On January 20, the Water Conservancy Work Conference of the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region was held in Hohhot. The conference summarized water conservancy work during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period and in 2025, outlined the goals and tasks for water conservancy development in the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, fully implemented the rigid water resource constraint system, safeguarded Inner Mongolia's water security through the construction of a modern water network, and arranged and deployed the key water conservancy tasks for 2026.

The conference noted that since the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, water conservancy departments at all levels across the region have coordinated the governance of floods and droughts, water resources, water ecology, and the water environment, fully completed the goals and tasks of the "14th Five-Year Plan" for water security, achieved an overall leap in the region's capacity to prevent and respond to floods and droughts, further improved the pattern of optimized water resource allocation, continuously raised the level of economical and intensive water resource utilization, made new progress in water ecological protection and governance, and opened new prospects for the modernization of water governance and management. A number of major innovative measures and landmark achievements were formed: the policy system for water conservation was fully established, major progress was made in the backbone projects of the autonomous region's water network, the level of protection and governance of the mother rivers was markedly improved, and the scale of water conservancy investment and financing reached a new high with more diversified investment and financing channels. In 2025, driven by further comprehensively deepening reform, we watched over and helped each other to protect the source of life, united in carrying out water conservation actions, and successfully completed the annual goals and tasks.

The conference made clear that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, it is necessary to accurately grasp the situation and tasks facing water conservancy work, accelerate the improvement of the flood and drought disaster prevention system and the construction of a modern water network, restore the ecological environment of rivers and lakes, safeguard the healthy life of rivers and lakes, further comprehensively deepen water conservancy reform, and enhance the effectiveness of water governance. It is necessary to uphold the people-first principle and ensure safety, uphold water conservation as a priority and green development, uphold spatial balance and top-level design, uphold systematic governance and connectivity and integration, uphold the principle of leveraging both government and market forces and placing equal emphasis on construction and management, and uphold reform and innovation and digital empowerment, striving to fully implement the rigid water resource constraint system by 2030 and build a water security pattern commensurate with the high-quality economic and social development of the autonomous region.

The conference emphasized that during the "15th Five-Year Plan" period, the overall approach to Inner Mongolia's water conservancy work is to carry one blueprint through to the end, implement the rigid water resource constraint system, and accelerate the construction of a modern water network of the autonomous region; deepen the dual integration of the reform of the water conservancy project construction and management systems, and coordinate the advancement of "hard support" and "soft construction"; take forging a strong sense of community for the Chinese nation as the main line, and make the concepts of the water conservancy sector more deeply rooted in people's hearts; and build six new patterns—flood and drought disaster prevention, a modern water network engineering system, economical and intensive water resource utilization, protection and governance of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs, reform and innovative development of water conservancy, and water conservancy institutional, mechanism, and rule-of-law management—so as to comprehensively enhance the autonomous region's capacity for water security.

The conference required that in 2026, in accordance with the work requirements of the Ministry of Water Resources and the "1571" work deployment of the Party Committee of the Autonomous Region, the water conservancy development goals for the next five years should be linked with this year's water conservancy work, with emphasis on seven areas. First, shore up the weak links in flood control and drainage infrastructure and make new progress in the flood and drought disaster prevention work system; second, optimize water resource allocation and make new progress in the modern water network engineering system; third, strengthen the rigid water resource constraint and make new progress in the economical and intensive utilization of water resources; fourth, accelerate the restoration of the ecological environment of rivers and lakes and make new progress in the protection and governance of rivers, lakes, and reservoirs; fifth, strengthen reform in key areas of water conservancy and make new progress in the capacity for innovative water conservancy development; sixth, enhance water conservancy governance capacity and level and make new progress in water conservancy institutional, mechanism, and rule-of-law management; seventh, consolidate political responsibility for Party discipline and governance and promote the in-depth development of full and rigorous Party self-governance.

At the meeting, the spirit of the 2026 National Water Conservancy Work Conference was conveyed, and guidance was provided on the preparation of the autonomous region's "15th Five-Year Plan" water security plan.

The meeting was attended by members of the leadership team of the Autonomous Region Department of Water Resources, second-level inspectors, the chief engineer and chief economist, responsible comrades of the water conservancy (water affairs) bureaus of all leagues and cities and cities with independent planning status, relevant comrades of the discipline inspection and supervision group stationed at the Department of Water Resources, all staff of the department's organs, and members of the leadership teams of units affiliated with the department. The Hinggan League Water Conservancy Bureau, the Wuhai Water Affairs Bureau, the Autonomous Region Flood and Drought Disaster Prevention Technology Center, and the Planning and Finance Division of the Department delivered exchange speeches.