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The Thirsty Dragon: Demand Reduction Efforts In China
May 26th, 2009
Two articles examining China’s impending freshwater scarcity crisis and the impact of some nascent demand reduction efforts. First, courtesy of The Guardian, is a look at the current status of the South-North Diversion Project: …More than twice as expensive as the Three Gorges Dam and three times longer than the railway to Tibet, the 50-year, […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Will China Run Out Of Water?
April 30th, 2009
Via WaterWired, an interesting personal view from Dr. Chun Miao Zheng (founding director of the Center for Water Research at Peking University in Beijing) on the challenges facing an ever-drier China. As the article notes: “…China is like two countries: dry in the north (Yellow River is here), where some areas have annual precipitation amounts […]
Read more »Asia’s Water Insecurity
April 17th, 2009
The Asia Society recently released a new report on Asia’s water challenges and, as Circle of Blue analyzed, there are many imposing obtacles ahead: “…Asia faces “severe†water problems. According to a report released today by the Asia Society Leadership Group — Asia’s Next Challenge: Securing the Region’s Water Future — reduced access to fresh […]
Read more »Two Rivers Diverted…. The Thirsty Dragon Has To Choose Both Paths
February 9th, 2009
Via Terra Daily, a report on China’s recent decision to divert water from its two longest rivers to help farmers hit by the country’s worst drought in decades. As the article notes: “…Water from the Yangtze River, the country’s longest, will be diverted to the northern areas of eastern Jiangsu Province, the Xinhua news agency […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: South-North Diversion To Be Accelerated
December 16th, 2008
Via Xinhua, an updated report that the aforementioned 4-year postponement of the massive South-North water diversion has itself been diverted and the project is back on track. As the article notes, “China would accelerate the construction on the country’s huge south-to-north water diversion project next year, head of the project office Zhang Jiyao said on […]
Read more »The Thirsty Dragon: Drying Up Quickly
December 14th, 2008
An interesting post by Ying Jia on China’s dwindling water supply. As the article notes: “….Water scarcity is largely a product of China’s wasteful style of economic growth. A World Bank research study showed that in the period 2001-2005, 54 percent of China’s seven main rivers were deemed unsafe for human consumption (World Bank). The […]
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