I. Chinese Economy
The remarkable growth in China’s population and economy over the past several decades has come at a tremendous cost to the country’s environment. China has experienced an economic growth rate averaging 10 percent per year for more than 20 years. But sustained growth and the health of the country are increasingly threatened by environmental deterioration and constraints, particularly around water. Water is critical for economic growth and well-being; conversely, economic activities have an impact on water availability and quality. When water resources are limited or contaminated, or where economic activity is unconstrained and inadequately regulated, serious social problems can arise. And in China, these factors have come together in a way that is leading to more severe and complex water challenges than in almost any other place on the planet.
II. Water Problems and Possible Solutions
China’s water resources are over allocated, inefficiently used, and grossly polluted by human and industrial wastes, to the point that vast stretches of rivers are dead and dying, lakes are cesspools of waste, groundwater aquifers are over-pumped and unsustainably consumed, uncounted species of aquatic life have been driven to extinction, and direct adverse impacts on both human and ecosystem health are widespread and growing. Of the 20 most seriously polluted cities in the world, 16 are in China. The major watersheds of the country all suffer severe pollution. Three hundred million people lack access to safe drinking water. Desertification, worsened by excessive withdrawals of surface and groundwater, is growing in northern China.
Some of the water problems that China is facing are:
• 700 million people consume contaminated water
• 40% of the Chinese water is polluted. And 50% of that water is so severely dangerous, that even contact with the water is