Water: China

China's water woes

Friday, May 10, 2013 | Categories: Environment, Episodes, International

A villager carries buckets of water from a white polluted stream which is used for his daily drinking water, in Dongchuan district of Kunming, Yunnan province. (Reuters/Stringer)

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China's thirsty in its search for reliable aqua pura. Its farms and factories demand more, so Beijing seeks more control over its lakes and streams. And that's bringing it into conflict with neighbouring countries that rely on waters that flow through China. 

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China Environment Forum / Woodrow Wilson Center, Jennifer Turner

This might have been a good month to stock up on bottled water in China. Dead swine, dead ducks and dead fish were all pulled from the country's drinking water. But pollution - from farms, factories and people - is not the only threat.

Drought and severe weather left people like Lin Xuan Zhu with an uncertain future. She lives in Southwest China's Yunnan province, a region almost entirely dependant on agriculture.

China's other great thirst is for energy. New dams are holding back rivers, while industry continues to suck up water for factories and mines.

Jennifer Turner has followed China's insatiable demand for more than a decade. She is the director of The China Environment Forum at the Woodrow Wilson Centre in Washington, D.C.

Panel: Brahma Chellaney / Gordon Houlden

While the future of China's water supply is uncertain, at least in one city -- its past is secure. With its free admission, visitors pour into the Museum of Drinking Water in Kunming. Mrs. Wang is the caretaker. We heard from her.

Our next two guests worry that China's dry, parched present has implications for the world's future.

Brahma Chellaney is a professor at the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi and the author of Water: Asia's New Battleground. He was in New Delhi.

And Gordon Houlden is director of the University of Alberta's China Institute. He spent more than 20 years in the Foreign Service working on Chinese affairs for the Government of Canada, including postings in Hong Kong and Beijing. He was in Edmonton.