Social Construction Based on Long-Distance Water Diversion Projects — A Case Study on the Yuqiao Reservoir in Tianjin

The exploding population in megacities and large cities has led to increasingly tight water supply, and large-scale cross-regional water diversion projects have arisen accordingly. A long-distance water diversion project creates environmental, economic, and social connections between the water source and receiving areas. In this paper, the Yuqiao Reservoir in Tianjin is taken as an example. Its severe situation of environmental pollution is introduced, and an analysis is conducted that the weaknesses of its current management measures are public service and social relations construction. This paper proposes the key concept of water relationship, defining it as a new-type, peer-to-peer, inter-area connection, and suggests that the construction should be steered in the four dimensions of social infrastructure, balanced mechanism design, environmental information communication, and mutual-aid environmental actions. This paper advocates that an environmental protection concept should be specifically directed, an action plan that gives balanced and reasonable consideration to public and private interests should be available for environmental actions, and environmental undertaking should be carried out on the basis of internal needs of participants.