Water shortage curbing growth of coal-to-chemicals projects

A shortage of water is a major factor restricting the development of coal-to-chemicals projects on the mainland.

The provinces and autonomous regions of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and Xinjiang together have 76 per cent of the mainland’s coal reserves, but their combined water resources amount to only 6.1 per cent of the national total, according to a report published by the Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resources Research last year.

With their per capita water resources amounting to just 70 per cent of the national average, these regions will have to support the vast majority of the country’s water-intensive coal processing and coal-to-chemicals projects.

The mainland had 2,100 cubic metres of freshwater resource per capita last year, or 28 per cent of the global average, according to the Ministry of Water Resources.

The country is short of over 50 billion cubic metres of fresh water annually, an amount equivalent to 20 million Olympic-sized swimming pools, or 8.2 per cent of its annual water consumption of 610 bcm.

Two-thirds of the mainland’s cities suffer from water shortages, while close to 300 million people living in rural areas lack access to safe drinking water.