(December 17, 2009) Beijing can save at least 190 million cu m water per year – double the capacity of Guanting Reservoir – if the extravagant lifestyle of its residents can be controlled, a leading NGO said after the water price hearing yesterday.
China: A blast from the past
(December 14, 2009) “Unfortunately we live in a system where our unelected leaders push ahead with mad dreams rather than take responsibility after bringing disasters to the ordinary people,” says Dai Qing, a conservationist who has spent time in China’s most notorious political prison for her criticism of government-led environmental destruction. “But perhaps if the leaders really believe their slogans and really decide it’s time to live in harmony with nature, then this will be the last mad mega-project we see in China.”
Migrants bear sacrifice for China’s south-north water diversion project
(December 9, 2009) More than 760 residents of Junxian County in the Danjiangkou Reservoir area on Tuesday began new lives 300 km away with uncertainty and hope. They were among 330,000 migrants expected to be relocated by 2014 for the multi-million-dollar project, which is designed to channel water from southern regions, mainly the Yangtze, China’s longest river, to the arid north, including Beijing.
760 farmers relocated for China’s north-south water project
(December 8, 2009) More than 760 residents in central China began to move to their new homes Tuesday, making way for the giant south-to-north water diversion project.
Water, the new green worry
(December 6, 2009) China’s woes on water have highlighted a another threat for business to solve.
Beijing to hike water price to fight shortage: report
(December 2, 2009) Probe International, a leading development policy group, said in June last year that China’s capital could run out of water in five to 10 years, a situation that could lead to economic collapse.
Beijing announces water price hike
(December 2, 2009) The hike in Beijing’s water price aims to encourage conservation and recycling in a bid to ease water shortages in the city. By subsidizing low-income residents, officials say the price hike will not impose an excessive financial burden on ordinary people.
100,000 face drinking water shortages in central China city
(November 27, 2009) The decline of water level in the Xiangjiang River, a major tributary of the Yangtze River, has affected the drinking water supply for more than 100,000 people in central China’s Xiangtan City.
BJ hikes water & sewerage bills for non-residential use
(November 20, 2009) In Beijing the price of water and sewage treatment is going up for non-residential consumers.
Water prices to rise from next year
(November 9, 2009) The price of tap water in Beijing will increase from Jan 1, the Beijing water resources bureau said.
Another Chinese government mega-project forces mega-relocation of citizens
(October 20, 2009) The Chinese government is once again making headlines for relocating its citizens—this time for the much-criticized South-to-North Water Diversion Project. According to Xinhua, the resettlement of 330,000 Chinese citizens in central China’s Hubei and Henan provinces has begun.
A shortage of capital flows
(October 9, 2008) Probe International‘s latest report is cited in an Economist article that describes how officials planned to divert water from Hebei province to Beijing for use during the Olympics, but instead waited until September 18th to begin the transfer.
Why is the south-north water project being postponed?
(October 1, 2009) Is it the end of the mega-project in China? Tian Lei, from the South Wind Window writes that escalating costs in the South-to-North Water Diversion project are behind the recent delays in its completion. But more importantly, Tian says the days of massive, government-backed projects like the South-to-North Water Diversion project and the Three Gorges dam may be coming to an end.
Beijing announced new regulations to ban urban landscape from using tap water
(September 17, 2009) Urban landscape such as fountains and man-made lakes will be prohibited from using underground water or tap water.
India and China depleting aquifers
(September 3, 2009) India and China may differ in their political structures—the former the world’s most populous democracy, the latter the most populace one-party state—but they share a ruinous use of ground water in which each is draining their aquifers faster than they can be replenished.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
Other News Sources
Probe International 