China vows efficient water usage

By Liang Chao (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-02-15 18:40

Today, the per capita water share of China is less than one-third of the world average with 64 percent of its total water supply consumed for farming where only 45 percent used efficiently, or over 30 percent below the average that some developed countries reached years before like Israel, senior experts said.

According to the statistics between 1980 and 2000, less were received by some rivers in north China including the Yellow, the Huaihe and the Haihe rivers due to the global warming, making their water supply critical for ensuing a relatively quick and steady economic growth for the provinces along them and even worse under the ongoing global economic slowdown today, Chen said.

"Now, it's high time for us to well manage water resources we have today to backup the sustainable growth of economy in the future," he said.

China has four major water problems due to the uneven distribution of water resources throughout its territories: seasonal floods usually hit the south while persistent droughts often occur in the north, Gao Erqiang, an official with Chen said.

Meanwhile, soil erosion and water pollution along some rivers and lakes were once worsening in many areas with the rapid urbanization and economic development.

Scarcity of water supply has affected more than two-third of China's over 600 cities with their total water shortage reached 40 billion cubic meters each year, where excessive take of groundwater extended to 190,000 sq km.

As a result, some rivers even ran dry with local lakes and wetlands kept shrinking.

Even since, water authorities took a series of measures aimed at tackling these problems, developing water-efficient irrigation for more farmlands, Gao said.

In many areas, they tightened control over the redistribution of water supply from large rivers taken by neighboring provinces, began to supply water to revive a few shrinking wetlands for its rehabilitation and building water-saving societies in over 200 cities.

"One of the most significant progresses we've made was that we succeeded in preventing the Yellow River, China's second longest, from running dry for a record nine years by regulating and controlling its water taken by provinces along it," he said.

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