It's true: Every drop counts 每滴水的价值——南水北调工程

紫露草

It's true: Every drop counts  
每滴水的价值——南水北调工程

The World Bank has urged China to overhaul its water management systems to provide better legal protection and more open competition for an increasingly scarce resource.

With 20 percent of the world's population but only 7 percent of its water resources, China faces a severe challenge, says the bank in a report published last month. At present, more than half of China's 660 cities suffer from water shortages, affecting 160 million people.

"There is no doubt that China is facing a major challenge in managing its scarce water resources to sustain economic growth in the years ahead," says David Dollar, the bank's regional director.

But Dollar believes there are "grounds for optimism" if China takes "another bold move in reforming the institutional and policy framework" for water resource management.

Source:China Daily


Experts have repeatedly warned of a water crisis in China, particularly in the north of the country and in Beijing.

Last year, the capital was gripped by drought and an emergency diversion of 300 million cubic meters of water from neighboring Hebei province had to be implemented in September.

The shortage in Beijing is set to reach crisis point in 2010, when its population is expected to top 17 million, or 3 million more than its resources can support.

To fight a water crisis in its capital, China has launched the South-to-North Water Diversion Project to divert water from the Yangtze River in South China to provide 1 billion cubic meters of water every year to Beijing starting in 2014.

However, encouraging water-saving behavior remains the ultimate solution.

In a bid to reflect the full extent of its scarcity, the water price will increase in the first half of this year as the current price fails to cover the cost of water plants, according to Cheng Jing, who oversees the capital's water resources.

                               
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