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Official says China beset by `world's worst water crisis'

China risks the world's most severe water crisis unless it takes urgent measures to save water in its booming cities, state media yesterday quoted a senior official as saying.

"We must take precautionary measures before the urban water ecosystem collapses," the China Daily quoted Vice Minister of Construction Qiu Baoxing (仇保興) as saying.

The crisis is caused by widespread drought, pollution, rapid economic growth and waste, the newspaper said yesterday.

Per capita water availability in China was about one-quarter of the world average and expected to fall further, the report said.

"[China] is facing a water crisis more severe and urgent than any other country in the world," Qiu was quoted as saying. "We've got to solve the problem before it is too late."

Less than half the waste water generated in Chinese cities was treated and recycled, a figure the government aimed to raise to 60 to 70 percent in five years, Qiu told a news conference on Monday.

And 20 percent of water supplies in domestic cities was lost through leaky pipes, Qian Yi (錢易), a professor of environmental engineering at Tsinghua University, was quoted as saying.

Heavy pollution of rivers across China makes much of its available water undrinkable.

"Short-sightedness in economic development accompanied with environmental destruction is still widespread in China," Qian said.

Water shortages had struck several cities in Guangdong Province due to months of drought that had destroyed farmland, dried up rivers and reservoirs and allowed salt water to wash upstream and contaminate fresh water supplies, the China Daily said.

The drought in Guangdong was likely to persist, with little rainfall predicted until spring, and was moving toward the heavily populated Pearl River Delta region, a booming manufacturing hub, it said.
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