This article from RFF examines Chinese water law and policy reform, and relates it to global efforts at manging freshwater shortages:

"Policies governing water quality and availability can be a powerful lens for looking at environmental protection as a whole. As China modernizes its water infrastructure, with some assistance from international development agencies, the opportunity arises to evaluate wester n approaches to water management in the context of China's much more integrated and detailed approach, which has evolved over the past two millennial..."