Water is one of the basic natural resources and a strategic economic one. According to Chinese law (The Constitution and The 2002 Water Law), water resources are national properties and the state government has the responsibility to administer and protect them. At present, water administration is shared by several ministries of the State Council and called “nine dragons administer water”. This paper illustrates the overall water administration scheme. It focuses on the overlapping mandates and interactions between various ministries, particularly those between the Ministry of Water Resources (MWR) and the State Environment Protection Administration (SEPA). The paper then analyzes the reasons why conflicts and disputes over ministry policies and strategies occur and the resultant lowering of administration efficiency and degradation of the water environment. Considering the complexity of water administration and the multiple demands on and limited water resources, some trends must be developed in water administration institutions to improve the efficiency of water administration. In particular, water administration must be strengthened and unified; administrative power must be separated from supervisory power; watershed management and planning must be strengthened; and cooperation among the related water departments must be increased.

The Yaluzangbu-Brahmaputra River is a hotspot for the discussions on regional security. The interactions on water between China and India are key to realizing water-related 2015 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets in the basin. Using a series of secondary literature information, and the method of event studies, we created a timeline of the Sino-Indian relation events since the 1950s, analyzed the correlations among the contents, the duties by each side, the events of water cooperation, and the diplomatic events between them. We found the following dilemmas hamper water cooperation: (1) The scopes of, and steps towards, transboundary water cooperation are hampered by patchy Sino-Indian diplomatic relations; and (2) there is a lack of motivation for China to cooperate with India without benefits sharing, given that China has undertaken more duties and has often received negative feedback. However, we also found the following pathways toward improving water cooperation: (1) A national cooperation mechanism on transboundary rivers has been established, which may be beneficial for further water cooperation; and (2) a channel for interdisciplinary dialogue should be encouraged to bridge the disparate outlooks and improve interactions between policymakers and scientific experts.

To date, hydropower dams raise numerous interpretations about their impact on the Lancang-Mekong River. While most research studies analyze the negative aspects of hydropower development on people’s livelihoods and local environments, the hydropower sector was historically one of the most iconic economic segments facilitating transboundary water cooperation for decades. By using the constructive discourse analysis and critical political ecology approach, the presented text (1) outlines the current environmental narratives over the Lancang-Mekong hydropower development and (2) explores the politicization of the Chinese mainstream dams. The data were collected upon the multi-level content analysis of relevant sources and double-checked with the Lancang-Mekong Cooperation and Conflict Database (LMCCD) monitoring over 4000 water-related events among six riparian countries between 1990 and 2021. Our data show that (i) there is a stark contrast in positive and negative narratives over the rapid hydropower development, (ii) the impact of mainstream dams on the river is more often discussed than that of tributary dams, (iii) implications of the hydropower dams are often interpreted upon the non-traditional research inputs rather than widely accepted studies, and (iv) developing the contradictory arguments through social and public media contributes to greater polarization of the multi-stakeholders’ viewpoints in the accountable research dialogue.

The Nu-Salween River is one of the most important international rivers in Southeast Asia. Ecological changes in the Nu River in China are of concern given China's increasing development. This paper uses a great deal of data to analyse the ecological changes of the Nu River basin over 40 years. Key conclusions are: policies were the primary driver of ecological changes; population growth was the secondary driver, leading to an increase in the sown area of 29.88%; in 1968–2000, sediment load showed an obvious increasing tend, and it was mainly influenced by natural elements first, then by human activities second.

The Mekong River comprises six riparian states and supports the livelihood of more than 65 million people. Although the rapid joint river development enlarges the pie of benefits, it also deepens existing conflict of interests and motivating downstream countries to use more power to get better control over shared waters. The purpose of the article is to operationalize a new Transboundary Water Interaction Nexus (TWINS) and interpret interchange of cooperation and conflict between Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, and Vietnam about the Xayaburi hydropower dam in the last 19 years (2000–2019). Our results show that (1) there is significant disparity between the official and public attitude towards the Xayaburi dam, (2) since 2013, the debates about the Xayaburi dam issue has been substituted by other mainstream hydropower dams, (3) the Xayaburi dam indicates that hydropower dams are one of the national priorities that will be pursued at all cost, (4) Laos gained confidence and significant political leverage on downstream countries since the groundbreaking ceremony of the Xayaburi dam in November 2012, (5) failure of the Mekong River Commission’s Procedure of Notification and Prior Consultations (PNPCA) with the Xayauri dam motivated downstream countries to redesign the institutional arrangements and stakeholder consultations.