The groundwater situation in many parts of China is
deteriorating due to excessive exploitation and increasing
pollution, a senior hydro-geologist warned yesterday.
More than 79 billion cubic meters of fresh groundwater are
tapped annually in northern China, accounting for 51.5 percent of
total exploitable groundwater resources, Zhang Zonghu, an
academician of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, said at the 34th
Congress of the International Association of Hydro-geologists
(IAH), adding that in the south, 26.7 billion cubic meters are
tapped, accounting for 13.2 percent of exploitable reserves.
Based on developments over the past decade, the groundwater
situation will remain stable in the south, where rainfall is ample,
but will worsen in the north, Zhang said.
As a result, many areas have suffered from environmental damage
such as ground settling and depression, and coastal regions are
witnessing salt-water intrusion, as well as desertification in the
hinterland, Zhang said, adding that to reverse the situation, China
has brought the study of groundwater into its national economic
development plan.
Groundwater in most parts of the Pearl and Yangtze river deltas
has been contaminated, said Yin Yueping, a researcher with the
China Geological Survey (CGS) under the Ministry of Land and
Resources (MLR).
Yin, director of the CGS Hydro-geology and Environmental Geology
Department, said China's groundwater management model is
inadequate, working with a poor supervision system and outdated
decontamination methods, adding that China's groundwater management
had lagged behind the world for years.
Groundwater is any water found beneath the earth. It exists
almost anywhere underground, ranging from subterranean pools down
to the spaces between particles of rock and soil or in crevices and
cracks of rock.
More than 240 scientists from 56 countries attended the five-day
event, which "is an important forum for Chinese researchers to
learn groundwater management from other countries," said Yin, who
is also the secretary-general of the organizing committee.
Co-sponsored by the MLR and the IAH, the congress will promote
the survey, assessment, utilization, protection and management of
groundwater in China, and its role in sustainable social economic
development, Yin said.
(China Daily October 10, 2006)