World Bank presses China to take action to prevent water shortages
U.S. Water News Online
WASHINGTON -- Future generations in China could face catastrophe unless the government quickly solves acute water shortage and pollution problems, the World Bank warned in a report issued recently.
The bank urged the government to immediately implement actions needed to bring use of water resources back into a sustainable balance.
``Continuing and accelerating growth of population and industry over the past century in China has resulted in increasingly severe problems related to freshwater shortage,'' the bank said.
``The acute water shortage and pollution problems in north China will soon become unmanageable -- with catastrophic consequences for future generations -- unless much more significant, comprehensive, and sustained commitments are made'' to act, the report said.
It also said new pricing, management and regulatory strategies must be in place for the success of a government plan to transfer water from the Yangtze River in the south to the dry northern region.
The report says the lack of water resources is most evident in the Yellow, Hai and Huai river basins in northern China. This region accounts for 67 percent of China's wheat production, 44 percent of its corn and 72 percent of its millet.
Total agricultural production from the three-river basin is worth $14.4 billion a year.
The report said water shortages for industry, domestic consumption and irrigation have been growing in magnitude and frequency, creating severe economic loss.
``Many rivers in the three-basin area are dry for five to eight months of the year,'' the report said.
To avert risk of further social and economic distress, the bank is recommending more efficient irrigation programs, wastewater reuse, price increases and transfer of water from the south.
The report outlines a $11.1 billion 25-year action plan to improve water management, including investment in sewage treatment plants along the Hai and Huai rivers.
It says the government should allocate resources based on market conditions, not administrative planning principles.
The report also criticizes China's Ministry of Water Resources, saying current arrangements do not offer a coherent, integrated approach to solving the urgent and complex problems facing the country.
``Implementation of institutional reforms is likely to be the most difficult component of proposed action and the one likely to generate the most resistance and controversy because some institutions will have to relinquish power of authority to different or newly created institutions,'' the report said.
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