Forum Post: For all greens- Water shortage, pollution in China
Posted 12 years ago on March 20, 2012, 3 p.m. EST by snowcat765
(14)
from Long Island City, NY
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/china/2012-02/16/c_131414176.htm BEIJING, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- China faces a tougher situation in water resources in the future as demand increases amid the country's rapid industrialization and urbanization, an official said Thursday at a press conference.
Hu Siyi, vice minister of water resources, said water shortages, serious river pollution and the deteriorating aquatic ecology are "quite outstanding" and may threaten the country's sustainable growth.
With a population of 1.3 billion people, China now consumes more than 600 billion cubic meters of water a year, or about three-quarters of its exploitable water resources, Hu said.
"Because of the grave situation, we must put in place the strictest water resources management system," he said.
According to the Ministry of Water Resources, the average per capita of water resources is only 2,100 cubic meters annually, or about 28 percent of the world's average level.
About two-thirds of Chinese cities are water-needy, while nearly 300 million rural residents lack access to safe drinking water, leading to a national water shortage of over 50 billion cubic meters on average every year, Hu noted.
The ministry's data showed that 40 percent of Chinese rivers were seriously polluted and unfit for drinking after 75 billion tonnes of sewage and waste water were discharged in 2010.
This is what happens when greed, corruption and rapid industrialization and urbanization is allowed to happen without any regulations. Thank God, here in the U.S. we have the EPA. If it wasn't for the EPA, the same scenario would happen here in the U.S. when greedy and corrupt corporations pollute the air, land and water without regard to the consequences of the environment in the future!!
I can remember the rivers burning...before the EPA clean up.
It seem like to get a industrialized nation ecological sacrifices are made for a generation or more-take a long time to clean later
Yes it does and it also seems like once it gets cleaned, there is always someone seeking to trash it again.
Water, our most precious resource.