Water Woes in China

 

Water is the elixir of life. History is replete of so many stories when wars are fought; kingdoms are built and have flourished where abundant water reserves existed. All the river banks have been the cradles of various civilisations of the world. Even the highly developed cities are built on the banks of rivers and seas. Hence there is not an iota of doubt to undermine the quintessential need of water.

The much touted superpower of the South Asia, China is facing terrible water woes. The International definition of water stress defines the requirement of usable water to be 1000cubic metres per year per person. But the availability in China is less than half of the International definition and stands at mere 400 cubic meters. China is home for nearly 20% of world’s population and has meagre 7% of fresh water. The northern part of China which has half the people and two thirds of farm land is experiencing severe water stress. The vast stretches of agricultural lands are at the verge of turning into a desert. The water scarcity in Beijing is on par with Saudi Arabia where it is 100 cubic metres per person per year. There is alarming drop in the ground water levels by 300 meters from 1970. In 1950’s there were around 50,000 rivers and canals with a catchment area of around 100 square kilometres. Presently mere 23,000 water sources have remained implying critical shortage of water. In a race to put mega infrastructure in place, China has mindlessly surrendered to the over exploitation of its precious water reserves.

The passionate Communist leaders obsessed with constructing huge infrastructures have come up with an idea of building another gigantic project to mitigate the water crisis. The country has the already earned the distinction of constructing maximum number of dams in the world has now decided to add one more to its illustrious record. The Three Gorges Dam project on the Yangzi river, infamously popular as the North- South diversion project costing around $79.4 billion is underway. Under this project, the water from the lush green Yanzi river basin in the Himalayan Plateau would flow over 2000 miles through various canals to reach the parched lands of yellow river in the north.

The government instead of seeking recluse in desperate and burdensome measures could have followed a tougher water management regime. Water is availed by the cities at nominal prices. Hence imposing high water tariffs would at least put a check on the usage of precious water. Industries recycle less water and agriculture wastes lot of water. Polluters should be fined. Though the cost of cultivation and burden on industries would increase, the resultant outcome would be much better than spending billions on the water diversion schemes. Even the available ground water has become unfit for washing let alone drinking. But all the marvellous engineering feats would be futile if attempts to improve the water supplies and their judicious use are not considered on a war footing basis. A survey estimated that a third of water of the Yellow river, where four thousand petrochemical industries have been constructed is unfit for agriculture. Imposing higher water tariffs and imposing stern punishments for polluter can curtail irrational use of water.

China is contemplating on the use of shale gas reserves located in the driest regions. Each shell gas well requires 15,000 tonnes of water per year. It is planning to set up 450 coal stations to augment the increasing power needs. A modest estimate suggests the water requirement to be 90,000 tonnes of water. Arguably it is a water intensive process and it might be in its best of interest to refrain from such an activity. Curtailing the development of massive infrastructure projects which put lot of demand would indeed the best way to address this issue in its present form. Only 40% of water is recycled, the water productivity is $8 worth output per cubic meter against $58 in European countries. The water charges are one tenth of the major European countries and government is reluctant to increase the tariff fearing a massive public unrest. According to a World Bank estimate water problems in terms of damages to health has entailed a loss to the tune of 2.3% of GDP.

The grand project aimed at diversion of water from bountiful regions to the water deficient regions appears to be a desperate and futile exercise. These extravagant efforts might in fact cause a severe damage to the environment as these involve digging channels and canals through various mountains, plains and unfriendly terrains. This would change the precarious balance of the ecosystem and many organisms would be killed in this process. Further with the diversion of water the plankton and the benthic population might be severely damaged. Their numbers would seriously diminish. The proposed dam is on the Upper reaches of the rivers Brahmaputra and Mekong. The full fledged dam might potentially subvert at least 1% flowing water from the giant Brahmaputra and would even change the course of the river. This would have serious implications on the regional stability and in the end Chinese would be able to enhance water supplies by mere 7%. At the end of this giant, engineering display and marvellous daunting tasks which China is obsessed with might achieve very little.  Even desalinating seawater might turn out to be cheaper than the humongous dams and canals planned across the rivers.

The challenges of water stress may not be a tale of China alone. It might soon be the worst nightmare for all the developing nations, who deliberately over ride the warnings and rush towards myopic development. This might endanger our invaluable natural resources air, water and soil.

 

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