On Water Management Since Qing Dynasty

Water is one of the basic materials in human existence and the development of society and economy. Its management has been an eternal subject for the management of human society. In such an agricultural country like China, How to take advantage of it has been a big event. And its management has played a basic role in the process of social and historical development and will develop together with the advance of society, politics and economics.In Qing dynasty, the last of the feudal society, great river disasters often happened successively because of the corrupted feudal rule and the low productivity. During this time, water management intended to solve the problems of human existence and was focused on disaster tackling, irrigation and water conservancy, with the invasion of western capitalism. The Chinese society fell step by step into a semi-colonial and semi-feudal one. In about a century, the suffering Chinese were seeking for ways out. They began to learn from the west and introduced advanced water management and science and technology. As a result, they established modern water conservancy. Then the People's Republic of China was founded and a big socialist country stood in the east of the world. After more than 50 years development, we have established the socialist market economy and water management has experienced the transit of engineering management to resource management. It is reasonable to draw such a conclusion that the changes in the Chinese society brought great changes to water management, which, in turn, embodies the social changes and reflects from a special aspect the process of the social changes.This dissertation analyzes the content of water management and the factors that influence it. It attempts to reach a conclusion about the changes in water management from the Qing Dynasty to the present society and reveals the interactive relationship between water management and the development of politics and economics. It also aims to discuss, in practice, the patterns of water management under the socialist market economic system and in theory, how to build a water -saving society, with this as the purpose, the author of this dissertation attempts to provide some suggestions on the policies about how to build a water saving society.