Water Issues in China



Water Issues in China

Introduction

As China's population and economy have grown, so has its thirst for water. Today China is the world's biggest water user, accounting for 13 percent of the world's freshwater consumption. Not only do humans use water for drinking; we use it to wash our clothes, bathe, cook, and clean. On a larger scale, water is heavily used for countless other purposes such as industrial manufacturing, household plumbing, raising agriculture and livestock, and even producing energy (Zijun Li, 2006). All of these processes require good, clean water. Luckily, China is home to many sources of fresh water. People have relied on these sources—rivers, lakes, rain, and aquifers—for thousands of years. In a country that is experiencing such rapid urbanization and economic development, however, clean water is becoming more and scarcer. Aquifer levels are dropping, lakes are disappearing, rivers are drying up or becoming polluted and air contaminants are producing acid rain. Water shortages plague over half of China's cities. Today, water is one of China's inmost crucial issues.

China's Current Water Crisis

China's current water crisis is driven by two primary factors. The first of these is China's uneven distribution of water. Because of its large and diverse geography, China has a wide spectrum of terrains and climate zones. While southern and eastern China enjoys abundant rainfall, the northern and western regions of the country receive very little. This weather pattern can lead to unfortunate and seemingly contradictory effects, with some provinces battling floods while others are suffering from months-long droughts (Versak, Kimberly. 1997). Between mid-April and the end of May 2006, southern and northeastern China endured three brutal rainstorms, bringing rainfall of 400 millimeters (15.7 inches) or more per day. This resulted in regional flooding, destruction of vast crop fields and thousands of homes, 60 to 70 human deaths, and economic losses of nearly $1.6 billion. At the same time, however, northern China was experiencing a severe drought that affected or threatened 182 million hectares (450 million acres) of farmland, 8.7 million livestock, and 95 million people. Beijing, the nation's capital in northern China, was suffering its worst drought in 50 years. It received only 17 millimeters (0.7 inches) of rain in four months—a fraction of a day's rainfall in southern China (Ted Plafker, 2005).

Extremes in this climate pattern have led to problems for China. Although the floods in April and May 2006 were damaging to the cities and communities of southern China, they were not nearly as disastrous as others in China's recent history. For example, one flood in 1998 caused the Yangtze River—China's largest—to overflow, killing more than 3,500 people, damaging or destroying more than 21 million houses, and causing economic losses of $32 billion. Another flood in 1954 was even worse, taking 30,000 lives. To address the common flooding of the south, China has recently built the Three Gorges Dam, an ambitious and controversial project meant to monitor and control the Yangtze's water levels to prevent future floods (Shira et al, ...