(March 11, 2008) To ensure Beijing has enough water for the Olympic games this August, about 300 million cubic metres of water will be diverted from Hebei province starting the end of this month, according to China Daily.
Where will Beijing get its drinking water?
(August 2, 2007) An article by Science Times reporter Yi Yongyong based on a recent talk by Chinese environmentalist Wang Jian takes us through some of the water supply problems facing Beijing. Starting from the city’s pre-PRC history and moving through the half-century since, he brings us up to the present situation and speculates on the future. He focuses on two of the largest reservoirs that have until recently been among Beijing’s primary sources.
Construction to start on Henan section of South-to-North canal
(September 14, 2006) Construction of the Henan province section of the central route of China’s south-north water diversion project will kick off by the end of September, Xinhua reports.
A global problem: How to avoid war over water
(August 23, 2006) ‘Improving the efficiency of water use and encouraging conservation through pricing and more efficient technologies in agriculture and industry would help reduce scarcity.’
Chinese impose rules for water use
(August 3, 2006) ‘We need to give priority to conservation because there is now inefficient use of water in agriculture, in the cities, in the urban and industrial uses along the [Yellow] river,’ says Ma Jun, author of China’s Water Crisis.
300b yuan bid to boost water flow from west
(August 2, 2006) Critics question the environmental cost and feasibility of the third route of the south-north water diversion scheme.
At water’s end
(March 17, 2006) Excerpt from a World Bank report entitled “Action Agenda for Water Sector Strategy for North China”.
Beijing urged to get moving on water conservation
(January 17, 2003) Beijingers have been warned against regarding the south-north water-transfer scheme as an excuse to waste more water, while continuing to neglect water-saving strategies.
Let’s save water – and move it too, deputy premier says
(May 30, 2002) Wen Jiabao has stressed the importance of water conservation in tackling the looming environmental crisis in parched north China, while also voicing support for the controversial south-north water-diversion scheme.
Wetlands sucked dry in China
(November 29, 2001) Fifty years ago, the Haihe and its tributaries formed an ecologically rich area that included 1,465 square miles of wetlands. Xinhua reports that the wetlands have now shrunk to just 207 square miles.
China to divert waters, at people-moving cost
(November 15, 2001) Construction will begin soon on a gigantic project to divert river waters from southern China to the north, where a growing scarcity of water is limiting development around cities like Beijing and Tianjin, officials said this week.
China battles against water shortages
(February 17, 2001) Although he lives near the Hongze Lake, China’s fourth largest freshwater lake, Yan Fengxia still has to buy mineral water for drinking or even cooking. "Our life gets harder as fish die due to increasing water pollution," said Yan, a fishwife who has been fishing for more than 20 years on the lake, located in the middle reaches of the Huaihe River in east China’s Jiangsu Province.
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