China's water management - challenges and solutions

China has experienced enormously rapid development since the open door policy introduced in 1979. Population has increased by 30% to 1.3 billion, and the annual GDP growth rate was 9.8 % in the last few years. However, frequent water disasters in recent years have caused significant damages to China's regional growth and societies. There are huge contemporary challenges for Chinese water resource management. In this paper, we examine three major challenges for China's water resource management, which are water scarcity, water pollution and flood management. We discuss some of China's past management strategies and its future water management plans which come with major new investment. China will be further developed during this century and we provide some thoughts on water resource management that could be undertaken in China to increase resilience in face of a capricious future.