School of Earth and EnvironmentFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

Contemporary Chinese Environmental Debates and Policy: Water Resource

Management Issues

 

Environment and Society (ENVI1110)

Monday 20th November 2006.

Damian Howells

 damian@env.leeds.ac.uk

Room 3.13, Chemistry West

School of Earth and EnvironmentFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

School of Earth and EnvironmentFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

Water resources in China

• Widespread shortage • Largely concentrated on the north China Plain

• Urban demand for water increases 10% per annum• increases by 7% annually

• 400 of 668 cities officially chronically short of water

• Serious impediment to further development in many regions• Yellow River now frequently runs dry ( 42 days 1999)

Source: Donald, Stephanie H. & Robert Benewick (2005) The State of China Atlas Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: University of California Press p. 91

School of Earth and EnvironmentFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

South/North Water Transfer Project

• Aims to supply water to the cities of the North China Plain • An important economic region • Home to approx. 320 million people in 2002

• The region suffers from a chronic shortage of water• Climate is monsoonal• Rainfall is decreasing• Increasing demand• Bad management

School of Earth and EnvironmentFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

• Total cost – US$60 billion• Approx. 300,000 people forced to relocate

Three Routes under construction

Eastern – due for completion in 2007

Central – due for completion in 2030

Western – due for completion in 2050

School of Earth and EnvironmentFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

School of Earth and EnvironmentFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

School of Earth and EnvironmentFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

The Three Gorges Dam

Specifications of the dam• 400 miles / 640km long• Capacity - 39.3bn m3

• Cost – US$24 (est.)

Impacts• 100 towns and villages flooded • 44,000 ha of farmland flooded• Forced relocation of 1.9m people• Pollution control?• Habitat destruction

• Yangtze River dolphin, Chinese sturgeon

School of Earth and EnvironmentFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

• Yangtze Valley prone to serious flooding• 1935 – 141,000 deaths• 1954 – 30,000 deaths• 1998 – approx. 3,600 deaths

• 5.7m homes destroyed• 7m homes damaged• 14m people evacuated• Total economic losses est. £21bn

• Major floods predicted to occur more frequently in the future• Deforestation, draining lakes//marshes

Flood Control

School of Earth and EnvironmentFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

Power for economic development

• GDP grew at 9.4?% annually 1978-2001• Predicted growth 7% annually until 2020

• Electricity generation grew by 8% 1980-95• Estimated growth of 6% between 2000-10

• Concentrated in eastern provinces• Great Opening of the West Campaign• Requires a clean and reliable source of power

School of Earth and EnvironmentFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

School of Earth and EnvironmentFACULTY OF ENVIRONMENT

For a general overview of China’s water resource issues see:World Commission on Dams (2000) Experience with Dams in Water and Energy Resource Development in the People’s Republic of China pp. 1-3 <Available from http://www.dams.org/kbase/studies/cn/>

For further details on the Three Gorges Dam Project see:World Commission on Dams (2000) Experience with Dams in Water and Energy Resource Development in the People’s Republic of China pp. 89-93<Available from http://www.dams.org/kbase/studies/cn/>

For the South/North Water Transfer Project see:Liu Changming (1999) Environmental Issues and the South-North Water Transfer Scheme in Edmonds, Richard Louis ed. Managing the Chinese Environment Oxford: Oxford University Press pp. 175-86

For further details of pollution problems in the Huai River see:Economy, Elizabeth (2004) The River Runs Black Ithaca & London: Cornell University Press pp. 1-9

Suggested further reading