News
Location: GTI member countries
Background
The Tumen River, a 521 km-long river, originating from Mt. Baekdu, flows along the border regions of China, DPRK, and Russia. The deterioration of the Tumen River’s water quality has raised great concern among the three countries bordering the river (China, Russia and DPRK). Corresponding to the necessity of improving environmental conditions of the Tumen River, the GTI member countries appointed the environment as a theme to cut across all four key sectors of cooperation among the countries (Energy, Investment, Tourism, and Transport). At the 9th Consultative Commission meeting held in Vladivostok, Russia in 2007, the GTI member countries approved the Tumen River Water Protection Project as one of the ten GTI Projects in order to improve the environment condition in the region.
Scope of the Project
The Tumen River is heavily polluted. The polluters include suspended solids, chemical oxygen and biological oxygen. Approximately two thirds of the total amount of pollutants discharged into the Tumen watershed originates from industrial emissions. The chemical fiber and paper sectors accounts for 95% of total industrial pollutants discharged into the Tumen River from Chinese sources. Two major pulp and paper mills in Yanbian Prefecture account for nearly all of this pollution. Major sources of water pollution in the DPRK portion of the Tumen watershed include Musan Iron Mine, Undok Chemical Fertiliser Plant, Kraft Paper Mill and Hoeryong Paper.
Exploitation of resources within the Tumen region has caused serious deforestation, soil erosion, and other forms of environmental degradation, which has exacerbated the Tumen River’s pollution issues. This pollution threatens the Russian Far East Marine Reserve and Khasan wetlands, worsens life conditions of the region’s population and raises the costs of regional development.
As a first step towards effective protection of the Tumen River water quality, capacity building and information gathering have been prioritized for all three areas of the Tumen watershed. As all three riparian countries have determined to reduce the pollution of the Tumen River, GTI’s various pre-feasibility studies on the environmental conditions of the Tumen River will promote further cooperation among the three countries as well as other neighboring countries such as ROK and Japan. Key objectives include:
• Investigating the current water quality and pollution status of the Tumen River, especially since 2007
• Building a multilateral cooperation network for environment protection in the Great Tumen area
• Providing directions on policy tools for Tumen River water protection
Progress Achieved
At the end of 2008, the Tumen Secretariat had completed a 10-page project proposal which was sent to potential donors and partners, including UNDP, UNEP and Korea Water Resources Corporation.
In this Concept Note, the Tumen Secretariat outlined the previous activities undertaken in this area, which are as follows:
- The problem of the water quality and the need to improve the situation were considered in the “TRADP Preliminary Environmental Study” in 1994.
- A pre-feasibility study for the “Modernisation of Jilin Chenming - Yasong Pulp and Paper Co Ltd and Yanbian Shixian Bailu Paper Making Co Ltd” was completed by Pöyry Consulting, Finland in 2002 with the purpose of investigating water pollution and other forms of environmental damages associated with mill and wood supply.
- The TumenNet project was carried out under the management of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and UNDP from 2000 to 2002. The main purpose of the project was preparing a Trans-boundary Diagnostic Analysis and a Strategic Action Plan.
- UNDP ROK and Korea Water Resources Corporation jointly published “Establishment of the Tumen River Water Resources Use and Management Plan” in 2004.
Most of the previous studies highlighted issues of resource management as key factors in the protection of the Tumen River but despite the constructive advice raised in these studies, no concrete implementation has been made thus far.
Current Status
Following the decision made in the 10th meeting of the GTI Consultative Commission, the Tumen Secretariat has contacted many agencies such as GEF (Global Environment Facility), GTZ (German Technical Cooperation) and ACDP (Australia China Environment Development Program) to discuss the promotion of the Tumen River Project. As a result, in cooperation with UNDP, financial support was pledged by GEF ($156,000) for the implementation of this project. The Tumen Secretariat has continually kept the members of GTI Environment Board, national coordinators and environment organizations informed about the current status and bidding process of this project and posts this information on the GTI website.
In June 2009, the Terms of Reference (TOR) of this project was prepared by the Tumen Secretariat and delivered to UNDP China for review. After the review of the TOR, UNDP China mad a request to UNOPS in August 2009 to advance the bidding procedures to recruit the consults.
In January 2010, UNOPS bidding procedures were completed; contract preparation with the selected consulting group, Denmark-based COWI, has since begun. For smooth implementation of this project, Tumen Secretariat will be working together with UNDP and UNOPS. A startup meeting of the main stakeholders including COWI, UNDP China and the Tumen Secretariat was held in March 2010 to identify the coordination and implementation mechanisms for the project.
Contact person:
Mr. SONG Bokchul
Programme Advisor, UNDP Tumen Secretariat
Greater Tumen Initiative
Tayuan Diplomatic Compound 1-1-142
No. 1 Xindong Lu, Chaoyang District
Beijing, 100600, China
Tel: +86-10-6532 5543
Fax: +86-10-6532 6465
E-mail: bokchul.song@public.un.org.cn
Feasibility Study on Tumen River Water Protection
(Environment sector/ Tumen River area)
I. Situation Analysis
1. Background
The GTI member countries identified environment as a cross-cutting sector for the four priority areas of joint cooperation such as transport, tourism, energy and investment at the 8th Consultative Commission Meeting in 2005, Changchun, China. The efforts on boosting environment cooperation within the Great Tumen Region eventually created strong need in trans-frontier mechanism to assess the environmental state of the Tumen River area. Therefore, the Cooperation Framework on Environment (CFE) was established at the 9th Consultative Commission Meeting in 2007, Vladivostok, Russia, and the GTI member countries approved the “Feasibility Study on Tumen River Water Protection” as one of ten GTI projects in order to improve the environment condition in the region. The 10th Consultative Commission meeting held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia in March 2009 reconfirmed cooperation in the environmental sector as one of the core priorities of joint activities.
2. The Status of the Tumen River Pollution
As an international river flowing along the national borders of China, DPRK, and Russia, Tumen River is an important provider of water resources to the three riparian countries. The water resources of the Tumen River help preserve globally significant biodiversity, and are also used for sustaining local livelihood via agriculture and other industrial development in each of the border countries.
The water quality of the river is seriously polluted by industrial sewage water which is the major pollutant to aggravate the water quality. The “Report on the State of Environment in Jilin Province in the year 2006” listed below indicates water quality of Class V in 75% of the Tumen River mainstream. In China, class V is assigned to the water, unfit for natural reserves, drinking, domestic, industrial and agricultural uses. The degree of the pollution reflects a variety of sources.
The polluters are suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand and biological oxygen demand. Approximately 2/3 of total pollutant discharged into the Tumen watershed originates from industrial emissions. The chemical fibre and paper sectors accounts for 95% of total industrial pollutants discharged into the Tumen River from Chinese sources.
Major sources of water pollution in the DPRK portion of the Tumen watershed include Musan Iron Mine, Undok Chemical Fertiliser Plant, Kraft Paper Mill and Hoeryong Paper. Recourses’ exploitation within the Tumen region also resulted in serious deforestation, soil erosion and other forms of environment degradation caused the Tumen River water pollution. The pollution threatens the Russian Far East Marine Reserve and Khasan wetlands, worsens life condition of the population of the region and raises costs for the regional industries.
Effective protection of the Tumen River and the improvement of its water quality are urgent tasks that require the cooperation of the GTI member countries. Capacity building and information gathering are also needed in all three areas of the Tumen watershed. All three riparian countries determined to reduce pollution of the Tumen River, and none of the countries can do it alone. Hence, the GTI should improve the environmental conditions of the Tumen River and promote cooperation among the related countries.
II. Assessment of Previous Programmes – Main lessons learned
1. “Tumen River Economic Development Area- Water Resources Definitional Tasks -TRADP Preliminary Environmental Study” was carried by UNDP/Reiter Ltd. in 1994.
With support from the Tumen Secretariat, this project dealt with water resources tasks in the Tumen River.
According to the report, flooding is pointed out as a serious problem in the middle and lower reaches of the Tumen River as well as drought disasters. Sedimentation and erosion are also severe problems in the upstream reaches and its tributaries. Water quality in the upstream of the river keeps good condition comparatively while it is contaminated in the middle and lower reaches. The report also emphasised other matters such as river and sea ice problems, water resources management, intra-basin water transfer between China and DPRK, DPRK and Russia, and hydropower problems.
The report recommended that the Tumen River Water Master Plan should be developed further. In addition, establishment of a Tumen River Water Master Plan Office or Techno Research Center were also suggested. According to the report, combining water master plan activities with other natural resources master plans is indispensable. They concluded that the work for the Tumen River Water Master Plan must be initiated as soon as possible.
However, no further activities have been made except flood protection measures taken by China and installation of water level gauging stations at the downstream of the river implemented by Russia. Especially, regarding the master plan among the riparian nations, any further discussions have not been made due to the relatively low priorities for the investment and slow activation of the economy, which induced inactive participation of the international societies in the Tumen River area.
2. A TumenNet Project for “Tumen River Environment SAP” was carried out under the management of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and UNDP from 2000 to 2002.
The TumenNet project was designed to help preparing a Trans-boundary Diagnostic Analysis and a Strategic Action Programme 2006-2015 as part of the Tumen River Area Development Programme.
The main outcome of the project was the Strategic Action Programme which addressed the main threats to bio-diversity and international water resources in the Tumen River area. The project listed a series of regionally negotiated policies in order to counteract the threats and elaborated concrete intergovernmental actions on the policies.
However, the TumenNet SAP did not come into force since reluctant attitudes of the member countries. Nonetheless, this project provided the basis for further actions on the environment sector of member countries and the Tumen Secretariat.
3. A Pre-Feasibility Study of the “Modernization of Jilin Chenming – Yasong Pulp and Paper Co., Ltd and Yanbian Shixian Bailu Paper Making Co., Ltd” was completed by Pöyry Consulting, Finland in 2002.
This study was concerning water pollution and other forms of environmental damages associated with mill and wood supply in the Tumen River area. Pöyry Consulting recommended strategic actions for securing stable wood and mill supplies.
4. “Establishment of the Tumen River Water Resources Use and Management Plan” was carried jointly by UNDP ROK and Korea Water Resources Corporation from 2002 to 2003.
According to this report, it is important to arrange an integrated system for the river management among the related countries. It is very systemically analyzed one about the Tumen River project. Each country has different stakes on the Tumen River project, which might be an impeding factor of cooperation. Under this situation, some could be likely to free-ride while some would take more pains on the project. Therefore, GTI should play a pivotal role as a balancer among the countries and provide a platform for all related countries to create an integrated regional system on the Tumen River management. After this report, however, no further investigation on the water quality of Tumen River has been implemented, nor have contacts to potential partners been made successfully.
5. “Development of Soil Loss Protection Programme in the Tumen River Basin” was implemented jointly by UNDP ROK, Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST), and Korea Institute of Water and Environment (KIWE) from 2004 to 2006.
This project is in line with both to the key thrusts of the new UNDP-ROK Country Programme Document 2005-2008 and with the implementation of MDG goals, such as MDG goal 8- partnership for development, MDG goal 3- sustainable protection of the environment in trans-boundary international waters, and MDG goal 1- poverty alleviation.
The main objectives of this project were to a) identify soil erosion in the Tumen River Basin, 2) identify the effects of soil erosion on the Tumen River environment, and 3) develop integrated soil loss protection plans for the Tumen River Basin.
6. Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture has been implementing “10.1.5. Plan on Water Conservation and Development” since 2007.
Chinese government promulgated a new policy package titled “10.1.5 Integrated Development Plan” in October 2005 and entered a secondary phase of domestic development. Since then, Yanbian Autonomous Prefecture in Jilin Province has also been implementing newly formulated local policies on the Tumen River area. According to “10.1.5 Plan on Water Conservation and Development 2007”, Yanbian authority recognized the pollution of the Tumen River as a serious problem and has been emphasizing to improve the water quality up to at least 60% by 2010. However, how much progress has they been making is not specifically revealed.
7. "Report on the State of Environment in Jilin Province in the year 2006"
This report indicates water quality of Class V in 75% of the Tumen River mainstream, which suggests that the water is unfit for natural reserves, drinking, domestic, industrial and agricultural uses. The polluters were said to be suspended solids, chemical oxygen demand and biological oxygen demand with approximately 2/3 of total pollutant discharged into the Tumen watershed originating from industrial emissions, with chemical fibre and paper sectors accounting for 95%.
Therefore, in order to have access to the very current information on the water quality of the Tumen River, the Tumen Secretariat should build close connections with Chinese local government, such as Yanbian Prefecture and Tumen City government, which will be very necessary to implement the Feasibility Study successfully in China.
III. Issues to be Addressed
The previous studies show that there were a series of attempts made to improve the overall environment condition of the Tumen River. Since the Tumen River area is closely related to the industrial development of the Riparian countries, most of the previous studies highlighted the aspect of resources management. In other words, in the past decade, attentions had been paid more on how to use the water resources effectively in order to improve the overall living standard of the local people and to boost the economic development of the Tumen River area. However, the problem of water pollution in the Tumen River was not addressed directly.
Most of the previous studies have merely been left behind without further actions. Despite a number of constructive advices were raised in the previous studies, no concrete implementations have been made so far. Due to the lack of implementation mechanism, therefore, the next steps to be taken are as below:
1. Bearing in mind the previous studies, the main tasks should be identified to embark in the next stage of the Tumen River project. Since around four year of time gap from the last activities, the very current conditions of the Tumen River should be re-investigated. The main categories of investigation will include the recent water status of the Tumen River, identifying main factors of the pollutants, and bio-diversity conditions of the River area.
2. The new Feasibility Study should focus more on the improvement of the overall water quality of the Tumen River. The last UNDP ROK report relatively highlighted the aspect of the water resources uses in the Tumen River, but for achieving this goal, above all, improving the water quality should be an essential mission.
3. This Feasibility Study should provide recommendations for further actions and focus on establishing concrete mechanisms such as integrate monitoring system on managing the water quality among the related countries. The CFE of the GTI could play a leading role in implementing the results of the study.
4. Potential partners and financial donors should be identified. With professional research institutions and experts regarding the area of water quality assessment, the Tumen Secretariat should make concrete directions for the further steps.
5. Lastly, this Feasibility Study should contribute to enhancing the environment cooperation among the five member countries in the Northeast Asia.
IV. Strategy
1. Strategic points
Feasibility Study on Tumen River Water Protection is one of the GTI environment projects officially approved by the five member countries at the 9th CC meeting in Vladivostok 2007. The Tumen secretariat was tasked to promote this project and mobilize donors and researchers. For instance, the Cooperation Framework on Environment (CFE) has been established with the purpose of creating a trans-boundary mechanism on the environmental protection of the Great Tumen Region (GTR).
This project should focus on identifying the pollution statues of the Tumen River and improving the water quality. Therefore, this study will provide three main outputs: a) identify the status of water quality and ecologic environment of Tumen River by field survey: b) suggest policy recommendations and action plans, so the riparian countries would be able to embark on immediate actions on the river pollution: c) suggest concrete mechanism to secure the realization of various measures in order to prevent the pollution.
2. Cooperative Participation
For the actual research of this project, cooperative investigation and participation of all the related countries are critically required. The institutes in charge of the Tumen River management should work closely together; moreover, they need to establish a joint project team.
For the efficient implementation of this project, the GTI member countries should actively participate in the implementation process which will be including reviewing meetings and other field related studies. Research agencies and institutes should be prudently selected to carry out the new studies. Central governments, as well as the local governments, of China, Russia, and DPRK will be engaged in the process of research implementation. In particular, local consultant and environment experts will take part in the project and assist in the field work providing locally connected information and data. Finally, GTI national coordinators designated from the riparian countries may provide support for this project facilitating the regional cooperation in this field. UNDP may also provide support for this project through different tools including co-financing.
V. Risk Analysis
Risk Risk Rating Risk Minimisation Measures
Risk of outputs failing to translate into outcomes
Unexpected disagreement of riparian nations on the project output
Lack of implementation actions Medium
Medium Suggest a practical plan that would provide mutual benefits and interest through local government’s participation and the Cooperation Framework on Environment (CFE)
Report the results of the implementation to the GTI Consultative Commission
Risk of outputs not being produced
Limited accessibility to the Tumen River Basin and related information due to political reasons Medium Utilize GTI network and establish cooperative team participated riparian countries including China, Russia and DPRK.
Overall risk rating Medium
VI. Expected Outputs and Uses of Project output
This project would lead the riparian countries to watch their eyes more on the current statues of Tumen River and facilitate inter-governmental cooperation with feasible measures in the Tumen River area. In the process of policy recommendations and suggestions, this study would also encourage the policy makers and other related researchers to consider possible solutions on the Tumen River.
The policy recommendations and suggestions will provide practical proposals for further discussions at the Cooperation Framework of Environment. Based on the results of the discussion, the riparian countries would implement concrete measures through joint activities. In addition, the estimated output of this project would strongly contribute to promoting environmental cooperation, and the final analysis of the output would be made and circulated to each member country in order to facilitate information sharing in the Northeast Asia.
VII. Budget
The estimated budget for this project is roughly US$ 156,000, but can be negotiated by the consultant with relevant institutions and donors.
Related Information
The 1st
Scientific Workshop for the Tumen River Water Protection Project
