The Chinese water crisis threatens stability and prosperity not only in the People's Republic of China but globally as well, according to John McAlister of the firm Aquabiotronics.[1] According to the 2005 World Bank forecast, Mainland China has only a per-capita share of 2700 cubic meters per annum, one quarter of the world's average.[2] Half of China's 617 largest cities face water deficits. Beijing is among the cities which will be most affected. Northern China is now relying on 10,000-year-old aquifers to meet the demand of China's large population, which has resulted in ground cracking and subsidence in some regions.[3]
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The areas south of the Yangtze River, China's longest river, which account for only 36.5 per cent of the country's total territory, have 80.9 per cent of its total water resources. The areas north of the Yangtze, which make up 63.5 per cent of China, possess only 19.1 per cent of total water resources.
In the summer of 2007 a thick toxic blanket of blue-green algae covered Lake Tai in Jiangsu province. Chemical fertilizers were identified as one of the main causes.
Greenpeace China tested the water in 2008. Of the 25 water samples examined, 20 of them had such high concentrations of nitrogen and nitrates that they were not safe for human use. They were even too polluted to be used to water plants or in factories.
Leading Chinese environmental activist and journalist Ma Jun has warned that China is facing a water crisis that includes water shortages, water pollution and a deterioration in water quality. 400 out of 600 cities in China are facing water shortages to varying degrees, including 30 out of the 32 largest cities. Discharges of waste water have increased continually over the years 2001-2006, and Ma's statistics show that 300 million peasants’ drinking water is not safe.
He has warned: "In the north, due to the drying up of the surface water, the underground water has been over-extracted. The water shortage in the north could have drastic affects because almost half of China’s population lives on only 15 percent of its water.[4] The situation is not sustainable. Though the south has abundant water, there is a lack of clean water due to serious water pollution. Even water-abundant deltas like the Yangtze and the Pearl River suffer from water shortages."[5]
In 2004 the World Bank warned that the scarcity of the resource would lead to "a fight between rural interests, urban interests and industrial interests on who gets water in China." The validity of this prediction was confirmed, for example, in April 2005 when many people were injured in Dongyang city, Zhejiang Province, in clashes over the nearby chemical factories of the Juxi Industrial Park accused of water pollution that harmed crops and led to deformed babies being born.[6][7]
If present trends are not reversed, the World Bank forecasts that by 2020 there will be 30 million environmental refugees in China due to water stress.