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They say excessively low prices for the precious liquid and rising living standards have strained the mainland's resources

Mainland environmentalists marked Earth Day yesterday by urging the government and fellow citizens to conserve water.

'The wasting of the water in China is ridiculous,' said Liao Xiaoyi, president of the Global Village of Beijing.

'Water must be protected and treasured.'

Along with the Nanjing-based Friends of the Environment, Global Village of Beijing has organised an ongoing water conservation awareness campaign to mark the 33rd Earth Day.

Earth Day, held every April 22, is the day environmental groups worldwide gather to promote ecological sustainability. It was first held in Washington.

The mainland Earth Day event was entitled 'Water is Life, the Future is Water', and included a series of exhibitions and education campaigns in cities across the country.

'Everybody must do more to save water,' said Liu Wei, a member of the Friends of the Environment.

A shortage of water is one of the nation's most serious environmental problems, with more than 400 cities across the country running short as a result of over consumption and lower rainfall.

The hardest hit region is the Yellow-Huai-Hai river basin, which stretches from the Shandong coastline to central-western Henan and includes the cities of Beijing and Tianjin. The area's 440 million people have an annual per capita water use of only 462 cubic metres. The international benchmark for shortages is 1,700 cubic metres.

Environmentalists said the nation's relatively low water prices and rising standard of living in urban areas had made the problem worse.

Up until only recently, the cost of a cubic metre of water was only a few cents in most of the nation's urban areas.

Environmentalists said these low prices gave the public the impression water was free and bountiful, thereby encouraging city dwellers to waste it. For example, Ms Liao said Beijing urbanites were using the city's scarce water resources to wash their cars and take many showers a day.

'How can people be doing such things when there are such shortages?' she said.

Although cities such as Beijing have recently raised water prices to about three yuan a cubic metre, Ms Liao said it should cost more.

Mr Liu said the government should encourage people to save the water from bathing and cooking and use it to flush toilets and water plants.

'This would not only conserve water but also reduce the amount of waste water dumped into the nation's rivers,' he said.

Mr Liu said there should be more emphasis on tackling pollution at its source, not just relying on solutions such as  waste water treatment plants.

The environmentalists also urged the government to strictly follow conservation principles on  infrastructure projects.



Environmentalists mark Earth Day with call for everyone to save water