With the approval of the State Council, the Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Natural Resources recently jointly issued the "Pilot Program for Confirming Property Rights over Water Flows." The "Program" selects the entire Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, the Shule River Basin in Gansu Province, the Wei River in Shaanxi Province, Xuzhou City in Jiangsu Province, Yidu City in Hubei Province, and the Danjiangkou Reservoir as pilot areas to carry out the pilot program for confirming property rights over water flows, with the aim of achieving— 2 Over the course of about a year, we will explore pathways and methods for confirming property rights over water flows, define the scope and content of rights and responsibilities of right holders, and focus on addressing issues such as unclear boundaries of ownership, ambiguous allocation of usage rights, and difficulties in protecting and regulating water resources and aquatic ecological spaces. This effort will help accumulate experience for nationwide implementation of water-flow property-right confirmation.

　　The “Plan” identifies two pilot tasks: First, the confirmation of property rights over aquatic ecological spaces such as water bodies and shorelines. This involves delineating the boundaries of aquatic ecological spaces, including water bodies and shorelines. Local people's governments at or above the county level, in coordination with departments such as water resources and land and resources, shall legally demarcate the management areas of rivers and lakes, and on this basis, define the boundaries of aquatic ecological spaces—including water bodies and shorelines—specify their geographic coordinates, set up boundary markers and signage, and ensure that the results of the demarcation are publicly announced by local people's governments at or above the county level. Second, the confirmation of property rights over water resources. In the pilot regions, the confirmation of water resource use rights will be carried out based on criteria such as regional total water-use control targets and river and stream water allocation plans. During the pilot program for confirming water resource use rights, full consideration will be given to the special nature and characteristics of water resources as natural resource assets, and research will be conducted into the methods and procedures for registering property rights over water resource use rights.

　　The “Plan” emphasizes that all pilot regions should strengthen support and guarantees, earnestly carry out the organization and implementation of the pilot work, explore innovation, and conduct thorough summarization and evaluation, ensuring that the pilot tasks are completed on time and striving to develop reform experiences that can be widely promoted and replicated.