(May 18, 2010) Falling water tables in North China resulted in the creation of the world’s largest subsidence funnel. According to an official report, overexploitation of groundwater in the past 50 years, amounting to 120 billion cubic meters of water and equivalent to 200 Lake Baiyangdians in Hebei Province, has led to the creation of the funnel in North China—Hebei, Beijing and Tianjin included.
Shanghai’s Expo: An excess like the Three Gorges dam
(April 29, 2010) Excessive spending that allows Chinese officials to put on an oversized Expo in Shanghai, also allowed them to engage in monumental nation-threatening efforts, such as building the Three Gorges Dam.
Paying water’s real costs
(April 16, 2010) Freshwater ecosystems are under siege in many parts of the world — and one often overlooked driver of this crisis is how we value and price water.
Beijing’s water consumption defies ongoing drought
(April 7, 2010) The number of businesses in Beijing that are using water lavishly continues to grow, despite a decades-long drought and a stressed watershed, say Chinese environmental researchers in a recent report.
Flushing it all away: Residents in Beijing caught wasting water
(April 1, 2010) Residents in drought-stricken Beijing are, literally, flushing their water resources away.
Beijing’s never-ending thirst
(April 14, 2010) Ongoing delays to the South-North Water Diversion Project will defer the delivery of one billion cubic meters of water annually over the next four years to Beijing. Now, a number of analysts in Beijing are offering suggestions on how the city should cope with its water crisis. Wang Jian And Liu Qiong, two Beijing-based water experts, say the city must ease the subsidies for water consumption to ensure that the price reflects its true cost, while implementing policies that promote the recycling of water and efficient use.
How will Beijing cope with the delay of China’s south-to-north water diversion project?
(April 12, 2010) According to the original plan, one billion cubic meters of water was to be taken from the Yangtze River every year and diverted to thirsty Beijing through the central canal of the massive South-North Water Diversion Project.
Drink water from Yangtze or ‘cocktail’
(March 24, 2010) Residents in Beijing may be drinking a cocktail of water in 2014 if they don’t get used to the taste of water from southern China. The Beijing Water Authority initiated a program on Monday to determine whether residents in Beijing can accept the taste of water from the Yangtze River.
Golf clubs told to save water
(March 31, 2010) Fewer than 7 percent of Beijing’s golf courses use reclaimed water for irrigation, despite municipal guidelines that strongly suggest they should do so.
Running on empty: Severe drought threatening China’s power sources
(March 30, 2010) The severe drought plaguing southwest China has not only left millions of people without adequate water supply, it has also dramatically reduced power production in the region.
City to start progressive charging for water
(March 23, 2010) Beijing will pilot progressive charging for residential water consumption in the first half of this year, according to the Beijing Water Authority. Progressive charging for residential use will work on a quota basis, the Beijing Water Authority said Sunday. A consumption quota will be given to residents, from which anything over the fixed amount will be charged at twice the standard rate.
Inspection of city water usage
(March 22, 2010) The authorities are launching an inspection of venues in Beijing that consume the largest amounts of water, with a focus on public baths, as countries around the globe mark World Water Day today.
A river will run through it: project seeks to restore the Yongding River in Beijing
(March 18, 2010) Officials in Beijing have approved a plan to rebuild the once-flowing Yongding river in the southwest corner of the city. According to reports, officials have agreed to spend 17-billion RMB ($2.48-billion) to construct an ecosystem of interconnected creeks and lakes.
As economy booms, China faces major water shortage
(March 16, 2010) A decade ago, China’s leaders gave the go-ahead to a colossal plan to bring more than 8 trillion gallons of water a year from the rivers of central China to the country’s arid north. The project would have erected towering dams, built hundreds of miles of pipelines and tunnels, and created vast reservoirs with a price tag three times that of the giant Three Gorges Dam.
Purification project launched to prevent water blooms
(March 17, 2010) The purification project was launched on Tuesday at the Beijing Zoo for major water bodies in the city, and will be finished by August. The project is expected to improve the clarity of the water and also help build a self-purification system for the lakes, in particular, effectively preventing water blooms, which occur every year in Beijing.
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