Abstract: The grass-roots river chiefs (river chiefs of village committee and neighborhood committee) as the street bureaucrats of the “first line of water governance”, assume the resonsibilities of “the last mile of the policy” and their implementation greatly influence the running effect of the river chief system. However, the news about the difficulties of policy execution at the grass-roots level, and the selective implementation of the grass-roots river chiefs are often reported from time to time. How is the implementation capability of the grass-roots river chiefs in water environment governance? Why is it blocked? This paper explores the implementation capability of the grass-roots river chiefs and its influencing factors,using the questionnaire data of the whole staff (a total of 1472 valid samples) in City S from the perspective of their perception . The results are as follows. First , in general,implementation capability of the grass-roots river chiefs of the City S is unsatisfactory and their working enthusiasm is frustrated; Second, institutional support and integration of power and responsibility have a significant positive correlation with implementation capability of grass-roots rivers; Third ,the workload has a significant negative impact on implementation capability of the grass-roots river chiefs. The problem of “the last mile of the policy” raises our rethinking of “the role overload under the dual role” and “information asymmetry under the agency.”

Key words: the River Chief System, the grass-roots river chiefs, implementation capability