Experts are crying out for comprehensive water-saving strategies
as a fundamental solution to China’s worsening water shortage,
which they say is an issue threatening the nation’s
sustainability.
Monday, March 22, was 12th annual World Water Day and the first
day of China’s 17th Water Week. Leading experts in the field called
on citizens to improve their understanding of the relationship
between humans and water resources.
The theme of World Water Day 2004 was “Water and Disaster.”
“In China, shortages of water are an unavoidable issue
challenging national security,” said Wang Shucheng, who heads the
Ministry of Water
Resources.
Water shortages plague 400 out of China’s 660-plus cities. The
situation continues to worsen in 100 of them, including
metropolitan areas like Beijing and Tianjin, he said.
Wang forecast that China’s per capita share of water resources
will decrease by 20 percent, dropping from the present 2,140 cubic
meters--only 31 percent of the world average--to 1,700 cubic meters
by 2030 as the population peaks at an estimated 1.6 billion
people.
Worsening water scarcity and pollution, he indicated, will not
only bottleneck China’s economic growth but also slow its pace in
creating a prosperous society within 20 years.
“Creating a water-conservation-conscious society should be
treated as a fundamental strategic measure in people’s daily lives,
with strict conservation rules widely adopted to raise water-use
efficiency,” Wang said.
He urged related authorities “to put an end to any water-wasting
behaviors and fight against random water pollution.”
“Water pollution control is a must for the government to improve
fragile ecosystems even though its cost is high,” declared Chen
Zhikai, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
By 2050, China’s discharge of sewage will be up to 150 billion
cubic meters, according to Chen.
He called for sewage treatment and recycling facilities that
would enable the water to be reused for crop irrigation.
The use of such water can also be enhanced in north China’s
coastal areas and in the northwest to offset the regional lack of
fresh water supplies, Chen suggested.
“We can also desalinize seawater. In 2002, only 12 billion cubic
meters of seawater was desalinized in China. That is only 15
percent of the level the United States reached in 1985,” he
added.
Li Jingwen, a scholar at the academy, said he hopes that
restructuring of regional industry will include controlling
projects unsuitable for regional water supply capabilities.
“Blindly digging wells for drought relief is also damaging
groundwater resources in drought-prone areas,” said Tao Qingfa, an
official with the Ministry of Land and Resources.
Tao urged authorities to intensify strategic reserves of
groundwater for emergency situations.
(China Daily March 23, 2004)