China's river basin management needs more efforts

River basin management is an important strategy for ensuring the sustainable development and utilization of water resources. With the rapid growth in GDP and the accelerated industrialization and urbanization in China, water catchment management becomes one of the most formidable challenges that this nation faces. Since the news spread in December 2014 that the middle route of the ambitious South-to-North Water Diversion Project in China had started supplying water to Beijing, the status of management of its river basins has become again a hot public debate. This paper describes the current situation and various issues regarding China's river water resources. It looks especially at the management difficulties and shortcomings of authority organizations and offers some appropriate recommendations to improve water management in China.