Chinese Water Crisis

It is now essentially common knowledge that China’s economy is growing a greater rate than that of any other country in the world. Countless books have been written, and countless projections have been made regarding the exponential economic progress China will make within the coming years. But there is at least one integral factor many of these predictions consistently fail to consider. Vastly smaller than the grand frenzy of notions of economic success is the body of work done on the Chinese water crisis. Few people realize that there is a foundational element in the Chinese economy which many predict will crumble, causing devastating setbacks to any progress China has made in the past decades. China’s economic success hinges upon the availability of clean and sufficient water supplies which, according to many scholars is far too shaky a foundation to put weight on.
Aside from the evident implications water has for human life, the Chinese people historically have been highly dependent on water resources as indirect sources of income. Presently, more than 400 million of China’s people live in coastal areas, which concurrently produce sixty percent of the country’s agricultural and industrial output. (CIAO) Fishing is a major industry in these areas, and is also a part of the subsistence of untold numbers of local families. Another major role water plays in these areas is for irrigation of crops. In coastal areas of China, water is an obvious resource, but it is equally depended upon as a source of income in other areas of the country as well. In many areas, hydroelectric power is the main energy source for homes and for industries. Furthermore, water plays a pivotal in many industrial processes. Without it, the economic and physical well-being of a vast number of people would be devastated. And this is not only a concern whose effects are set somewhere in the future. The Chinese water crisis has current implications on China’s economic progress. According to Pan Hue of the State Environmental Protection Administration, water problems are “the bottleneck constraining economic growth.”