China's worsening water crisis

Serious water shortages in China are often overshadowed by international issues related to the country's rise as a major power. But the water problem could ultimately cripple the nation and its aspirations to build an advanced industrial economy with a strong agricultural base.

Six years ago, when he was still a deputy prime minister, Premier Wen Jiabao warned that the very survival of the nation was threatened by a looming water deficit. Despite periodic floods in parts of China, the situation is worse today. It has also become a key issue for the public.

A survey published last month by the official All China Environmental Federation found that ordinary mainlanders are most worried about the quality of the water they drink and the air they breathe. The survey reportedly polled 4 million residents in 31 provinces and regions. More than 96 per cent of respondents said China was facing a water crisis and that building a water-saving society was the best way to solve the problem.

Relative to the size of its population, China is not well-endowed with natural resources including fresh water, fertile land and forest cover to protect watersheds. The World Bank estimated last year that China's internal fresh-water resources per person amounted to just more than 2,200 cubic metres a year, about one-third of the world average and less than half the East Asia and Pacific average.

About 78 per cent of China's water withdrawal is for agriculture, mainly irrigation. It is critical for maintaining food production and rural livelihoods. But much of this water is wasted.

With vast swathes of desert, arid or dry land, China has long had a water problem. Resources are unevenly distributed. Supplies are scarce in the north and west. The areas south of the Yangtze River, which account for just under 36.5 per cent of the land, have almost 81 per cent of its total water supplies. Areas north of the Yangtze, which make up 63.5 per cent of China, have barely 19 per cent of the water.

Since the Communist Party took power in 1949, water consumption for human, agricultural and industrial use on the mainland has risen nearly fivefold, from about 100 billion cubic metres to about 560 billion cubic metres currently. Rapid economic growth, urbanisation and industrialisation over the past 25 years have intensified shortages and pollution.