Chinese Minister of Water Resources Wang Shucheng said Monday in
Nanning that China's water supply shortage may hinder economic
development and the problem must be tackled as soon as possible.
Two pressing issues now facing China are the need for water
resource conservation, and finding means for prevention and
treatment of water pollution, Wang said at a conference held in
south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.
Three Means to Solve the Problem
The purpose of water management is to find the best ways to
distribute and sustain use of water resources, meet market demand
and support China's social development, Wang said.
Therefore, a nationwide survey of water resources is necessary and
programs on water use and management should be worked out in a
down-to-earth manner, he said.
A
spirit of cooperation and solidarity must be followed in managing
water resources, Wang said, because water problems often involve
interests of different groups, departments and economic
spheres.
China's Water Shortage Could Shake World Food Security
An
unexpectedly abrupt decline in the supply of water for China's
farmers poses a rising threat to world food security. China depends
on irrigated land to produce 70 percent of the grain for its huge
population of 1.2 billion people, but it is drawing more and more
of that water to supply the needs of its fast-growing cities and
industries. As rivers run dry and aquifers are depleted, the
emerging water shortages could sharply raise the country's demand
for grain imports, pushing the world's total import needs beyond
exportable supplies.
Any major threat to China's food self-sufficiency, if not addressed
by strong new measures, would likely push up world grain prices,
creating social and political instabilities in Third World
cities-as previous WORLD WATCH articles have pointed out. New
information on the deteriorating water situation has confirmed the
imminence of this possibility. The challenge now facing the Chinese
government is how to meet the soaring water needs of its swelling
urban and industrial sectors without undermining both its own
agriculture and the world's food security.
( November 28, 2001)