Climate change is one of the deciding factors that will raise questions about China"s ability to supply its cities, industries and fields with enough water, particularly in the North, as well test its capacity in responding to more frequent and longer droughts. The country has shown a stunningly agile disaster response system, but its system for disaster prevention and management is far less developed. The road to greater drought management and sustainable water supplies is demand management. How to achieve this in a historically hydraulic-engineering society is explored in this case study.