Q: Shortages of water resources, flood disasters and
deterioration of the water environment have become common problems
faced by all countries. What are the main problems that China is
encountering in terms of its water resources and what are the
reasons for these problems? What measures will China take to solve
them?
A: Since the 1990s, China has long been perplexed by the three big
problems of floods, droughts and deterioration of the water
environment. Flood disasters frequently happen, while the drought
and water shortage situation is grave. A severe drought hits China
about every two years. As well, more than 400 of the 668 cities in
China are short of water, with more than 2,000 people having
difficulties in finding drinking water. The annual water deficit is
about 30-40 billion cubic meters.
Along with the severe water shortage, the phenomenon of water
pollution and waste is also often seen in the country, due to a
longtime lack of awareness of the need to protect water resources.
China still hasn't escaped the vicious circle of "developing first,
and then treating pollution," which was followed by some industrial
countries. In some places, almost all rivers are drying up and all
water is polluted. Losses caused by water pollution have far
exceeded those caused by water shortages.
Currently, the total amount of China's water resources is 2.8
trillion cubic meters, ranked sixth in the world. But the amount of
per-capita fresh water is only 2,040 cubic meters, merely
one-fourth of the world average. China is one of the 13 countries
with the least per-capita water resource, ranked 121st in the
world. So, to realize the sustainable use of water resources and to
maintain good water ecology has become an important issue in
China's economic and social development. With respect to this,
China will enhance the protection of its water environment through
five measures designed to ensure water safety.
First, China will put special effort into designating clean
drinking water sources in urban and rural areas, organize related
departments to draw up plans for protecting urban and rural
drinking water sources, speed up the designation of centralized
water resource places in mass rural areas, and prevent and control
water pollution caused by the township enterprises and
agriculture.
Second, efforts will be done to strengthen the prevention and
control of water pollution in key river basins, establish a system
of controlling the pollutant discharge, practice the licensed
discharge of pollutants in accordance with the law, and seriously
investigate and punish those who discharge more pollutants than
allowed. Meanwhile, China will speed up the revision of the Law on
the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution to fundamentally
solve the problem of low cost for violating the law but high cost
for obeying.
Third, the construction of dams is directly related to the
safety of the water environment. Thus, the development of river
basins and the construction of dams will strictly follow
evaluations of their environmental impacts. Projects that seriously
threaten the safety of a water environment will not be allowed.
Those that have passed an environmental assessment should also
implement environmental protection measures according to
requirements.
Fourth, measures will be taken to continue to check up on
enterprises that have discharged pollutants illegally, and make
concentrated efforts to investigate and punish the illegal
discharge of pollutants by small paper mills, brewing factories,
chemical plants, printing and dyeing mills, large-scale breeding
farms and urban sewage disposal factories.
Fifth, China will make information on the quality of water
environments available to the public, guaranteeing people's right
to know the environment, and hold hearings when there are programs
about the development of important river basins and projects
related to water usage, to solicit opinions from the public. This
is also a way to fulfill people's right to supervise the
environment and to protect people's environmental rights and
interests.
In Minqin County, Gansu Province, a
farmer stands helplessly in a dried-up reservoir. Northwest China
has consistently suffered from severe drought.
