Though, China is a booming economy, the fastest growing in the world, yet its people suffer from lack of potable water. The country is in grip of air and water pollution along with drought to add to the miseries of the people. However, Government is mooting to solve the drinking water problem through seawater.
Huge water bodies to the East and South of the country surround China. Therefore, to make use of the sea water, the Chinese Government debates of building a huge desalination plant south of Shanghai, which is proposed to solve the water crisis.
The desalination plant proposed to be built in the neighboring province of Zhejiang, awaits final approval from the country’s National Development and Reform Commission. When ready the plant would be the largest in the country in terms of processing of saline seawater into portable drinking water.
The plant being currently built by Singapore-based HYFLUX LTD, in the northern city of Tianjin will be the largest in size. It would supply industrial and potable water to the district of Dagang in Tianjin.
North of the country lacks adequate water supplies, and is dependent on the lush south. The Government is constructing a US$60 billion network of canals meant to move vast amounts of water from China’s wetter south to Beijing and other parts of the arid north, but the project is destined to complete in 60 years.
Due to rapid industrialization of the country, thousands of factories have been constructed that have only added to the drought problem as such factories dump toxic industrial waste into rivers and lakes. A glowing example of such a discrepancy was when Lake Taihu in the eastern province of Jiangsu, in the beginning of this month was struck by a foul-smelling canopy of algae that made tap water undrinkable, making about 2.3 residents of Wuxi to depend on bottled water.
Conflicts over water supplies, leading to violent clashes have already been witnessed in the country. What is the use of blooming economy if the people of the country are deprived of necessary elements to survive? The country has failed to provide clean air and drinking water to the largest population in the world.
Via: Reuters
