Historical Perspective/
Milestones of Groundwater Management
in China
by Yaqiang Wei1,2
Ancient Groundwater Utilization
In 1973, archeologists discovered the earliest well in
China so far at the Hemudu Neolithic Cultural Site in
Zhejiang Province, China. The well has square wooden
pile walls, and a square wooden frame is supported inside
to prevent the pile walls from collapsing inward. The
purpose of drilling wells is to provide people with drinking
water since 5000–7000 years ago. The management of
groundwater begins with its exploitation and utilization.
Eight wells have been discovered in the archeological site
of the Xizhou Dynasty in Zhangjiapo, Shaanxi Province,
some are rectangular, others are oval, and more than 9 m
deep. Such a dense group of wells was not only used
for human and livestock drinking, but also for farmland
irrigation. The Karez Well System in the Turpan area
of Xinjiang appeared between 200 and 300 BC, and it
has been used to irrigate farmland until recently in some
areas of modern Xinjiang. In the early years of the
Qing Dynasty, Shaanxi officials supervised the drilling
of wells and irrigated fields; there were 150,000 wells in
1737. Achievements in Shaanxi, located in arid and semi-
arid regions, have greatly promoted the development of
groundwater utilization in well irrigation.
As people began to rely more on groundwater
sources, they discovered that some wells contained water
with high levels of salt content, making it unsuitable
for drinking. This increase in halogen elements in the
water was due to the natural element background value.
In response, people began to extract salt from these
wells, giving rise to the production of “well salt.”
Zigong, located in the western Sichuan Basin, was
particularly well-suited for this industry due to its high
concentration of groundwater. As a result, it became
1
Corresponding author: School of Environmental and
Chemical Engineering, Shanghai University, Shanghai, China;
yakiwei@yahoo.com
2
School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Shanghai
University, Shanghai, China
Received June 2023, accepted June 2023.
© 2023 National Ground Water Association.
doi: 10.1111/gwat.13335
754 Vol. 61, No. 5–Groundwater–September-October 2023 (pages 754–757)
History Editor/David Deming, Ph.D.
a thriving handicraft town with a relatively developed
national industry, and the “well salt” culture flourished. In
1835, the world’s first deep well (Shenhai) with a depth of
over 1000 m was drilled in the Zigong Salt Area, named
for its ability to extract salt from an inexhaustible supply
of seawater (Figure 1). This development brought about
by groundwater had a lasting impact on the region and its
culture.
Groundwater Management Evolution
Groundwater is a valuable resource that can bring
wealth in the form of water and materials with resource
attributes. As such, effective groundwater management is
crucial for sustainable development. The Songnen Plain,
formed by the alluvial accumulation of the Songhua River
and the Nenjiang River, has been inhabited by the ances-
tors of the Qing Dynasty for generations. Before the
mid-17th century, the exploitation of groundwater was
prohibited in order to protect this ancestral birthplace.
However, after 1949, the Songnen Plain became a key
national area for reclamation and planting, leading to rapid
development in agriculture, industry, and oilfield explo-
ration. Consequently, large-scale groundwater extraction
began to take place, with groundwater extraction nearly
tripling from the 1970s to 2004. It is important to ensure
that the extraction of groundwater is carried out in a sus-
tainable manner to avoid the depletion of this valuable
resource.
The Qing government’s efforts to manage ground-
water were ultimately unsuccessful in the face of mod-
ern civilization. In the 1960s, Shanghai’s industrial pro-
duction grew rapidly, leading to a significant increase
in the number of newly constructed deep wells and a
surge in groundwater extraction. Annual extraction vol-
ume exceeded 150 million m3 . Rapid urban construction
and extensive groundwater exploitation resulted in signifi-
cant land subsidence, drawing the attention of the munici-
pal government. In response, Shanghai implemented strict
examination and approval procedures for new deep wells,
strengthened quality management of well construction,
intensified water use plan management, increased recharge
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Figure 1. A brief diagram of the development process of groundwater management in China. (a) Quote from Tiangong Kaiwu
woodcut map of Chinese traditional pictures. From BC 5000–7000, ancient people began to learn to use wells for drinking
water. (b) Quoted from the stone carving mural of Zigong Shenhai well map. It depicts the process of digging wells and
making well-salt in Zigong area during the Qin Dynasty. (c) During the Han and Qing Dynasties in China, people not only
used well water for drinking, but also for farmland irrigation. (d) From the 20th century to the present, factories resulting
from industrial progress have discharged various contaminants into groundwater, seriously endangering the groundwater
environment.

implementation, and promoted rural water improvement
and water conservation. By 2000, the number of new wells
in the city was limited to <20 per year, and the annual
water extraction volume was controlled to <100 million
m3 , down from its historical peak of 200 million m3 . The
groundwater level rebounded significantly, and the aver-
age annual subsidence of the ground was limited to about
10 mm, effectively curbing ongoing subsidence. These
efforts demonstrate the importance of sustainable ground-
water management practices in preventing environmental
degradation and ensuring long-term resource availability.
As a country with relatively weak per capita water
resources (accounting for about 1/4 of the world average),
according to the Water Resources Bulletin in 2020
(Ministry of Water Resources of China 2020), China’s
groundwater resources (mineralization <2 g/L) was
855.35 billion m3 , 6.1% higher than the multi-year
average through the latest data from the National
Groundwater Monitoring Project. Among them, the
amount of groundwater resources in the plain area
was 202.24 billion m3 . After the ground subsidence of
the entire North China Plain and the overexploitation
of groundwater began to attract attention, the shallow
groundwater level in the Northeast Plain, and the middle
and lower reaches of the Yangtze River generally rose in
2020. The historical wheels of groundwater exploitation
and utilization have never stopped, and the management
reins of the process have been pulled.

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Management of Pollution Prevention
In addition to the dazzling properties of groundwater
as a resource, it is important to note that groundwater
pollution can directly impact its availability for use. The
Songjiazhuang soil pollution incident in 2004 opened a
trillion-dollar blue ocean of soil remediation. When the
remediation “artists” turned the soil of the contaminated
sites and prepared for ex situ treatment, the polluted
groundwater below the soil was often easily overlooked
due to not being taken seriously. In 2011, the State
Council issued the “National Plan for the Prevention
and Control of Groundwater Pollution (2011–2020)”
(State Council of China 2011), setting off a wave of
groundwater pollution prevention and remediation. In
2015, the State Council issued the “Water Pollution
Prevention and Control Action Plan,” which included
plans to address the issue of groundwater pollution
through containment and remediation efforts. The plan
aimed to strictly control groundwater overexploitation,
curb the trend of groundwater pollution, and limit
the proportion of extremely poor groundwater quality
nationwide to around 15% by 2020. However, the sporadic
groundwater pollution prevention and control content
in the “Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law”
also highlights the risks associated with this resource
for human survival. As such, it is crucial to continue
implementing effective measures to prevent and mitigate
groundwater pollution, in order to safeguard this critical
resource for the benefit of present and future generations.
(Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress
of China 2019).
In 2019, the “Implementation Plan for Groundwater
Pollution Prevention and Control” was released, which
brought groundwater pollution prevention and control
work to the forefront and provided a direction reference
for groundwater pollution prevention and control work
in the next few decades (Ministry of Ecology and Envi-
ronment of China 2019). The issuance of the “Technical
Guidelines for Groundwater Remediation and Risk Man-
agement and Control of Contaminated Sites” in 2015
marked a significant milestone in the history of China’s
groundwater remediation and pollution prevention efforts.
This document officially brought China’s groundwater
remediation work into an orderly stage of development,
emphasizing the importance of coordinated remediation
efforts for both soil and groundwater. The guidelines pro-
vide a comprehensive framework for effective groundwa-
ter remediation and risk management, including identifi-
cation of contaminated sites, risk assessment, remediation
planning, and monitoring and evaluation.
Management System Reconstruction
The Qing Dynasty groundwater management mea-
sures were broken by industrialization and rebuilt at the
end of the 20th century. Under the strong demand for
the protection of natural resources in the 21st century,
groundwater management laws and regulations have expo-
nentially increased in intensity (Zheng and Liu 2013).
756 Y. Wei Groundwater 61, no. 5: 754–757
17456584, 2023, 5, Downloaded from https://ngwa.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/gwat.13335 by du fu - New York University , Wiley Online Library on [17/02/2024]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
Groundwater in developed and urban areas has received
attention earlier than other areas, which is also closely
related to the impact of land subsidence caused by urban
water use. At the end of 2021, the promulgation of
national “Groundwater Management Regulations” meant
that China’s groundwater management system has been
basically reconstructed (State Council of China 2021).
The Ministry of Water Resources has defined the recently
promulgated “Groundwater Management Regulations” as
“the first special administrative regulations for groundwa-
ter management in China” (Figure 1).
The promulgation of the “Groundwater Management
Regulations” represents a significant milestone in China’s
efforts to effectively manage and conserve its groundwa-
ter resources. The regulations provide a comprehensive
framework for sustainable groundwater management prac-
tices, sorting out management methods, dividing manage-
ment responsibilities, and laying out effective manage-
ment strategies. The definition of managed groundwater
as water occurring below the surface includes both unsat-
urated water in soils and saturated water in aquifers, high-
lighting the importance of managing all aspects of ground-
water resources. The regulations also promote technolog-
ical development, which is expected to lead to increased
research depth and applicability in the field of groundwa-
ter management.
The regulations impose high requirements on ground-
water investigation and evaluation, which is expected to
stimulate the markets for groundwater resources and pol-
lution evaluation, simulation prediction, and hydrogeolog-
ical surveys. This is likely to lead to the development
of industry-related technologies and applications, bring-
ing significant economic benefits. The regulations empha-
size the importance of coordinated remediation efforts for
both soil and groundwater, as well as the evaluation of
groundwater resources. Overall, the “Groundwater Man-
agement Regulations” represent a critical step forward in
China’s ongoing efforts to effectively manage and con-
serve groundwater resources.
China’s scientific management of groundwater began
in the late 20th century, with efforts to prevent and
control groundwater pollution starting just over a decade
ago. Rapid technological development has enabled people
to glimpse a brighter future sooner, and the history of
groundwater management has achieved a breakthrough
acceleration in recent years. The promulgation of the
“Groundwater Management Regulations” represents a
significant milestone in the standardized management of
groundwater in China. It is important to recognize that
while surface water may pass through a distance of 1000 m
in 10 min, groundwater hundreds of meters below our feet
may take 10 years to travel the same distance. Although
we may not interact with groundwater on a daily basis like
atmospheric and surface water, it is crucial to understand
that there is a vast ocean buried beneath our feet, which
can provide a critical source of water in times of need.
However, this resource is fragile and easily injured, and
we must take effective measures to protect and manage it
for the benefit of present and future generations.
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Authors’ Note
The authors do not have any conflicts of interest or
financial disclosures to report.
References
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Ministry of Water Resources of China. 2020. Water resources
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