Management of Water Pollution Emergency in Drainage Basins---a Case Study of Songhua River

摘要

The Songhua River Spill caused by the explosion in Jilin Petrochemical Factory portrays a dilemma in China. As more and more water pollution emergency occurred in drainage basins in China in the past several years, both central and local government are facing pressures from the public and investors, causing transboundary and international environmental crisis. On the other hand, the country is lack of the capacity to deal with such emergency sufficiently. More obviously, Chinese government does not have a realistic risk management strategy to guide the policy-making process and daily management duties. There is an urgent need for the central government to publish its contingency risk management strategy. Based on the case study of the Songhua River Spill, this paper analyzes the water pollution emergency through keystone control, finds the failed switches of primary control mechanism (PCM) and secondary control mechanism (SCM) and points out some problems in the contingency plan of the Songhua River Spill. Also, the paper tries to explain the process of PCM and SCM through the conception of environmental risk field. These results can be illustrative for policy-makers in choosing the right contingency risk management strategy.