water shortage

Water is one of the most necessary needs of mankind and our human body contains about 60% of water inside our cells so it’s so important to live. With rapid development of industry and agriculture in addition to the growing population, water has been increasingly consumed continually. Rosegrant, Cai, and Ximing noted that on 2003 world’s consumption of water for non-irrigation uses will rise dramatically by 62 percent from 1995 to 2025. Moreover, due to rapid growth of population water use per capita in domestic consumption will rise by 71 percent, more than 90 percent of which will be consumed in developing countries. So the increasing demand for water causes the shortage of water sources for industry, agriculture, and household daily needs. Therefore, the growth of population and industry activities has expanded water pollution. Yongming (1992) said that because of the quick expansion of the economy, the amount of waste water discharge each year is mounting, in which only 22 percent of total waste water is treated by water treatment techniques before being  discharged directly into rivers, lakes, and seas.

China depends on irrigated land to produce 70 percent of the grain for its huge population of 1.2 billion people (Brown & Halweil, 1998, p. 10). This number significantly draws more of water to supply the needs of its fast-growing cities and industries. In the research of Yongming (1992), water pollution started extensively in the late 1950s. Water shortage is considered as a key problem in the region because as rivers run dry and aquifers are depleted, the emerging concern sharply raise the country’s demand for grain importation, implying a total import needs beyond export supplies. With its booming economy, water shortage and water pollution poses a rising threat to world food security. Over 150 cities have severe lack of water supply, including Beijing. And because China highly depends on water for irrigation, these problems restrict the sustainable development of society and economy (Cheng & Song, 2009).

In order to solve the problems of water shortage and water pollution as well as improve its environmental condition, China has passed several important laws relating to environmental protection and efficient measures of water-saving and waste water reuse (Cheng & Song, 2009). The Chinese government has also setup water saving management systems to save water. Accordingly, with technological advantages, authorities in the region have undertaken measures, such as sprinkling and drip irrigation for agriculture. These events made a potential increase of water saving, recycling of cooling and processing of water for the development of most industrial sectors (Yongming, 1992). Another way to solve the problem is through water diversion.  Cheng and Song (2009) said that this process is a vital means to solve the water scarcity in the north and flooding in the south. Because of frequent the occurrence of enormous floods often, this has been established to regulate the flood disasters in the region of China and provide a sustainable development of the economy and society (Li & Wilkinson, 2006). Instead of using fresh water in the industry, waste water discharged is used for construction. With that, water sources in China could be conserved and there would be sufficient for the needs of industry, agriculture, and household.

References

Brown & Halweil (1998). China’s Water Shortage could Shake World Food Security: An abrupt decline in the supply of irrigation water to China’s farmers has aroused growing concern in the world’s capitals. Retrieved January 7, 2012 from World Watch: http://wefts.org.au/downloads/policy/China's%20Water%20Shortage%20lester_brian.pdf.

Cheng, S. & Song, H. (2009). Conservation buffer systems for water quality security in South to North Water Transfer Project in China: an approach review. Frontiers of Forestry in China, 4 (4): 394-401.

Li, W. & Wilkinson, S. (2006). Potential for international business consultancies in wastewater treatment in China: Evidence from New Zealand. Journal of Technology Management in China, 1 (3): 292-303.

Rosegrant, M.W., Cai, X., & Cline, S.A. (2003). Will the World run? Global water and food security. Environment, 45 (7), 24.

Yongming, X. (1992). An Overview of Water, Water Pollution and Control in China. Management of Environmental Quality, 3 (3), 18.