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Is China Running Out Of Water?

December 11, 2009

Is China Running Out Of Water? Martin McCauley writes: If you are a keen reader of StirringTroubleInternationally you probably picked up our hilarious spoof breaking news item: ‘Breaking News: China reveals that half of the water in its rivers is piss.’ As they say, in every joke there’s only a bit of a joke.

The point is that less than half of China’s 1.3 billion population has access to clean drinking water. The situation is worse than in Africa: desertification is expanding in the western and northern parts of the Middle Kingdom. Villagers in Xinjiang autonomous region have had to be moved to other areas because sources of water have simply either dried up or became too polluted. China’s rivers are the most heavily polluted in the world.

Beijing has become so alarmed that money is now being pumped into environmental amelioration. About $210 billion has been earmarked during the present 5-year economic plan. One international consultancy predicts serious shortages of fresh water in China by 2030, unless drastic action is taken soon.

Take Chongqing, for example. A bustling city of 30 million on a tributary of the Yangtze River, it has grown at an extraordinary rate over the last two decades. This means there is great competition for water between industry and civil use. The Yangtze River rises in the Tibetan plateau, but climate change has resulted in less snow cover than normal. It this persists there will be less water flowing down one of China’s great rivers. The river meanders 6,300 km to Shanghai.

It provides water for such important cities as Nanjing en route. A French company has a contract to reduce the pollution of the river in Chongqing and is making a difference. German and American companies are trying to break into this market which, given China’s dreadful environmental degradation, offers great opportunities.

The Three Gorges dam, the largest in the world, is on the Yangtze. As such it has slowed down the flow of water upstream. This makes it easier for pollutants to build up. China faces the greatest potential water shortage of any country in the world. About 275,000 people migrate daily from the countryside to cities in China. Chongqing is just one of the cities which will grow and grow. The transfer of population comes to about 100 million a year. This is equivalent to most people in Britain moving somewhere else twice a year. Such a logistical transfer imposes a huge burden on available resources, especially water. Western countries can cope with population migration because they have water conservation schemes. Fortunately for China the average Chinese only uses about a quarter of the water consumed by the average Briton. This is, of course, changing as the Chinese middle class grows. It amounts to about 100 million at present but, if present growth rates continue, will rise to perhaps 200 million by 2020. The Chinese middle class have taken to showers like ducks – they resist strongly taking a bath.

In Xinjiang, China is building dams on rivers which flow into Kazakhstan and Russia. This is to generate electricity and provide water for irrigation and human use. The downside of this is a growing shortage of water in Kazakhstan.

The promotion of the new ‘clean’ technologies in the West is having a devastating effect on parts of China. The Middle Kingdom, at present, produces about 95 per cent of rare earth minerals. The main reason for this is that low labour costs and lax environmental legislation mean that China can produce them at a lower cost than any western country.

One estimate is that costs of these minerals, vital for lowering CO2 emissions, are two thirds lower than in the West. However there is a heavy environmental price to pay. Inner Mongolia contains most of the Middle Kingdom’s supply of rare earth minerals. The result has been polluted rivers and lakes, dead forests, land no longer capable of producing crops and the death of many animals. The problem is that the rare earth minerals have to be turned into compounds and oxides to be further processed into batteries and magnets. If locals protest, they end up in prison.

China is now restricting the export of rare earth minerals. This means that if foreign companies wish to develop hybrid cars, for instance, they will have to set up a plant in China to obtain supplies. So green technology, paradoxically, means that China’s soil and rivers will be polluted more than ever.

Sooner or later, water will become a commodity traded like, oil, internationally. At present it is a free good. As a result it is polluted and wasted. The hope is that once water is traded it will be conserved and recycled for use. Unless China changes its attitude to water, this source of life will run out.

– End –

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