Ling Li, China Watch (Worldwatch Institute)

January 9, 2007
Nearly 312 million rural Chinese residents have no access to safe drinking water, facing problems of shortage as well as severe contamination. These rural populations, typically the most disadvantaged groups in China, suffer frequent and serious health attacks as a result of drinking unsafe water. The threats come from both naturally occurring contaminants such as arsenic, fluorine, and salt as well organic and industrial pollution caused by human activities.

Naturally occurring water contaminants have raised public health concerns in some areas of China. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported particularly high levels of arsenic in the well water of several counties in northern Chinas Shanxi Province and Inner Mongolia, where villagers have drilled deep into arsenic-rich aquifers to obtain water. Long-term exposure to arsenic through contaminated drinking water can cause lung, bladder, kidney, skin, and other cancers, as well as skin lesions, according to the WHO.

Yet this natural contamination pales in comparison with that caused by humans. … Read the full story.