Sources and courtesy of Du Bin for The New York Times
http://newyorktimes.com
For three decades, water has been indispensable in sustaining the rollicking economic expansion that has made China a world power. Now, China’s galloping, often wasteful style of economic growth is pushing the country toward a water crisis. Water pollution is rampant nationwide, while water scarcity has worsened severely in north China — even as demand keeps rising everywhere.
China is scouring the world for oil, natural gas and minerals to keep its economic machine humming. But trade deals cannot solve water problems. Water usage in China has quintupled since 1949, and leaders will increasingly face tough political choices as cities, industry and farming compete for a finite and unbalanced water supply.
For the Communist Party, the immediate challenge is the prosaic task of forcing the world’s most dynamic economy to conserve and protect clean water. Water pollution is so widespread that regulators say a major incident occurs every other day. Municipal and industrial dumping has left sections of many rivers “unfit for human contact.”
Cities like Beijing and Tianjin have shown progress on water conservation, but China’s economy continues to emphasize growth. Industry in China uses 3 to 10 times more water, depending on the product, than industries in developed nations. In the past, the Communist Party has reflexively turned to engineering projects to address water problems, and now it is reaching back to one of Mao’s unrealized plans: the $62 billion South-to-North Water Transfer Project to funnel more than 12 trillion gallons northward every year along three routes from the Yangtze River basin, where water is more abundant.
Jake Hooker contributed reporting from north China. Huang Yuanxi contributed research from Beijing.
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Sources and courtesy of BBC
http://news.bbc.co.uk
Along with Mexico City, Beijing shares the distinction of being the world's most polluted capital.
In Beijing's streets the sources of pollution are not hard to spot. The traditional fuel for heating and cooking in many Chinese cities. It is low grade and high in sulphur. When burned, it coats surrounding surfaces with a noxious grey dust. China's national dependence on coal - still the source of some 75% of its energy - is seen as a key cause of country's environmental problems.
Many environmentalists agree that China now has some of the toughest environmental laws of any country. But putting them into practice nationwide is a major challenge. Basically they have the choice of putting all the people on the street or letting the pollution continue.
Despite all the measures to tackle car pollution in cities like Beijing, the government has made it quite clear that it sees the development of the motor industry as a pillar of China's economic development. In Beijing alone, an extra 100,000 vehicles come onto the streets each year. China's anticipated entry into the World Trade Organisation is expected to further boost demand by bringing cheaper car prices.
It is this tension between environmental concerns and the desire of China's vast population for Western-style consumer comfort which may ultimately determine whether blue skies really do return to the nation's cities.
