(July 20, 2010) Toronto / Beijing: Beijing’s water crisis remains unabated says a new report tracking where water to China’s capital city is sourced from.
Not what you bargained for: China’s massive water scheme delivering polluted goods
(July 12, 2010) While Chinese officials continue to forge ahead with an expensive scheme to move water from the Yangtze river in the south of the country to water-starved cities in the north, fears concerning its cleanliness are surfacing once again. According to a recent report, authorities are concerned over the poor water quality in the eastern leg of the South North Water Diversion project.
Pollution hinders South-to North water diversion
(July 6, 2010) Authorities are still struggling with concerns about the poor water quality of the eastern route of the South-to-North Water Diversion (SNWD) project eight years after the eastern route’s construction began.
Water shortage looms for China, India
(May 31, 2010) Water demand in the next two decades will double in India and rise 32 percent in China, according to the 2030 Water Resources Group, a research collaboration between the World Bank, management consulting firm McKinsey & Co. and industrial water users such as Coca-Cola.
Danjiangkou Reservoir: A tale of two watersheds
(June 16, 2010) In the ultimate photo-op this week, Danjiangkou Mayor Zeng Wenhua, with press in tow, ladled a cup of water out of his city’s reservoir and drank it "without hesitation" to demonstrate its purity. The Danjiangkou Reservoir—on the Hanjiang River, a branch of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River—is slated to provide Beijing with water by 2014, once the central channel of the South-North Water Diversion scheme is completed.
Environmental group petitions Beijing government for stronger water regulations
(June 8, 2010) On Saturday, Friends of Nature (FON)—China’s oldest environmental organization—hosted a Conference for the release of their survey on public opinion regarding Beijing’s ongoing water crisis. As part of the conference, FON also issued a petition to the government, calling for urgent action from officials to help increase the city’s water-use efficiency and reduce pollution.
Seeing is believing
(June 7, 2010) Li Yuling, the narrator of the most recent Oral History “A River Returns,” is featured in this China Daily report detailing the activities of Beijing citizens as they raise awareness on the dire state of the city’s once pristine rivers.
Beijing residents worry their city is running out of water, looking to government for action
(June 5, 2010) Three-quarters of those interviewed in a recent survey about Beijing’s water crisis say that they are concerned about the capital city’s water shortages and that they feel pollution and overexploitation of water are to blame. The survey, commissioned by Friends of Nature, China’s oldest environmental organization, was released in Beijing today, World Environment Day.
Friends of Nature petition to the Beijing government
(June 5, 2010) Friends of Nature (FON)—China’s oldest environmental organization—is hosting a Conference for the release of their survey on public opinion regarding Beijing’s ongoing water crisis. As part of the conference, FON has also issued this petition to the government, calling for urgent action from officials to help increase the city’s water-use efficiency and reduce pollution.
Standing tall: New oral history shows citizens taking a stand for Beijing’s rivers
(June 1, 2010) Beijing, once famous for its sweet spring water and clear-flowing rivers is now infamous for its polluted canals and dried up riverbeds. But one small river, that once suffered decades of insults and was among the city’s dirtiest, is making a comeback.
China’s environmental claims are nothing more than hot air, says Liu Jianqiang
(May 21, 2010) Despite overwhelming evidence from the national pollution survey and other Ministry data showing widespread heavy metal and meatalloid pollution and falling grades for the country’s rivers and lakes, the Ministry has been mysteriously arguing that China had “stopped water pollution worsening.”
China’s pollution problem worse than anticipated says new report
(February 17, 2010) China’s first official nationwide census of pollution sources found that the nation’s water is much more polluted than official estimates originally reported.
Prominent city lakes fail water safety test
(November 16, 2009) Three lakes in Beijing were seriously polluted in October, the Beijing municipal water resources bureau website said on Nov 12.
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.
Beijing’s Water Binge
(June 27, 2008) Apparently Beijing is consuming water at the rate Marie Antoinette consumed petit fours and there is always a price to pay for such gluttony. Many news organizations (see, e.g., here and here) reported today on a new study, published by Probe International and written by a Chinese environmentalist, entitled “Beijing’s Water Crisis: 1949-2008 Olympics” which reads like a Temperance Union pamphlet.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
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Probe International 