Giorgio Erico Negoro / 沈明峰 2056065

机械设计制造及其自动化
The Experiences and Lessons of Water Resources Management and Water

Pollution in China

Before we discuss the topic, we better to know first simply what is water

resources. So water resources are sources of water that are useful or potentially

useful. The total amount of water at the Earth’s surface is about 1408.7 Χ 106

km3. While China has about 21 percent of the world population, with about 6

percent of the world’s freshwater availability was 2079 m3, compared to a

global average of 6225 m3 per capita. The uses of water resources includes

agricultural, industrial, household, recreational and environtmental activities.

One thing that we must to know is not all the water on the Earth is fresh water,

fresh water only 3% of the total water on the Earth.

Agriculture or irrigation is the biggest user of water (70%) followed by

industries (20%), and cities and residence (10%).

Water is one of the most critical issues of concern in China’s ongoing rapid

economic development. The resource is scarce and demand is growing as China

becomes more industrialized and urbanized. The situation is exacerbated by

natural and anthropogenic events such as climate change, pollution, exorbitant

patterns of water consumption, and an uneven distribution of water resources,

with devastating impacts on ecosystems, international relations, food security

and public health. In some regions, water supply capacities can hardly meet

demand, which invariably leads to poor and inadequate access to quality water.

Precipitation in the southern regions is relatively high and uniformly distributed

throughout the year, while the absolute value of precipitation in the northern

regions is lower and mostly intense in summer . Additionally, in the northern

part of China, less than 13 percent of renewable freshwater baths and feeds

many domestic, agricultural and industrial activities.

However, the southern regions are rich in freshwater resources but do not

match the distribution of the country’s population and cultivable lands. Such

inequalities in geographical distribution of water resources have occurred at the

expense of the settlers in northern China, some of whom have been subjected to

slow growth and abject poverty. Moving forward, the remarkable economic

development that has made China a model, setting off a new trial for the world,

has only increased the thirst for water and made pollution more severe. The

country’s economic growth has relied on water and the resource has been
consumed with little-to-no regard for potential demand . Economy further

pointed out that, industries and agriculture are notoriously extravagant in water

consumption, that is, industry accounts for about a quarter of China’s overall

water use and consumes four to ten times as much water per unit of GDP as

other productive sectors. Similarly, irrigated agriculture has been a neck-

breaking sector that has accounted for 62 percent of China’s total gross water

abstraction, and 84 percent of its net water abstractionThe extensive pollution

adds to the scale of the water situation in China. Over the years, wastewater and

sewage from industrial, domestic and agricultural discharges have gradually

increased, causing many rivers and lakes to have water quality that is unsuitable

for any use. Despite efforts by the Chinese government to improve water quality

standards in recent years , pollution on some of the major rivers and lakes

continues and the quality of these water resources is still below the grade levels

of IV and V (water quality that is highly polluted and rarely used). This means

that about 200 million people still use unsafe water.

Because of the precipitation in the southern is higher than the northern, this

will force the northern to use more groundwater to solve the water scarcity in

the northern.
 But one thing that we need to know is if we disrupt the hydrological cycle

by exploiting groundwater faster than it is replenished, some nearby streams,

lakes, and wetland can dry up. So China has a project to solve this which is

“South to North water diversion project”. The South-to-North Water Diversion

Project in China is the largest of its kind ever undertaken. The project involves

drawing water from southern rivers and supplying it to the dry north.This

massive scheme has already taken 50 years from conception to commencement

and is expected to take almost as long to construct. Planned for completion in

2050, it will eventually divert 44.8 billion cubic metres of water annually to the

population centres of the drier north.When finished, the work will link China’s

four main rivers – the Yangtze, Yellow River, Huaihe and Haihe – and requires

the construction of three diversion routes, stretching south-to-north across the

eastern, central and western parts of the country.The complete project is

expected to cost $62bn – more than twice as much as the country’s controversial

Three Gorges Dam.

There are also ecological impacts of South to North water diversion project,

which is:

 Improve the ecology, environtmental, and water condition in North

 Improve the situation of water shortage

 Save groundwater in the North

 Protect the local wetland and biodiversity

 Improve the quality of local drinking water in the North.

Half of China’s population cannot access water that is safe for human

consumption and two-thirds of China’s rural population relies on tainted water.

Water pollution in China is such a problem that there could be “catastrophic

consequences for future generations,” China’s water supply has been

contaminated by the dumping of toxic human and industrial waste. Pollution-

induced algae blooms cause the surface of China’s lakes to turn a bright green,
but greater problems may lurk beneath the surface; groundwater in 90 percent of

China’s cities is contaminated.

China’s coastal manufacturing belt faces the most pollution. Despite the closure

of thousands of pollutant sources, a third of the waterway remains well below

the government’s modest standards for water quality. Most of China’s rural

areas lack a system to treat wastewater.

Water pollution in China has doubled from what the government originally

predicted because the impact of agricultural waste was ignored. Farm fertilizer

has largely contributed to water contamination. China’s water sources contain

toxic of levels of arsenic, fluorine and sulfates, and pollution has been linked to

China’s high rates of liver, stomach and esophageal cancer.

One of the biggest factor of water pollution in China is the “Golf disaster”.

A typically golf course uses up a variety of chemicals to maintain the grass

lands, which include N-P fertilizers,pesticides, and herbicides. It was estimated

that there were 34 thousand gold courses in the world, and this number is still

growing. Now water is a scarce resource because of most groundwater aquifers

are renewable unless the water is withdrawn or removed faster than it is

replenished or become contaminated (water pollution).

References:

Water resources in China Poweropoint

https://www.thegeographeronline.net/1-global-trends-in-consumption.html

https://www.scirp.org/journal/paperinformation.aspx?paperid=103423

https://www.water-technology.net/projects/south_north/

https://borgenproject.org/water-pollution-in-china/

https://www.researchgate.net/figure/Annual-precipitation-of-China-as-

modelled-by-PRISM_fig3_268323552