Climate change is one of a few major factors that ensure the country will continue to struggle to supply its cities and industries and fields with enough water, particularly in the North, as well as face 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 through the case study of Guiyang Municipality in Guizhou Province.