Volksrepublik China

[Shahab3]

Jan 4, 2011
Thirsty China turns to the sea
By Mitch Moxley

BEIJING - While China faces grave water shortages, researchers at institutions across the country are working on new water-saving and desalination technologies that they hope can alleviate the crisis in the years to come.

Despite billions of dollars spent on damming rivers, building reservoirs and digging deeper wells, farmers in the north toil on parched land while hundreds of cities across the country face water shortages and deteriorating water quality.

Beijing's water shortage will soon reach 200 million to 300 million cubic meters, according to state media reports, as the city awaits the completion of the US$62 billion South-North Water Transfer Project, which will displace some 330,000 people.

The World Bank has warned that the country's water crisis could spark unrest, pitting rich against poor and urban against rural. Without serious changes in water use, tens of millions of Chinese will become environmental refugees in the next decade, the bank argues.
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