges to the water ecosystem restoration. The waterfront spaces are of poor quality and call for more city-water integration.

Water projects and engineering infrastructure Business integration needs to be enhanced. The depth and coverage of projects related to water affairs need to be further expanded to include more factors. Construction safety is massive challenge, sites are often messy and have frequent accidents. The construction and site supervision activities are understaffed with insufficient professionalism. The current political integrity monitoring mechanism is not robust enough. The messy water project construction sites do not fit into the urban environment.

Along with the fast sci-tech development and rapid urbanization comes the pressing issue of water pollution. As a city enjoying booming development, Shenzhen has taken active actions to tackle river pollution and achieved outstanding success.

Maozhou River runs on the border between Shenzhen and Dongguan through Guangming and Bao’an in Shenzhen and Chang’an Town in Dongguan, covering a basin area of 388 km2 with a total length of 31.3 km. Accelerated economic and social development coupled with explosive population growth introduced by industrialization and urbanization have loaded Maozhou River with excessive pollution.

In recent years, by carrying through Xi Jinping Thought on Ecological Civilization and decision deployment by the CPC Central Committee, Shenzhen has fostered the green governance view of “improving people’s livelihood and promoting development through water treatment”. Thus, Maozhou River treatment became the core of winning the battle against pollution. With clearly defined goals, well-designed projects, practical measures, and fast and strong implementation, Shenzhen was able to improve the water quality at an unprecedented speed. The success lies in the guiding principle of “coordinated efforts and systematic treatment”. The result was highly praised by the local citizens.

With all the improvement achieved, Shenzhen Aquatic Sports Training Center decided to settle down next to the Maozhou River and the dragon boat race has come back to people’s life after years of suspension. China Central TeleVision (CCTV), the national broadcaster, also covered the story of the Maozhou River Water Environment Project in its documentary series, including Development Achievements of China and Beautiful China. The “ink river” dreaded by the local people in the past has transformed into the “eco-green river” loved by the citizens. The water environment has been turned from the “negative urban asset” into the “true asset” of the city, bringing back the landscape of clear water, green riverside, and thriving eco-environment.

The Dongjiang Water Source Project aimed at finding a long-term solution to the water shortage issue in Shenzhen. With the approval of the State Development Planning Commission and the People’s Government of Guangdong Province, the Shenzhen municipal government launched the large inter-basin water diversion initiative with an investment of 4.2 billion yuan (around 600 million USD) as one of the two water diversion projects from outside Shenzhen (the other one is the Dongjiang-Shenzhen Water Supply Project). The project provides 50% of the diverted water from outside Shenzhen and is, thus, called the “Lifeline Project” by the Shenzhen citizens.

For the Lifeline Project, water was diverted from the segment of the Dongjiang River at the Shuikou Sub-district and the segment of Xizhijiang River at the Ma’an Town, Huizhou. The 106-kilometer trunk lines of the diversion project run through two pumping stations, 6 towns/sub-districts in two districts in Huizhou, and 12 sub-districts in 7 districts in Shenzhen. The water pools into four reservoirs (Songzikeng, Xili, Tiegang, and Shiyan). The “diversion lines-plus-reservoirs” (gourds on vines) structure covers the entire water supply network in Shenzhen.

Up to now, the major facilities involved in the project include 6 pump stations (Dongjiang River, Xizhijiang River, and Yonghu Lake in Huizhou; Laihu Lake, Shawan, and Yantian in Shenzhen), 17 tunnels (with a combined length of 73.8km), box culverts (15.9km), pipes (12.5km), 7 aqueducts (with a combined length of 2.5km), 3 designated 110 kV transformer stations, drainage siphon pipes, and auxiliary facilities including the water shunting facility, service breaks, and inspection shafts.

In the past 19 years, Dongjiang Water Source Project serves as the “lifeline” of the entire city and has diverted over 9 billion cubic meters of water, thus playing an indispensable role in the sustainable, healthy development of the economy and the society in Shenzhen. It has protected Shenzhen from the droughts, supplied almost 50% of the residents’ water use demand in Shenzhen every year, and directly and indirectly contributed to almost a third of the local GDP. It is fair to say that the project has injected continuous dynamism to the booming development of Shenzhen.

Bureau of Water Resources of Shenzhen Municipality is the country's first urban water affairs bureau established in 1993. It is a government department in charge of the city's water administration. Its key responsibility is water affairs management, including water planning and construction, water supply, water saving management, water pollution control, comprehensive river management, drainage management, water ecological construction, water administration law enforcement and smart water construction. It is in charge of the city's river chief system, lake chief system, sponge city construction. It directs the water affairs of each district, and manages the industry of the city's water affairs enterprises.

Bureau of Water Resources of Shenzhen Municipality thrives to meet the high-quality water demand for a better life of the people in the new era. It closely focuses on Shenzhen’s new positioning and mission as a “first demonstration area of ​​socialism with Chinese characteristics and an example of a modern and powerful socialist country”. Taking the major opportunity of the development of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macau Greater Bay Area, it aims at becoming the comprehensive implementation of the river/lake chief system, water pollution prevention and control demonstration city; the national sponge city construction demonstration city; the national smart water demonstration city; the water technology innovation and industrial incubation test city. It targets at becoming an international, innovative, livable, ecological and charming bay area.

In order to stand at the forefront of the national water affairs field, Bureau of Water Resources of Shenzhen Municipality has comprehensively benchmarked the world's highest standards in various fields, aspects and elements, and dared to demonstrate first to provide a strong ecological, healthy and safe water guarantee for Shenzhen's reform and innovative development, and to create a beautiful and ecological environment with clear waters and green banks.