Saturday, May 31, 2008
China Water: May 31, 2008: Evacuation due to flood threat in south.
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5gBr_dOzJ9Pnc_U9gSgtTgE-cR-KwD9100PGO1
China warns evacuation possible with flood threat
By WILLIAM FOREMAN – 23 hours ago
CHENGDU, China (AP) — More than 1 million people may have to evacuate dozens of villages in a Sichuan province valley if an earthquake-spawned lake threatens to burst and flood the region, an emergency official warned Friday.
Authorities were preparing to run a drill starting Saturday to ensure 1.3 million people in the Mianyang region can get out quickly if the lake breaks through the wall of debris clogging a river.
An official with the press office of Mianyang City Quake Control and Relief Headquarters, who would giver only her surname of Chen, said a report Friday by the official Xinhua News Agency that a mass evacuation already had been ordered was wrong.
"People will only be evacuated in case of actual collapsing of the whole bank," Chen told The Associated Press.
Chinese troops were still working to drain the Tangjiashan lake, which formed above Beichuan town after a quake-triggered landslide blocked a river. There was no sign that the dam formed by a landslide caused by the May 12 quake was about to burst on Friday, though officials say it could do so in coming days.
Chen said 197,500 people in the valley were being moved to higher ground — about 30,000 more than previously announced.
On Saturday, officials will start a three-day drill that will test government communications systems to ensure that any evacuation order — if it comes — quickly filters down to residents in the valley.
Soldiers were using 40 heavy earth-moving machines to dig drainage channels. Officials quoted in state media have not said how long the work would take.
The confirmed death toll from China's worst quake in three decades was 68,858, the government announced Friday, an increase of about 350 from a day earlier. Another 18,618 people were still missing.
In the chaos after the magnitude 7.9 earthquake, which made 5 million homeless, many survivors were separated from their families.
Thousands of children and parents who had been separated have been reunited, officials said Friday, while the government has been inundated with requests from families to adopt other children orphaned by the disaster.
Social workers have helped bring together more than 7,000 children and their families since the earthquake struck Sichuan province May 12, said Ye Lu, director of social welfare at the provincial Civil Affairs Department.
"A little more than 1,000 children remain unclaimed or orphaned," Ye said.
The government has been overwhelmed with calls seeking to adopt those children, Ye said.
"We are still getting thousands of calls per week asking about how to adopt, but we are still hoping to find the parents of these 1,000 kids," he said.
Also on Friday, government officials in Tokyo said Japan would not use military planes to deliver relief goods to China after Beijing voiced uneasiness over the idea.
China had been in talks with Tokyo about using Japanese military planes to deliver aid, which could have become the first significant military dispatch between the two nations since World War II.
But Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura said Tokyo would not insist on using the military.
Japan invaded China and conquered large parts of it in the 1930s before being defeated by the Allies in 1945, and many Chinese still strongly resent Japan for its military aggression.
Vietnam Water: May 31, 2008: Australian fund invests in Vietnam water and more.
Posted without further comment.
Peter Huston
===
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/30/content_8285560.html
Australian, Vietnamese firms invest $10 bln in environment
www.chinaview.cn 2008-05-30 20:01:04
HANOI, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Australian E. VO Global Asset Management and Vietnamese investment group VN234 have signed a 10-billion U.S. dollar agreement on environmental protection and real estate in Vietnam.
The investment will be distributed from now to 2013 across 30 projects in southern Ho Chi Minh City, southern Can Tho city, central Da Nang city, the two southern provinces of Ba Ria Vung Tau and Binh Thuan, and the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, Vietnam News Agency reported Friday.
Waste, wastewater and polluted water treatment systems, material recycling programs, solar energy projects and research into environmentally sustainable construction materials are among the agreed projects, said VN234 general director Mai Vu.
The Australian-Vietnamese partnership will also invest in two real estate development in Can Tho. The firms assigned 400 million dollars build the Tay Do Cultural Center and 800 million dollars for an international conventional and exhibition center.
Editor: Jiang Yuxia
Peter Huston
===
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/30/content_8285560.html
Australian, Vietnamese firms invest $10 bln in environment
www.chinaview.cn 2008-05-30 20:01:04
HANOI, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Australian E. VO Global Asset Management and Vietnamese investment group VN234 have signed a 10-billion U.S. dollar agreement on environmental protection and real estate in Vietnam.
The investment will be distributed from now to 2013 across 30 projects in southern Ho Chi Minh City, southern Can Tho city, central Da Nang city, the two southern provinces of Ba Ria Vung Tau and Binh Thuan, and the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong, Vietnam News Agency reported Friday.
Waste, wastewater and polluted water treatment systems, material recycling programs, solar energy projects and research into environmentally sustainable construction materials are among the agreed projects, said VN234 general director Mai Vu.
The Australian-Vietnamese partnership will also invest in two real estate development in Can Tho. The firms assigned 400 million dollars build the Tay Do Cultural Center and 800 million dollars for an international conventional and exhibition center.
Editor: Jiang Yuxia
China Water: May 31, 2008: Earthquake relief news.
Two more water quality in the earthquake zone stories.
The second is a report of a Christian mission that has donated water purifiers to the China earthquake relief effort. I am not familiar with the mission or the news source, and am sharing it without further comment.
I was thinking the other day about how interesting it is that China is being so open to foreign aid. In the early 1960s, due to the failure of collectivized farming, China was hit by widespread famine. Many estimate that during this time, between 20 and 30 million people died due to lack of food. That is, by comparison, roughly the population of New York State, and people who die of starvation do not die easily or quickly. It was a terrible thing. Not only did the Chinese government not seek foreign aid, they actually successfully repressed the story so that news of the famine did not reach the west for some time.
How things change.
Peter Huston
===
===
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/31/content_8287137.htm
Overall environmental quality stable, water quality potable in quake-hit Sichuan
www.chinaview.cn 2008-05-31 00:31:37
BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The overall environmental quality in China's earthquake-ravaged southwestern Sichuan Province has remained "stable" and water quality eligible for drinking, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said on Friday.
The ministry has stepped up its efforts on the monitoring of the hard-hit areas, including the province's Shifang City, and has taken measures to eliminate potential risks, it said in a statement on its Website.
A quake-induced burst of a dam of pyrites belonging to the Sichuan Huangjia Group in Jiangyou City in hard-hit Mianyang City has been under control, according to the ministry.
Samples from three sections of the dam indicated there were no traces of poisonous elements, including copper, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead or chromium VI.
The ministry's eight inspection groups have checked 20 key companies in the Shifang chemical industrial park, spotting about 3,000 tonnes of hazardous chemicals, including yellow phosphorus, concentrated sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid and ammonia, as well as chemical sewage discharge risks.
These companies have been ordered to rectify their management, according to the ministry.
So far, 15,164 people have been mobilized in Sichuan to conduct inspection on environmental risks. During the inspection of 14,357enterprises, including 2,949 chemical firms, they spotted 134 potential risks with 28 having been dealt with.
Altogether, 49,421 people have been mobilized in 13 provincial-level areas, including Shaanxi, Gansu and Chongqing. Ministry figures show it spotted 68 major risks in the inspection of 21,906 enterprises with 54 of them having been rectified.
Editor: Mu Xuequan
http://www.earnedmedia.org/wmi0530.htm
Earthquake Survivors in China Receive Another Six Water Purification Systems from Water Missions International
Contact: Lindsay M. Wine, Water Missions International (WMI), 843-442-4401
CHARLESTON, South Carolina, May 30 /Christian Newswire/ -- Water Missions International (WMI) deployed six water purification systems to earthquake-ravaged China late Wednesday, May 28. The systems were airlifted by FedEx at no cost to WMI and are expected to reach Shanghai tomorrow. Upon arrival in Shanghai, the systems will be transported into Chengdu to the areas of greatest need. WMI's International Project Director, Andre Mergenthaler, has been on the ground in China leading a water resource team of engineers and technicians through installation and operation of systems previously deployed for this disaster relief effort. Since the disaster struck, WMI, in cooperation with Samaritan's Purse, has deployed a total of 12 water systems to China. Six of those systems are now set up and operational in Luoshi, Yinghua, Lungji, and Mianzhu, towns with a total population of 29,000 people. Each water system is assembled by volunteer labor, provides a continuous supply of approximately 10,000 gallons per day, and can be rapidly deployed and installed in only a few hours to purify available surface and shallow well water sources in disaster affected areas.
A deadly, 8.0-magnitude earthquake shook China's Sichuan province on Monday, May 12, affecting 45 million people. To date, the quake and its aftershocks have claimed more than 66,000 lives and left more than a quarter of a million people injured. Weeks after the disaster, millions of people are still homeless and in desperate need of food, shelter, and clean, safe water.
"We are entering into a new disaster season," says Danya Jordan, WMI's VP of Development. "As a ministry, WMI steps out in faith when responding to these terrifying situations. Funding is currently, and will continue to be, one of our most urgent needs," Jordan explains. "Please consider supporting WMI in our efforts to provide safe, clean water to people around the world." For more information on how to help, please contact Danya Jordan at (843)769-7395 or djordan@watermissions.org. Donations are also accepted online at www.watermissions.org.
About WMI:
Water Missions International (WMI) is a nonprofit, Christian engineering organization based in Charleston, SC. WMI's mission is to provide sustainable access to safe water and an opportunity to hear the "Living Water" message in developing countries and disaster areas. Assistance is provided regardless of age, sex, race, or faith. To date, WMI has deployed a total of 591 water systems in 36 countries worldwide and two U.S. states, making safe water available to more than one million people. Visit us at www.watermissions.org.
The second is a report of a Christian mission that has donated water purifiers to the China earthquake relief effort. I am not familiar with the mission or the news source, and am sharing it without further comment.
I was thinking the other day about how interesting it is that China is being so open to foreign aid. In the early 1960s, due to the failure of collectivized farming, China was hit by widespread famine. Many estimate that during this time, between 20 and 30 million people died due to lack of food. That is, by comparison, roughly the population of New York State, and people who die of starvation do not die easily or quickly. It was a terrible thing. Not only did the Chinese government not seek foreign aid, they actually successfully repressed the story so that news of the famine did not reach the west for some time.
How things change.
Peter Huston
===
===
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/31/content_8287137.htm
Overall environmental quality stable, water quality potable in quake-hit Sichuan
www.chinaview.cn 2008-05-31 00:31:37
BEIJING, May 30 (Xinhua) -- The overall environmental quality in China's earthquake-ravaged southwestern Sichuan Province has remained "stable" and water quality eligible for drinking, the Ministry of Environmental Protection said on Friday.
The ministry has stepped up its efforts on the monitoring of the hard-hit areas, including the province's Shifang City, and has taken measures to eliminate potential risks, it said in a statement on its Website.
A quake-induced burst of a dam of pyrites belonging to the Sichuan Huangjia Group in Jiangyou City in hard-hit Mianyang City has been under control, according to the ministry.
Samples from three sections of the dam indicated there were no traces of poisonous elements, including copper, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, lead or chromium VI.
The ministry's eight inspection groups have checked 20 key companies in the Shifang chemical industrial park, spotting about 3,000 tonnes of hazardous chemicals, including yellow phosphorus, concentrated sulfuric acid, phosphoric acid and ammonia, as well as chemical sewage discharge risks.
These companies have been ordered to rectify their management, according to the ministry.
So far, 15,164 people have been mobilized in Sichuan to conduct inspection on environmental risks. During the inspection of 14,357enterprises, including 2,949 chemical firms, they spotted 134 potential risks with 28 having been dealt with.
Altogether, 49,421 people have been mobilized in 13 provincial-level areas, including Shaanxi, Gansu and Chongqing. Ministry figures show it spotted 68 major risks in the inspection of 21,906 enterprises with 54 of them having been rectified.
Editor: Mu Xuequan
http://www.earnedmedia.org/wmi0530.htm
Earthquake Survivors in China Receive Another Six Water Purification Systems from Water Missions International
Contact: Lindsay M. Wine, Water Missions International (WMI), 843-442-4401
CHARLESTON, South Carolina, May 30 /Christian Newswire/ -- Water Missions International (WMI) deployed six water purification systems to earthquake-ravaged China late Wednesday, May 28. The systems were airlifted by FedEx at no cost to WMI and are expected to reach Shanghai tomorrow. Upon arrival in Shanghai, the systems will be transported into Chengdu to the areas of greatest need. WMI's International Project Director, Andre Mergenthaler, has been on the ground in China leading a water resource team of engineers and technicians through installation and operation of systems previously deployed for this disaster relief effort. Since the disaster struck, WMI, in cooperation with Samaritan's Purse, has deployed a total of 12 water systems to China. Six of those systems are now set up and operational in Luoshi, Yinghua, Lungji, and Mianzhu, towns with a total population of 29,000 people. Each water system is assembled by volunteer labor, provides a continuous supply of approximately 10,000 gallons per day, and can be rapidly deployed and installed in only a few hours to purify available surface and shallow well water sources in disaster affected areas.
A deadly, 8.0-magnitude earthquake shook China's Sichuan province on Monday, May 12, affecting 45 million people. To date, the quake and its aftershocks have claimed more than 66,000 lives and left more than a quarter of a million people injured. Weeks after the disaster, millions of people are still homeless and in desperate need of food, shelter, and clean, safe water.
"We are entering into a new disaster season," says Danya Jordan, WMI's VP of Development. "As a ministry, WMI steps out in faith when responding to these terrifying situations. Funding is currently, and will continue to be, one of our most urgent needs," Jordan explains. "Please consider supporting WMI in our efforts to provide safe, clean water to people around the world." For more information on how to help, please contact Danya Jordan at (843)769-7395 or djordan@watermissions.org. Donations are also accepted online at www.watermissions.org.
About WMI:
Water Missions International (WMI) is a nonprofit, Christian engineering organization based in Charleston, SC. WMI's mission is to provide sustainable access to safe water and an opportunity to hear the "Living Water" message in developing countries and disaster areas. Assistance is provided regardless of age, sex, race, or faith. To date, WMI has deployed a total of 591 water systems in 36 countries worldwide and two U.S. states, making safe water available to more than one million people. Visit us at www.watermissions.org.
China Water: May 31, 2008: Editorial on water and weather.
With the earthquake and flood fears, there's been little talk of the drought. Someone, however, has not forgotten.
Posted without further comment.
Peter Huston
===
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2008-05/30/content_6722773.htm
Opinion / Commentary
Another grim test
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-30 08:23
With the nation preoccupied with the daunting relief and rebuilding tasks in the quake zone in the southwest Sichuan province, sad figures from the Office of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters (SFDH) warn us that more troubles may be on their way for our natural disaster-prone country.
Till yesterday, the deadliest of rainstorms of the year have left 48 people dead, 25 missing, and numerous homes in ruins in some parts of the country.
This may be only the beginning of another capricious high-water season. Judging from past experiences, the worst is yet to come. In most years, the high concentration of precipitation in July and August usually accompanies heavier losses.
It is yet to be known whether or not, after years of drought in areas along the Yangtze River, we will be put to the test of the feared severe flooding whose magnitude will be comparable with that in 1998. While praying for the best, we will have to prepare for the worst.
Hydrological authorities in Hubei province have forecast both a summer drought and potentially severe flooding on the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
We cannot afford being caught unprepared by the worst scenario feared.
Consecutive days of heavy rainfall that has swept much of the country's southern provinces has prompted the SFDH to activate a Grade III emergency response program, and dispatch teams of experts to the provinces to supervise flood prevention.
The short-term abnormality will last at least until tomorrow, according to the Central Meteorological Station. National meteorological departments have enhanced monitoring and sharing of information in order to improve severe weather forecasts.
With manpower, logistics, and various other resources concentrated in the quake areas, where subsistence remains a daily struggle for millions of victims daunted by fears of potential risks of epidemics and the unpredictable barrier lakes, vigilance is particularly important against the gathering danger of flooding.
This is not only because we have been hearing warnings of unusual flooding threats. What adds to our anxiety is the revelation that more than 2,000 dams across the country have suffered varying degrees of damage during the May 12 tremor. That will inevitably acerbate the conditions on the dam-dotted rivers, particularly those in the south, and considerably increase the cost of flood prevention.
(China Daily 05/30/2008 page8)
Posted without further comment.
Peter Huston
===
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2008-05/30/content_6722773.htm
Opinion / Commentary
Another grim test
(China Daily)
Updated: 2008-05-30 08:23
With the nation preoccupied with the daunting relief and rebuilding tasks in the quake zone in the southwest Sichuan province, sad figures from the Office of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters (SFDH) warn us that more troubles may be on their way for our natural disaster-prone country.
Till yesterday, the deadliest of rainstorms of the year have left 48 people dead, 25 missing, and numerous homes in ruins in some parts of the country.
This may be only the beginning of another capricious high-water season. Judging from past experiences, the worst is yet to come. In most years, the high concentration of precipitation in July and August usually accompanies heavier losses.
It is yet to be known whether or not, after years of drought in areas along the Yangtze River, we will be put to the test of the feared severe flooding whose magnitude will be comparable with that in 1998. While praying for the best, we will have to prepare for the worst.
Hydrological authorities in Hubei province have forecast both a summer drought and potentially severe flooding on the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River.
We cannot afford being caught unprepared by the worst scenario feared.
Consecutive days of heavy rainfall that has swept much of the country's southern provinces has prompted the SFDH to activate a Grade III emergency response program, and dispatch teams of experts to the provinces to supervise flood prevention.
The short-term abnormality will last at least until tomorrow, according to the Central Meteorological Station. National meteorological departments have enhanced monitoring and sharing of information in order to improve severe weather forecasts.
With manpower, logistics, and various other resources concentrated in the quake areas, where subsistence remains a daily struggle for millions of victims daunted by fears of potential risks of epidemics and the unpredictable barrier lakes, vigilance is particularly important against the gathering danger of flooding.
This is not only because we have been hearing warnings of unusual flooding threats. What adds to our anxiety is the revelation that more than 2,000 dams across the country have suffered varying degrees of damage during the May 12 tremor. That will inevitably acerbate the conditions on the dam-dotted rivers, particularly those in the south, and considerably increase the cost of flood prevention.
(China Daily 05/30/2008 page8)
Friday, May 30, 2008
Vietnam Water: May 30, 2008: Illegal Wells pose problem.
Illegal wells are a problem in many developing countries, including China and India. Among the problems cited in this article, they make it difficult for governments to not only plan a sensible water use policy but they can also make it difficult for water companies to recoup on their investment. (see the article on Suez's business problems in northeastern China for an example.http://chinawaterblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/on-february-29-2008-i-wrote-following.html )
In some places rainharvesting is being used to replenish the aquifer and wells, but this too can increase the risk of well contamination unless done very carefully.
Peter Huston
===
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=03SOC300508
Illegal wells damage water supply
(30-05-2008)
Illegal drilling is depleting and polluting Ha Noi’s underground water sources.
by Ngoc Tu
Illegal wells used in homes and businesses are depleting and polluting underground water sources. — VNS Photo
HA NOI — Illegal tapping into Ha Noi’s natural underground water system has polluted supplies and greatly reduced the volume available.
Medical authorities have also warned that the polluted water could lead to health problems, including warts and dry skin.
They have also reported that some restaurants and brewing companies have been producing bottled water and beer using untreated supplies.
While there seem to be enough regulations to control the problem, reports indicate too much red tape and a shortage of inspectors have hampered the process.
A report from the Viet Nam Department of Geology and Minerals states there are about 20,000 illegal wells throughout the city.
Drilled to an average depth of between 20 and 25m, they have an estimated total capacity of 35,000 cu.m a day.
Deputy director of the Ha Noi Clean Water Company Trinh Kim Giang said he was worried about the thousands of illegal wells because they could lower the subterranean water level, which has a depth of between 60 and 80m.
"Many business units, including car wash and laundries, have illegally drilled wells to reduce costs," he said.
Giang said many families stopped using the wells after being connected to the Clean Water Company’s water system.
However, he said they often filled the wells incorrectly, causing pollution. The wells acted as conduits, leading waste substances to the underground water supplies.
The problem has been made worse because many household wells have been built near toilets and pigsties.
"The company once used 0.3mg of chlorine to purify one litre of water. The rate has now increased to 0.8mg per litre," Giang said.
Research by the Health Ministry’s Preventive Medicine Department shows that throughout Viet Nam more than 17 million people, or more than a fifth of the population, are in danger of becoming affected by polluted underground water.
Sometimes, in provinces such as Ha Tay and Ha Nam, water has an arsenic content of more than 0.05mg per litre, almost double the safe level.
Flouting the law
Deputy director of the Water Resource Management Division, Hoang Van Bay, said drilling firms were required to have permits and business licences.
However, Bay said many operators ignored these procedures. According to water-resource regulations, those caught drilling illegally could be fined between VND10 million (US$602) and VND14 million.
The Ha Noi Natural Resources and Environment Department says that it has had decentralised drilling permits and moved distribution to the district level. District authorities now have the right to grant licences for wells producing no more than 200cu.m of water a day.
A department official said it was difficult to find illegal wells because many were hidden within the boundaries of homes and businesses. Even the supervision of wells with licences was incomplete.
Tran Dac Phu, deputy director of the Health Ministry’s Preventive Medicine Department, said the department’s employees were responsible for checking water quality, but they did not have the right to issue fines.
Phu said if violations were discovered, they would ask ministry inspectors to handle the case or set up a delegation to inspect the quality of water.
However, this always took a long time due to administrative procedures. — VNS
In some places rainharvesting is being used to replenish the aquifer and wells, but this too can increase the risk of well contamination unless done very carefully.
Peter Huston
===
http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=03SOC300508
Illegal wells damage water supply
(30-05-2008)
Illegal drilling is depleting and polluting Ha Noi’s underground water sources.
by Ngoc Tu
Illegal wells used in homes and businesses are depleting and polluting underground water sources. — VNS Photo
HA NOI — Illegal tapping into Ha Noi’s natural underground water system has polluted supplies and greatly reduced the volume available.
Medical authorities have also warned that the polluted water could lead to health problems, including warts and dry skin.
They have also reported that some restaurants and brewing companies have been producing bottled water and beer using untreated supplies.
While there seem to be enough regulations to control the problem, reports indicate too much red tape and a shortage of inspectors have hampered the process.
A report from the Viet Nam Department of Geology and Minerals states there are about 20,000 illegal wells throughout the city.
Drilled to an average depth of between 20 and 25m, they have an estimated total capacity of 35,000 cu.m a day.
Deputy director of the Ha Noi Clean Water Company Trinh Kim Giang said he was worried about the thousands of illegal wells because they could lower the subterranean water level, which has a depth of between 60 and 80m.
"Many business units, including car wash and laundries, have illegally drilled wells to reduce costs," he said.
Giang said many families stopped using the wells after being connected to the Clean Water Company’s water system.
However, he said they often filled the wells incorrectly, causing pollution. The wells acted as conduits, leading waste substances to the underground water supplies.
The problem has been made worse because many household wells have been built near toilets and pigsties.
"The company once used 0.3mg of chlorine to purify one litre of water. The rate has now increased to 0.8mg per litre," Giang said.
Research by the Health Ministry’s Preventive Medicine Department shows that throughout Viet Nam more than 17 million people, or more than a fifth of the population, are in danger of becoming affected by polluted underground water.
Sometimes, in provinces such as Ha Tay and Ha Nam, water has an arsenic content of more than 0.05mg per litre, almost double the safe level.
Flouting the law
Deputy director of the Water Resource Management Division, Hoang Van Bay, said drilling firms were required to have permits and business licences.
However, Bay said many operators ignored these procedures. According to water-resource regulations, those caught drilling illegally could be fined between VND10 million (US$602) and VND14 million.
The Ha Noi Natural Resources and Environment Department says that it has had decentralised drilling permits and moved distribution to the district level. District authorities now have the right to grant licences for wells producing no more than 200cu.m of water a day.
A department official said it was difficult to find illegal wells because many were hidden within the boundaries of homes and businesses. Even the supervision of wells with licences was incomplete.
Tran Dac Phu, deputy director of the Health Ministry’s Preventive Medicine Department, said the department’s employees were responsible for checking water quality, but they did not have the right to issue fines.
Phu said if violations were discovered, they would ask ministry inspectors to handle the case or set up a delegation to inspect the quality of water.
However, this always took a long time due to administrative procedures. — VNS
Global Water: Christian Science Monitor article.
Posted without further comment from the Christian Science Monitor.
Peter Huston
===
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/05/29/is-water-becoming-%E2%80%98the-new-oil%E2%80%99/
Is water becoming ‘the new oil’?
Population, pollution, and climate put the squeeze on potable supplies – and private companies smell a profit. Others ask: Should water be a human right?
By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor / May 29, 2008 edition
Reporter Mark Clayton discusses the growing market for 'blue gold'.
Reporter Mark Clayton
Public fountains are dry in Barcelona, Spain, a city so parched there’s a €9,000 ($13,000) fine if you’re caught watering your flowers. A tanker ship docked there this month carrying 5 million gallons of precious fresh water – and officials are scrambling to line up more such shipments to slake public thirst.
Barcelona is not alone. Cyprus will ferry water from Greece this summer. Australian cities are buying water from that nation’s farmers and building desalination plants. Thirsty China plans to divert Himalayan water. And 18 million southern Californians are bracing for their first water-rationing in years.
Water, Dow Chemical Chairman Andrew Liveris told the World Economic Forum in February, “is the oil of this century.” Developed nations have taken cheap, abundant fresh water largely for granted. Now global population growth, pollution, and climate change are shaping a new view of water as “blue gold.”
Water’s hot-commodity status has snared the attention of big equipment suppliers like General Electric as well as big private water companies that buy or manage municipal supplies – notably France-based Suez and Aqua America, the largest US-based private water company.
Global water markets, including drinking water distribution, management, waste treatment, and agriculture are a nearly $500 billion market and growing fast, says a 2007 global investment report.
But governments pushing to privatize costly to maintain public water systems are colliding with a global “water is a human right” movement. Because water is essential for human life, its distribution is best left to more publicly accountable government authorities to distribute at prices the poorest can afford, those water warriors say.
“We’re at a transition point where fundamental decisions need to be made by societies about how this basic human need – water – is going to be provided,” says Christopher Kilian, clean-water program director for the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation. “The profit motive and basic human need [for water] are just inherently in conflict.”
Will “peak water” displace “peak oil” as the central resource question? Some see such a scenario rising.
“What’s different now is that it’s increasingly obvious that we’re running up against limits to new [fresh water] supplies,” says Peter Gleick, a water expert and president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, a nonpartisan think tank in Oakland, Calif. “It’s no longer cheap and easy to drill another well or dam another river.”
The idea of “peak water” is an imperfect analogy, he says. Unlike oil, water is not used up but only changes forms. The world still has the same 326 quintillion gallons, NASA estimates.
But some 97 percent of it is salty. The world’s remaining accessible fresh-water supplies are divided among industry (20 percent), agriculture (70 percent), and domestic use (10 percent), according to the United Nations.
Meanwhile, fresh-water consumption worldwide has more than doubled since World War II to nearly 4,000 cubic kilometers annually and set to rise another 25 percent by 2030, says a 2007 report by the Zurich-based Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) group investment firm.
Up to triple that is available for human use, so there should be plenty, the report says. But waste, climate change, and pollution have left clean water supplies running short.
“We have ignored demand for decades, just assuming supplies of water would be there,” Dr. Gleick says. “Now we have to learn to manage water demand and – on top of that – deal with climate change, too.”
Population and economic growth across Asia and the rest of the developing world is a major factor driving fresh-water scarcity. The earth’s human population is predicted to rise from 6 billion to about 9 billion by 2050, the UN reports. Feeding them will mean more irrigation for crops.
Increasing attention is also being paid to the global “virtual water” trade. It appears in food or other products that require water to produce, products that are then exported to another nation. The US may consume even more water – virtual water – by importing goods that require lots of water to make. At the same time, the US exports virtual water through goods it sells abroad.
As scarcity drives up the cost of fresh water, more efficient use of water will play a huge role, experts say, including:
• Superefficient drip irrigation is far more frugal than “flood” irrigation. But water’s low cost in the US provides little incentive to build new irrigation systems.
• Aging, leaking water pipes waste billions of gallons daily. The cost to fix them could be $500 billion over the next 30 years, the federal government estimates.
• Desalination. Dozens of plants are in planning stages or under construction in the US and abroad, reports say.
• Privatization. When private for-profit companies sell at a price based on what it costs to produce water, that higher price curbs water waste and water consumption, economists say.
In the US today, about 33.5 million Americans get their drinking water from privately owned utilities that make up about 16 percent of the nation’s community water systems, according to the National Association of Water Companies, a trade association.
“While water is essential to life, and we believe everyone deserves the right of access to water, that doesn’t mean water is free or should be provided free,” says Peter Cook, executive director of the NAWC. “Water should be priced at the cost to provide it – and subsidized for those who can’t afford it.”
But private companies’ promises of efficient, cost-effective water delivery have not always come true. Bolivia ejected giant engineering firm Bechtel in 2000, unhappy over the spiking cost of water for the city of Cochabamba. Last year Bolivia’s president publicly celebrated the departure of French water company Suez, which had held a 30-year contract to supply La Paz.
In her book, “Blue Covenant,” Maude Barlow – one of the leaders of the fledgling “water justice” movement – sees a dark future if private monopolies control access to fresh water. She sees this happening when, instead of curbing pollution and increasing conservation, governments throw up their hands and sell public water companies to the private sector or contract with private desalination companies.
“Water is a public resource and a human right that should be available to all,” she says. “All these companies are doing is recycling dirty water, selling it back to utilities and us at a huge price. But they haven’t been as successful as they want to be. People are concerned about their drinking water and they’ve met resistance.”
Private-water industry officials say those pushing to make water a “human right” are ideologues struggling to preserve inefficient public water authorities that sell water below the cost to produce it and so cheaply it is wasted – doing little to extend service to the poor.
“There are three basic things in life: food, water, and air,” says Paul Marin, who three years ago led a successful door-to-door campaign to keep the town council of Emmaus, Pa., from selling its local water company. “In this country, we have privatized our food. Now there’s a lot of interest in water on Wall Street…. But I can tell you it’s putting the fox in charge of the henhouse to privatize water. It’s a mistake.”
Water and war: Will scarcity lead to conflict?
Cherrapunjee, a town in eastern India, once held bragging rights as the “wettest place on earth,” and still gets nearly 40 feet of rain a year. Ironically, officials recently brought in Israeli water-management experts to help manage and retain water that today sluices off the area’s deforested landscape so that the area can get by in months when no rain falls.
“Global warming isn’t going to change the amount of water, but some places used to getting it won’t, and others that don’t, will get more,” says Dan Nees, a water-trading analyst with the World Resources Institute. “Water scarcity may be one of the most underappreciated global political and environmental challenges of our time.” Water woes could have an impact on global peace and stability.
In January, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon cited a report by International Alert, a self-described peacebuilding organization based in London. The report identified 46 countries with a combined population of 2.7 billion people where contention over water has created “a high risk of violent conflict” by 2025.
In the developing world – particularly in China, India, and other parts of Asia – rising economic success means a rising demand for clean water and an increased potential for conflict.
China is one of the world’s fastest-growing nations, but its lakes, rivers, and groundwater are badly polluted because of the widespread dumping of industrial wastes. Tibet has huge fresh water reserves.
While news reports have generally cited Tibetans’ concerns over exploitation of their natural resources by China, little has been reported about China’s keen interest in Tibet’s Himalayan water supplies, locked up in rapidly melting glaciers.
“It’s clear that one of the key reasons that China is interested in Tibet is its water,” Dr. Gleick says. “They don’t want to risk any loss of control over these water resources.”
The Times (London) reported in 2006 that China is proceeding with plans for nearly 200 miles of canals to divert water from the Himalayan plateau to China’s parched Yellow River. China’s water plans are a major problem for the Dalai Lama’s government in exile, says a report released this month by Circle of Blue, a branch of the Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
Himalayan water is particularly sensitive because it supplies the rivers that bring water to more than half a dozen Asian countries. Plans to divert water could cause intense debate.
“Once this issue of water resources comes up,” wrote Elizabeth Economy, director of Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Affairs, to Circle of Blue researchers in a report earlier this month, “and it seems inevitable at this point that it will – it also raises emerging conflicts with India and Southeast Asia.”
Tibet is not the only water-rich country wary of a water-poor neighbor. Canada, which has immense fresh-water resources, is wary of its water-thirsty superpower neighbor to the south, observers say. With Lake Mead low in the US Southwest, and now Florida and Georgia squabbling over water, the US could certainly use a sip (or gulp) of Canada’s supplies. (Canada has 20 percent of the world’s fresh water.)
But don’t look for a water pipeline from Canada’s northern reaches to the US southwest anytime soon. Water raises national fervor in Canada, and Canadians are reluctant to share their birthright with a United States that has mismanaged – in Canada’s eyes – its own supplies. Indeed, the prospect of losing control of its water under free-trade or other agreements is something Canadians seem to worry about constantly.
A year ago, Canada’s House of Commons voted 134 to 108 in favor of a motion to recommend that its federal government “begin talks with its American and Mexican counterparts to exclude water from the scope of NAFTA.”
( More environment stories )
Peter Huston
===
http://features.csmonitor.com/environment/2008/05/29/is-water-becoming-%E2%80%98the-new-oil%E2%80%99/
Is water becoming ‘the new oil’?
Population, pollution, and climate put the squeeze on potable supplies – and private companies smell a profit. Others ask: Should water be a human right?
By Mark Clayton | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor / May 29, 2008 edition
Reporter Mark Clayton discusses the growing market for 'blue gold'.
Reporter Mark Clayton
Public fountains are dry in Barcelona, Spain, a city so parched there’s a €9,000 ($13,000) fine if you’re caught watering your flowers. A tanker ship docked there this month carrying 5 million gallons of precious fresh water – and officials are scrambling to line up more such shipments to slake public thirst.
Barcelona is not alone. Cyprus will ferry water from Greece this summer. Australian cities are buying water from that nation’s farmers and building desalination plants. Thirsty China plans to divert Himalayan water. And 18 million southern Californians are bracing for their first water-rationing in years.
Water, Dow Chemical Chairman Andrew Liveris told the World Economic Forum in February, “is the oil of this century.” Developed nations have taken cheap, abundant fresh water largely for granted. Now global population growth, pollution, and climate change are shaping a new view of water as “blue gold.”
Water’s hot-commodity status has snared the attention of big equipment suppliers like General Electric as well as big private water companies that buy or manage municipal supplies – notably France-based Suez and Aqua America, the largest US-based private water company.
Global water markets, including drinking water distribution, management, waste treatment, and agriculture are a nearly $500 billion market and growing fast, says a 2007 global investment report.
But governments pushing to privatize costly to maintain public water systems are colliding with a global “water is a human right” movement. Because water is essential for human life, its distribution is best left to more publicly accountable government authorities to distribute at prices the poorest can afford, those water warriors say.
“We’re at a transition point where fundamental decisions need to be made by societies about how this basic human need – water – is going to be provided,” says Christopher Kilian, clean-water program director for the Boston-based Conservation Law Foundation. “The profit motive and basic human need [for water] are just inherently in conflict.”
Will “peak water” displace “peak oil” as the central resource question? Some see such a scenario rising.
“What’s different now is that it’s increasingly obvious that we’re running up against limits to new [fresh water] supplies,” says Peter Gleick, a water expert and president of the Pacific Institute for Studies in Development, Environment, and Security, a nonpartisan think tank in Oakland, Calif. “It’s no longer cheap and easy to drill another well or dam another river.”
The idea of “peak water” is an imperfect analogy, he says. Unlike oil, water is not used up but only changes forms. The world still has the same 326 quintillion gallons, NASA estimates.
But some 97 percent of it is salty. The world’s remaining accessible fresh-water supplies are divided among industry (20 percent), agriculture (70 percent), and domestic use (10 percent), according to the United Nations.
Meanwhile, fresh-water consumption worldwide has more than doubled since World War II to nearly 4,000 cubic kilometers annually and set to rise another 25 percent by 2030, says a 2007 report by the Zurich-based Sustainable Asset Management (SAM) group investment firm.
Up to triple that is available for human use, so there should be plenty, the report says. But waste, climate change, and pollution have left clean water supplies running short.
“We have ignored demand for decades, just assuming supplies of water would be there,” Dr. Gleick says. “Now we have to learn to manage water demand and – on top of that – deal with climate change, too.”
Population and economic growth across Asia and the rest of the developing world is a major factor driving fresh-water scarcity. The earth’s human population is predicted to rise from 6 billion to about 9 billion by 2050, the UN reports. Feeding them will mean more irrigation for crops.
Increasing attention is also being paid to the global “virtual water” trade. It appears in food or other products that require water to produce, products that are then exported to another nation. The US may consume even more water – virtual water – by importing goods that require lots of water to make. At the same time, the US exports virtual water through goods it sells abroad.
As scarcity drives up the cost of fresh water, more efficient use of water will play a huge role, experts say, including:
• Superefficient drip irrigation is far more frugal than “flood” irrigation. But water’s low cost in the US provides little incentive to build new irrigation systems.
• Aging, leaking water pipes waste billions of gallons daily. The cost to fix them could be $500 billion over the next 30 years, the federal government estimates.
• Desalination. Dozens of plants are in planning stages or under construction in the US and abroad, reports say.
• Privatization. When private for-profit companies sell at a price based on what it costs to produce water, that higher price curbs water waste and water consumption, economists say.
In the US today, about 33.5 million Americans get their drinking water from privately owned utilities that make up about 16 percent of the nation’s community water systems, according to the National Association of Water Companies, a trade association.
“While water is essential to life, and we believe everyone deserves the right of access to water, that doesn’t mean water is free or should be provided free,” says Peter Cook, executive director of the NAWC. “Water should be priced at the cost to provide it – and subsidized for those who can’t afford it.”
But private companies’ promises of efficient, cost-effective water delivery have not always come true. Bolivia ejected giant engineering firm Bechtel in 2000, unhappy over the spiking cost of water for the city of Cochabamba. Last year Bolivia’s president publicly celebrated the departure of French water company Suez, which had held a 30-year contract to supply La Paz.
In her book, “Blue Covenant,” Maude Barlow – one of the leaders of the fledgling “water justice” movement – sees a dark future if private monopolies control access to fresh water. She sees this happening when, instead of curbing pollution and increasing conservation, governments throw up their hands and sell public water companies to the private sector or contract with private desalination companies.
“Water is a public resource and a human right that should be available to all,” she says. “All these companies are doing is recycling dirty water, selling it back to utilities and us at a huge price. But they haven’t been as successful as they want to be. People are concerned about their drinking water and they’ve met resistance.”
Private-water industry officials say those pushing to make water a “human right” are ideologues struggling to preserve inefficient public water authorities that sell water below the cost to produce it and so cheaply it is wasted – doing little to extend service to the poor.
“There are three basic things in life: food, water, and air,” says Paul Marin, who three years ago led a successful door-to-door campaign to keep the town council of Emmaus, Pa., from selling its local water company. “In this country, we have privatized our food. Now there’s a lot of interest in water on Wall Street…. But I can tell you it’s putting the fox in charge of the henhouse to privatize water. It’s a mistake.”
Water and war: Will scarcity lead to conflict?
Cherrapunjee, a town in eastern India, once held bragging rights as the “wettest place on earth,” and still gets nearly 40 feet of rain a year. Ironically, officials recently brought in Israeli water-management experts to help manage and retain water that today sluices off the area’s deforested landscape so that the area can get by in months when no rain falls.
“Global warming isn’t going to change the amount of water, but some places used to getting it won’t, and others that don’t, will get more,” says Dan Nees, a water-trading analyst with the World Resources Institute. “Water scarcity may be one of the most underappreciated global political and environmental challenges of our time.” Water woes could have an impact on global peace and stability.
In January, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon cited a report by International Alert, a self-described peacebuilding organization based in London. The report identified 46 countries with a combined population of 2.7 billion people where contention over water has created “a high risk of violent conflict” by 2025.
In the developing world – particularly in China, India, and other parts of Asia – rising economic success means a rising demand for clean water and an increased potential for conflict.
China is one of the world’s fastest-growing nations, but its lakes, rivers, and groundwater are badly polluted because of the widespread dumping of industrial wastes. Tibet has huge fresh water reserves.
While news reports have generally cited Tibetans’ concerns over exploitation of their natural resources by China, little has been reported about China’s keen interest in Tibet’s Himalayan water supplies, locked up in rapidly melting glaciers.
“It’s clear that one of the key reasons that China is interested in Tibet is its water,” Dr. Gleick says. “They don’t want to risk any loss of control over these water resources.”
The Times (London) reported in 2006 that China is proceeding with plans for nearly 200 miles of canals to divert water from the Himalayan plateau to China’s parched Yellow River. China’s water plans are a major problem for the Dalai Lama’s government in exile, says a report released this month by Circle of Blue, a branch of the Pacific Institute, a nonpartisan think tank.
Himalayan water is particularly sensitive because it supplies the rivers that bring water to more than half a dozen Asian countries. Plans to divert water could cause intense debate.
“Once this issue of water resources comes up,” wrote Elizabeth Economy, director of Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Affairs, to Circle of Blue researchers in a report earlier this month, “and it seems inevitable at this point that it will – it also raises emerging conflicts with India and Southeast Asia.”
Tibet is not the only water-rich country wary of a water-poor neighbor. Canada, which has immense fresh-water resources, is wary of its water-thirsty superpower neighbor to the south, observers say. With Lake Mead low in the US Southwest, and now Florida and Georgia squabbling over water, the US could certainly use a sip (or gulp) of Canada’s supplies. (Canada has 20 percent of the world’s fresh water.)
But don’t look for a water pipeline from Canada’s northern reaches to the US southwest anytime soon. Water raises national fervor in Canada, and Canadians are reluctant to share their birthright with a United States that has mismanaged – in Canada’s eyes – its own supplies. Indeed, the prospect of losing control of its water under free-trade or other agreements is something Canadians seem to worry about constantly.
A year ago, Canada’s House of Commons voted 134 to 108 in favor of a motion to recommend that its federal government “begin talks with its American and Mexican counterparts to exclude water from the scope of NAFTA.”
( More environment stories )
China Water: May 30, 2008: Growing ecological awareness in China.
Three stories (actually two stories and one excerpt from another story) that show clear signs of a growing ecological awareness in China. Furthermore that awareness is being put into action in business and housing projects.
Of course, trying to understand China brings to mind the classic story of the four blind men and the elephant each of which can only feel a small portion yet assumes he has been exposed to the whole. It's a big place with a lot going on and it's easy to misunderstand based on a brief exposure.
By the way, the third article does not appear to be China-related. Yet if you continue, about two thirds of the way down there is a reference to a carpet factory in Shanghai. (Hmmm, used to be there were carpet factories in New York state.)
Peter Huston
===
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90884/6421538.html
'Eco-city' to reclaim wasted land, water
+ -
09:39, May 30, 2008
China-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city to be set up
If 2007 was a year of exploration to find a feasible sustainable mode of development, 2008 will mark the start of practicing that considerable promise.
In less than two months, construction will begin on the 30 sq km Sino-Singaporean Tianjin Eco-city demonstration project, a joint effort between the two countries' governments.
Forty km from Tianjin city and 150 km from Beijing, the eco-city will be located along the Jiyun River in Hangu District of Tianjin Municipality, the largest northern port city of China. When finished in 10 to 15 years, it will include residences, commercial space and factories meeting high international standards for energy use and environmental protection.
"The Jiyun River was a golden waterway in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). More than 40 kinds of fish lived in the river at that time," said Cui Guangzhi, vice director of the Sino-Singaporean Eco-city Administrative Committee.
"But hundreds of years later the environment in the region has been destroyed," he said.
The eco-city will cover 10 sq km of salt pan, 10 sq km of desert and 10 sq km of land with water - but of poor quality.
High standards, a long perspective on sustainable growth, more efficient energy use and environmental protection will all provide a city of wealth in the future, said Premier Wen Jiabao.
Environmental repair
Improving the environment, both its water and land, is the core work for local officials.
Cui said that in the next five years, technicians will focus on improving water quality. "You will see no dirty river water or overgrowth of grass. You will see clear water and a growing population of fish," he said. "Beside the water, heavily polluted land is a core challenge in the first phase of the project," Cui said.
The eco-city will also be developed on three natural swamps where thousands of birds migrate every spring. "We will protect the three areas and they will become shining points when the project is completed," Cui said.
Renewable energy
In addition to aiding the environment, renewable energy is also crucial to the eco-city, the director said.
According to the project's master plan, it will use 15 percent more renewable energy by promoting solar, wind and geothermal energy, as well as renewable construction materials. "It is a bold target even from a global perspective," said an official, noting that a city's usual mix of renewable energy is around only 2 percent on average.
Developers say the Tianjin eco-city will save 70 percent of energy used in buildings. With more advanced technologies employed through the partnership between China and Singapore, the eco-city will also be an excellent example of saving water.
"For a country with limited supplies of water like China, especially in its northern provinces, rainwater collection and seawater desalination are both necessary and feasible," said Cui.
Rainwater collection solutions are wholly based on longer experience and technologies from Singapore.
Regional growth
Because only a small part of the development relies on the Tianjin Binhai New Area, the project's economic growth has to come from the entire region. Lower energy consumption is the core idea for its growth, with high-value, hi-tech and high-revenue the projected results.
When completed, the eco-city will become a national center for environmental technology research and development, Cui said.
"With the country's growing demand for green urban construction, we plan to attract large designing companies and organizations to form a designing center," he said.
Source:China Daily
===
http://www.specbookproblog.com/2008/05/green-buildings.html
The 309-meter-tall Pearl River Tower in Guangzhou, China, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, aims to be one of the most environmentally-friendly buildings in the world. Slated for completion in 2009, it too features turbines that turn wind into energy for the building's heating, ventilating and air conditioning.
===
http://www.portfolio.com/resources/insight-center/2008/05/30/A-Road-Map-for-Natural-Capitalism
A Road Map for Natural Capitalism
by Amory B. Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins, and Paul Hawken
Think eco-friendly practices and profits don't mix? Think again.
The earth’s ability to sustain life is in peril—as companies consume natural resources in ways that prevent ecosystems from regenerating our air, water, and food supplies. For example, clear-cutting forests for wood fiber damages forests’ ability to store water, provide animal habitats, and regulate climate.
Why such rampant exploitation? Unlike the value derived from consuming natural resources, the value of ecosystems’ most crucial services don’t appear on balance sheets. Yet that value is worth $33 trillion a year.
You can capture some of that $33 trillion and help restore the planet by practicing natural capitalism—conducting business profitably while also protecting natural resources. Some strategies suggested by Amory Lovins, Hunter Lovins, and Paul Hawken: Adopt technologies that extend natural resources’ usefulness. Design production systems that eliminate costly waste. And reinvest in nature’s capital; for instance, by planting trees to offset power-plant carbon emissions.
Work with nature, and you boost profitability—pulling ahead of rivals who continue to work against nature.
The Idea in Practice
The authors recommend these steps to natural capitalism:
Increase Natural Resources’ Productivity
Develop dramatically more efficient production processes that stretch natural resources—energy, minerals, water, forests—5, 10, even 100 times further than they go today. You’ll ensure that these resources pay for themselves over time. And you may save on initial capital investments.
Example:
In its new Shanghai carpet factory, Interface redesigned their process for pumping liquids by using fatter-than-usual pipes, which created less friction than thin pipes do. The move cut power requirements by 92%. The new system also cost less to build, involved no new technology, and worked better than traditional systems in all respects.
Imitate Biological Production Models
In nature, nothing goes to waste. Ensure that every output of your manufacturing processes is composted into useful natural resources or recycled for further production. You’ll preserve ecosystems while eliminating the cost of waste disposal.
Example:
Interface invented a new floor-covering material, Solenium, which can be completely recycled into the identical floor product, reducing landfill waste. Solenium lasts four times longer and uses 40% less material than ordinary carpets. It’s toxin-free and stainproof, resists mildew growth, and is easily cleaned with water. Between 1994 and 1998, Interface’s revenues rose by $200 million. Of those revenues, $67 million has been attributed to the company’s decreased waste.
Change Your Business Model
Your customers don’t necessarily need to own your products. Often they merely need to be able to use them. Therefore, consider shifting your business model from selling products to providing services.
Example:
Interface realized clients want to walk on and look at carpets—not necessarily own them. So it transformed itself from a company that sells carpets into one that provides floor-covering services. It leases its service for a monthly fee, taking responsibility for keeping its carpets clean and replacing worn carpet tiles. This business model vastly reduces the amount of carpeting sent to landfills. And it improves customers’ productivity by eliminating the need to close offices and remove furniture to replace entire carpets.
Reinvest in Natural Capital
Reinvest in restoring, sustaining, and expanding your natural habitat and biological resource base. You’ll gain a public reputation for environmental responsibility—which translates into profitability.
Example:
Engineering company Living Technologies has developed a system that uses linked tanks of bacteria, algae, and plants to turn sewage into clean water. Its approach yields cleaner water at a reduced cost, with no toxicity or odor (making it compatible with the company’s residential neighborhood).
Of course, trying to understand China brings to mind the classic story of the four blind men and the elephant each of which can only feel a small portion yet assumes he has been exposed to the whole. It's a big place with a lot going on and it's easy to misunderstand based on a brief exposure.
By the way, the third article does not appear to be China-related. Yet if you continue, about two thirds of the way down there is a reference to a carpet factory in Shanghai. (Hmmm, used to be there were carpet factories in New York state.)
Peter Huston
===
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90776/90884/6421538.html
'Eco-city' to reclaim wasted land, water
+ -
09:39, May 30, 2008
China-Singapore Tianjin Eco-city to be set up
If 2007 was a year of exploration to find a feasible sustainable mode of development, 2008 will mark the start of practicing that considerable promise.
In less than two months, construction will begin on the 30 sq km Sino-Singaporean Tianjin Eco-city demonstration project, a joint effort between the two countries' governments.
Forty km from Tianjin city and 150 km from Beijing, the eco-city will be located along the Jiyun River in Hangu District of Tianjin Municipality, the largest northern port city of China. When finished in 10 to 15 years, it will include residences, commercial space and factories meeting high international standards for energy use and environmental protection.
"The Jiyun River was a golden waterway in the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644). More than 40 kinds of fish lived in the river at that time," said Cui Guangzhi, vice director of the Sino-Singaporean Eco-city Administrative Committee.
"But hundreds of years later the environment in the region has been destroyed," he said.
The eco-city will cover 10 sq km of salt pan, 10 sq km of desert and 10 sq km of land with water - but of poor quality.
High standards, a long perspective on sustainable growth, more efficient energy use and environmental protection will all provide a city of wealth in the future, said Premier Wen Jiabao.
Environmental repair
Improving the environment, both its water and land, is the core work for local officials.
Cui said that in the next five years, technicians will focus on improving water quality. "You will see no dirty river water or overgrowth of grass. You will see clear water and a growing population of fish," he said. "Beside the water, heavily polluted land is a core challenge in the first phase of the project," Cui said.
The eco-city will also be developed on three natural swamps where thousands of birds migrate every spring. "We will protect the three areas and they will become shining points when the project is completed," Cui said.
Renewable energy
In addition to aiding the environment, renewable energy is also crucial to the eco-city, the director said.
According to the project's master plan, it will use 15 percent more renewable energy by promoting solar, wind and geothermal energy, as well as renewable construction materials. "It is a bold target even from a global perspective," said an official, noting that a city's usual mix of renewable energy is around only 2 percent on average.
Developers say the Tianjin eco-city will save 70 percent of energy used in buildings. With more advanced technologies employed through the partnership between China and Singapore, the eco-city will also be an excellent example of saving water.
"For a country with limited supplies of water like China, especially in its northern provinces, rainwater collection and seawater desalination are both necessary and feasible," said Cui.
Rainwater collection solutions are wholly based on longer experience and technologies from Singapore.
Regional growth
Because only a small part of the development relies on the Tianjin Binhai New Area, the project's economic growth has to come from the entire region. Lower energy consumption is the core idea for its growth, with high-value, hi-tech and high-revenue the projected results.
When completed, the eco-city will become a national center for environmental technology research and development, Cui said.
"With the country's growing demand for green urban construction, we plan to attract large designing companies and organizations to form a designing center," he said.
Source:China Daily
===
http://www.specbookproblog.com/2008/05/green-buildings.html
The 309-meter-tall Pearl River Tower in Guangzhou, China, designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, aims to be one of the most environmentally-friendly buildings in the world. Slated for completion in 2009, it too features turbines that turn wind into energy for the building's heating, ventilating and air conditioning.
===
http://www.portfolio.com/resources/insight-center/2008/05/30/A-Road-Map-for-Natural-Capitalism
A Road Map for Natural Capitalism
by Amory B. Lovins, L. Hunter Lovins, and Paul Hawken
Think eco-friendly practices and profits don't mix? Think again.
The earth’s ability to sustain life is in peril—as companies consume natural resources in ways that prevent ecosystems from regenerating our air, water, and food supplies. For example, clear-cutting forests for wood fiber damages forests’ ability to store water, provide animal habitats, and regulate climate.
Why such rampant exploitation? Unlike the value derived from consuming natural resources, the value of ecosystems’ most crucial services don’t appear on balance sheets. Yet that value is worth $33 trillion a year.
You can capture some of that $33 trillion and help restore the planet by practicing natural capitalism—conducting business profitably while also protecting natural resources. Some strategies suggested by Amory Lovins, Hunter Lovins, and Paul Hawken: Adopt technologies that extend natural resources’ usefulness. Design production systems that eliminate costly waste. And reinvest in nature’s capital; for instance, by planting trees to offset power-plant carbon emissions.
Work with nature, and you boost profitability—pulling ahead of rivals who continue to work against nature.
The Idea in Practice
The authors recommend these steps to natural capitalism:
Increase Natural Resources’ Productivity
Develop dramatically more efficient production processes that stretch natural resources—energy, minerals, water, forests—5, 10, even 100 times further than they go today. You’ll ensure that these resources pay for themselves over time. And you may save on initial capital investments.
Example:
In its new Shanghai carpet factory, Interface redesigned their process for pumping liquids by using fatter-than-usual pipes, which created less friction than thin pipes do. The move cut power requirements by 92%. The new system also cost less to build, involved no new technology, and worked better than traditional systems in all respects.
Imitate Biological Production Models
In nature, nothing goes to waste. Ensure that every output of your manufacturing processes is composted into useful natural resources or recycled for further production. You’ll preserve ecosystems while eliminating the cost of waste disposal.
Example:
Interface invented a new floor-covering material, Solenium, which can be completely recycled into the identical floor product, reducing landfill waste. Solenium lasts four times longer and uses 40% less material than ordinary carpets. It’s toxin-free and stainproof, resists mildew growth, and is easily cleaned with water. Between 1994 and 1998, Interface’s revenues rose by $200 million. Of those revenues, $67 million has been attributed to the company’s decreased waste.
Change Your Business Model
Your customers don’t necessarily need to own your products. Often they merely need to be able to use them. Therefore, consider shifting your business model from selling products to providing services.
Example:
Interface realized clients want to walk on and look at carpets—not necessarily own them. So it transformed itself from a company that sells carpets into one that provides floor-covering services. It leases its service for a monthly fee, taking responsibility for keeping its carpets clean and replacing worn carpet tiles. This business model vastly reduces the amount of carpeting sent to landfills. And it improves customers’ productivity by eliminating the need to close offices and remove furniture to replace entire carpets.
Reinvest in Natural Capital
Reinvest in restoring, sustaining, and expanding your natural habitat and biological resource base. You’ll gain a public reputation for environmental responsibility—which translates into profitability.
Example:
Engineering company Living Technologies has developed a system that uses linked tanks of bacteria, algae, and plants to turn sewage into clean water. Its approach yields cleaner water at a reduced cost, with no toxicity or odor (making it compatible with the company’s residential neighborhood).
Thursday, May 29, 2008
China Water: May 29, 2008: Floods kill 50 in Guizhou area.
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-33799220080528
Floods kill 50 in China after torrential rains
Wed May 28, 2008 3:59pm IST
BEIJING (Reuters) - Torrential rain in southern and eastern China has killed at least 50 people in the past week and left 4,000 stranded, state media said on Wednesday, a fortnight after a big earthquake rattled Sichuan province.
The poor and remote southwestern province of Guizhou has been hardest hit, with 36 dead and another 14 missing, the official Xinhua news agency said.
"Tents, quilts and clothes have been sent to Wangmo County in Guizhou, which has been severely hit by rain and floods," it added.
Hunan, Hubei and Guangxi provinces have also been affected, and hundreds of buildings have been buried by landslides and roads cut-off, Xinhua said.
The China Meteorological Administration warned that more rain is expected in eastern and southern China over the next three days, it added.
"The State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters issued a warning urging provinces to keep a close watch on the changing weather and act to avert possible danger," Xinhua said.
The floods occurred as authorities frantically try to drain hundreds of endangered reservoirs and dozens of lakes formed by landslides triggered by the severe earthquake which hit southwest Sichuan province on May 12.
Officials have warned that heavy summer rains could place further pressure on dams, which if breached, would endanger tens of thousands of people in downstream villages.
Global water: May 29, 2008: GE announces it will cut water usage by 20percent.
Two stories about General Electric's announcement to cut water consumption globally by 20 percent. I'm afraid I agree with the General Electric statements. (Need proof I believe this? Did I mention that I run a blog on the subject?)
Peter Huston
===
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/may/29/generalelectric.greenbusiness
Water shortages and drought are the next scourge, warns US group
· General Electric aims to cut its own use by 20%
· Plan for heavy investment in recycling technologies
* David Gow in Brussels
* The Guardian,
* Thursday May 29 2008
* Article history
The next scourge to afflict the global economy after soaring oil and food prices will be a surge in the cost of water brought on by growing scarcity, one of the world's biggest companies warned yesterday.
General Electric, the US industrial group, said it would cut its own use of water by 20% by 2012 and export water-saving and recycling technology to countries - often emerging economies - hit by shortages. Jeff Immelt, chief executive, said in Beijing: "We believe that, just as greenhouse gas emissions have been a big societal challenge, the same thing is true for water."
Lorraine Bolsinger, vice-president of GE's Ecomagination green technology division, added: "There is going to be a price on water that is going to reflect its scarcity in a way it doesn't today. We're going to see that change over time - certainly in emerging markets."
The move by GE comes as scientists are warning that 50% of the world's nations will be hit by water shortages by 2025 and 75% by 2050. Barcelona is already importing water from France.
Drought, already one source of surging food prices and water shortages could prompt fresh outbreaks of war and terrorism as global warming, if unchecked, spreads desertification around the world and causes increasing crop failures, they say. A billion of the world's poorest people drink unsafe water, according to Unicef. Senior UN officials warned MEPs this year that nuclear power plants in Europe and the US could face shutdown because of a lack of cooling water, while the switch to biofuels was proving a big drain on dwindling supplies.
A cabinet office report predicted that by 2050 half of arable land in the world might no longer be suitable for production because of water shortages and climate change. By then the global population is expected to have grown from today's 6.3 billion to 9 billion.
GE said its water reduction target would save 7.4m cubic metres of fresh water - enough to fill more than 3,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
John Rice, GE vice-chairman and head of its infrastructure division, said in Brussels it was impossible to calculate cost-savings as the price of water was bound to rise over the next few years.
The group plans to employ water re-cycling technologies at more than 1,000 plants around the world - mainly in the US, Europe and Asia. Rice said some of the sites would cut water usage by more than others. "We expect that we will be able to improve and continue improving technologies which we will then be offering to other companies in other countries."
Immelt added: "We will use our broad portfolio to reduce water consumption, ensure long-term supplies and increase operational returns at GE facilities around the world."
DuPont, the US chemicals group, has set itself a target of a 30% reduction in water consumption by 2015, while Coca-Cola has said it has achieved a cut of almost 20% since 2003.
The GE initiative is under the umbrella of Ecomagination, which includes energy-saving lighting and renewable energy. It boosted its sales to 8% of global turnover last year.
The group, which reduced its own greenhouse gas emissions by 8% last year, separately announced a deal with oilfield services company Schlumberger to develop clean coal technology.
===
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g9Iot2x1U6u0yBeXY76abLPg4fKQD90UNGAG1
GE to cut water usage by 20 percent
By JOE McDONALD – 21 hours ago
BEIJING (AP) — General Electric Co. will cut its global water use by 20 percent over five years, CEO Jeff Immelt said Wednesday.
Immelt also spoke of leading acquisition candidates for GE's appliance unit, which the company said this month was up for sale.
"We believe just like greenhouse gas emissions have been a big societal challenge, the same thing is true for water," Immelt said at a news conference in the Chinese capital. "We are committed to using our technology both inside and outside the company to reduce our water consumption by 20 percent by the year 2012."
The Fairfield, Conn.-based company said it used 10 billion gallons of fresh water in 2006 for cooling towers and other manufacturing processes. GE will re-evaluate its worldwide water usage, Immelt said, and will reduce it by about 1.8 billion gallons a year.
GE also raised sales targets for its three-year-old initiative to promote environmentally friendly technology, Immelt said.
GE sales of energy efficient, water saving and pollution reducing products and services exceeded $14 billion in 2007, Immelt said.
GE's previous revenue target for its "ecomagination" initiative was for $20 billion in annual sales by 2010. Immelt said the company is now raising that target to $25 billion.
Speaking earlier Wednesday in Seoul, Immelt said South Korea's LG Electronics is a leading candidate to buy GE's appliance unit, which is being sold or spun off.
Asked in Beijing whether China's Haier Electronics Group might also be a potential buyer, Immelt said, "Much still has to be decided in that area and whether LG or Haier or Electrolux or others participate remains to be seen."
In Seoul, Immelt said Haier and Mexico's Controladora Mabe, a unit of Controladora Comercial Mexicana, were companies that could make bids, and said interest has also come from Turkey.
LG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday in a regulatory filing it has made no decisions on a possible bid. The Korea Exchange had earlier asked LG to clarify media reports it might be in the running for the appliance unit.
LG Electronics Chief Executive Yong Nam had said Tuesday that his company was closely watching developments on GE's proposed sale, saying that the entire appliance industry could be reshaped by the outcome.
Haier already has a partnership in some areas with GE and made an unsuccessful bid in 2005 to buy the U.S. appliance maker Maytag.
GE also plans to sell its consumer finance unit in Japan. Immelt said GE expects to name a buyer from among several Japanese bidders by the end of June and close the deal this year.
GE shares fell 3 cents to $30.37 Wednesday.
Peter Huston
===
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/may/29/generalelectric.greenbusiness
Water shortages and drought are the next scourge, warns US group
· General Electric aims to cut its own use by 20%
· Plan for heavy investment in recycling technologies
* David Gow in Brussels
* The Guardian,
* Thursday May 29 2008
* Article history
The next scourge to afflict the global economy after soaring oil and food prices will be a surge in the cost of water brought on by growing scarcity, one of the world's biggest companies warned yesterday.
General Electric, the US industrial group, said it would cut its own use of water by 20% by 2012 and export water-saving and recycling technology to countries - often emerging economies - hit by shortages. Jeff Immelt, chief executive, said in Beijing: "We believe that, just as greenhouse gas emissions have been a big societal challenge, the same thing is true for water."
Lorraine Bolsinger, vice-president of GE's Ecomagination green technology division, added: "There is going to be a price on water that is going to reflect its scarcity in a way it doesn't today. We're going to see that change over time - certainly in emerging markets."
The move by GE comes as scientists are warning that 50% of the world's nations will be hit by water shortages by 2025 and 75% by 2050. Barcelona is already importing water from France.
Drought, already one source of surging food prices and water shortages could prompt fresh outbreaks of war and terrorism as global warming, if unchecked, spreads desertification around the world and causes increasing crop failures, they say. A billion of the world's poorest people drink unsafe water, according to Unicef. Senior UN officials warned MEPs this year that nuclear power plants in Europe and the US could face shutdown because of a lack of cooling water, while the switch to biofuels was proving a big drain on dwindling supplies.
A cabinet office report predicted that by 2050 half of arable land in the world might no longer be suitable for production because of water shortages and climate change. By then the global population is expected to have grown from today's 6.3 billion to 9 billion.
GE said its water reduction target would save 7.4m cubic metres of fresh water - enough to fill more than 3,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
John Rice, GE vice-chairman and head of its infrastructure division, said in Brussels it was impossible to calculate cost-savings as the price of water was bound to rise over the next few years.
The group plans to employ water re-cycling technologies at more than 1,000 plants around the world - mainly in the US, Europe and Asia. Rice said some of the sites would cut water usage by more than others. "We expect that we will be able to improve and continue improving technologies which we will then be offering to other companies in other countries."
Immelt added: "We will use our broad portfolio to reduce water consumption, ensure long-term supplies and increase operational returns at GE facilities around the world."
DuPont, the US chemicals group, has set itself a target of a 30% reduction in water consumption by 2015, while Coca-Cola has said it has achieved a cut of almost 20% since 2003.
The GE initiative is under the umbrella of Ecomagination, which includes energy-saving lighting and renewable energy. It boosted its sales to 8% of global turnover last year.
The group, which reduced its own greenhouse gas emissions by 8% last year, separately announced a deal with oilfield services company Schlumberger to develop clean coal technology.
===
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g9Iot2x1U6u0yBeXY76abLPg4fKQD90UNGAG1
GE to cut water usage by 20 percent
By JOE McDONALD – 21 hours ago
BEIJING (AP) — General Electric Co. will cut its global water use by 20 percent over five years, CEO Jeff Immelt said Wednesday.
Immelt also spoke of leading acquisition candidates for GE's appliance unit, which the company said this month was up for sale.
"We believe just like greenhouse gas emissions have been a big societal challenge, the same thing is true for water," Immelt said at a news conference in the Chinese capital. "We are committed to using our technology both inside and outside the company to reduce our water consumption by 20 percent by the year 2012."
The Fairfield, Conn.-based company said it used 10 billion gallons of fresh water in 2006 for cooling towers and other manufacturing processes. GE will re-evaluate its worldwide water usage, Immelt said, and will reduce it by about 1.8 billion gallons a year.
GE also raised sales targets for its three-year-old initiative to promote environmentally friendly technology, Immelt said.
GE sales of energy efficient, water saving and pollution reducing products and services exceeded $14 billion in 2007, Immelt said.
GE's previous revenue target for its "ecomagination" initiative was for $20 billion in annual sales by 2010. Immelt said the company is now raising that target to $25 billion.
Speaking earlier Wednesday in Seoul, Immelt said South Korea's LG Electronics is a leading candidate to buy GE's appliance unit, which is being sold or spun off.
Asked in Beijing whether China's Haier Electronics Group might also be a potential buyer, Immelt said, "Much still has to be decided in that area and whether LG or Haier or Electrolux or others participate remains to be seen."
In Seoul, Immelt said Haier and Mexico's Controladora Mabe, a unit of Controladora Comercial Mexicana, were companies that could make bids, and said interest has also come from Turkey.
LG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday in a regulatory filing it has made no decisions on a possible bid. The Korea Exchange had earlier asked LG to clarify media reports it might be in the running for the appliance unit.
LG Electronics Chief Executive Yong Nam had said Tuesday that his company was closely watching developments on GE's proposed sale, saying that the entire appliance industry could be reshaped by the outcome.
Haier already has a partnership in some areas with GE and made an unsuccessful bid in 2005 to buy the U.S. appliance maker Maytag.
GE also plans to sell its consumer finance unit in Japan. Immelt said GE expects to name a buyer from among several Japanese bidders by the end of June and close the deal this year.
GE shares fell 3 cents to $30.37 Wednesday.
Global water: May 29, 2008: GE announces it will cut water usage by 20percent. romises cuts water
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/may/29/generalelectric.greenbusiness
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/may/29/generalelectric.greenbusiness
Water shortages and drought are the next scourge, warns US group
· General Electric aims to cut its own use by 20%
· Plan for heavy investment in recycling technologies
* David Gow in Brussels
* The Guardian,
* Thursday May 29 2008
* Article history
The next scourge to afflict the global economy after soaring oil and food prices will be a surge in the cost of water brought on by growing scarcity, one of the world's biggest companies warned yesterday.
General Electric, the US industrial group, said it would cut its own use of water by 20% by 2012 and export water-saving and recycling technology to countries - often emerging economies - hit by shortages. Jeff Immelt, chief executive, said in Beijing: "We believe that, just as greenhouse gas emissions have been a big societal challenge, the same thing is true for water."
Lorraine Bolsinger, vice-president of GE's Ecomagination green technology division, added: "There is going to be a price on water that is going to reflect its scarcity in a way it doesn't today. We're going to see that change over time - certainly in emerging markets."
The move by GE comes as scientists are warning that 50% of the world's nations will be hit by water shortages by 2025 and 75% by 2050. Barcelona is already importing water from France.
Drought, already one source of surging food prices and water shortages could prompt fresh outbreaks of war and terrorism as global warming, if unchecked, spreads desertification around the world and causes increasing crop failures, they say. A billion of the world's poorest people drink unsafe water, according to Unicef. Senior UN officials warned MEPs this year that nuclear power plants in Europe and the US could face shutdown because of a lack of cooling water, while the switch to biofuels was proving a big drain on dwindling supplies.
A cabinet office report predicted that by 2050 half of arable land in the world might no longer be suitable for production because of water shortages and climate change. By then the global population is expected to have grown from today's 6.3 billion to 9 billion.
GE said its water reduction target would save 7.4m cubic metres of fresh water - enough to fill more than 3,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
John Rice, GE vice-chairman and head of its infrastructure division, said in Brussels it was impossible to calculate cost-savings as the price of water was bound to rise over the next few years.
The group plans to employ water re-cycling technologies at more than 1,000 plants around the world - mainly in the US, Europe and Asia. Rice said some of the sites would cut water usage by more than others. "We expect that we will be able to improve and continue improving technologies which we will then be offering to other companies in other countries."
Immelt added: "We will use our broad portfolio to reduce water consumption, ensure long-term supplies and increase operational returns at GE facilities around the world."
DuPont, the US chemicals group, has set itself a target of a 30% reduction in water consumption by 2015, while Coca-Cola has said it has achieved a cut of almost 20% since 2003.
The GE initiative is under the umbrella of Ecomagination, which includes energy-saving lighting and renewable energy. It boosted its sales to 8% of global turnover last year.
The group, which reduced its own greenhouse gas emissions by 8% last year, separately announced a deal with oilfield services company Schlumberger to develop clean coal technology.
===
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g9Iot2x1U6u0yBeXY76abLPg4fKQD90UNGAG1
e
GE to cut water usage by 20 percent
By JOE McDONALD – 21 hours ago
BEIJING (AP) — General Electric Co. will cut its global water use by 20 percent over five years, CEO Jeff Immelt said Wednesday.
Immelt also spoke of leading acquisition candidates for GE's appliance unit, which the company said this month was up for sale.
"We believe just like greenhouse gas emissions have been a big societal challenge, the same thing is true for water," Immelt said at a news conference in the Chinese capital. "We are committed to using our technology both inside and outside the company to reduce our water consumption by 20 percent by the year 2012."
The Fairfield, Conn.-based company said it used 10 billion gallons of fresh water in 2006 for cooling towers and other manufacturing processes. GE will re-evaluate its worldwide water usage, Immelt said, and will reduce it by about 1.8 billion gallons a year.
GE also raised sales targets for its three-year-old initiative to promote environmentally friendly technology, Immelt said.
GE sales of energy efficient, water saving and pollution reducing products and services exceeded $14 billion in 2007, Immelt said.
GE's previous revenue target for its "ecomagination" initiative was for $20 billion in annual sales by 2010. Immelt said the company is now raising that target to $25 billion.
Speaking earlier Wednesday in Seoul, Immelt said South Korea's LG Electronics is a leading candidate to buy GE's appliance unit, which is being sold or spun off.
Asked in Beijing whether China's Haier Electronics Group might also be a potential buyer, Immelt said, "Much still has to be decided in that area and whether LG or Haier or Electrolux or others participate remains to be seen."
In Seoul, Immelt said Haier and Mexico's Controladora Mabe, a unit of Controladora Comercial Mexicana, were companies that could make bids, and said interest has also come from Turkey.
LG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday in a regulatory filing it has made no decisions on a possible bid. The Korea Exchange had earlier asked LG to clarify media reports it might be in the running for the appliance unit.
LG Electronics Chief Executive Yong Nam had said Tuesday that his company was closely watching developments on GE's proposed sale, saying that the entire appliance industry could be reshaped by the outcome.
Haier already has a partnership in some areas with GE and made an unsuccessful bid in 2005 to buy the U.S. appliance maker Maytag.
GE also plans to sell its consumer finance unit in Japan. Immelt said GE expects to name a buyer from among several Japanese bidders by the end of June and close the deal this year.
GE shares fell 3 cents to $30.37 Wednesday.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2008/may/29/generalelectric.greenbusiness
Water shortages and drought are the next scourge, warns US group
· General Electric aims to cut its own use by 20%
· Plan for heavy investment in recycling technologies
* David Gow in Brussels
* The Guardian,
* Thursday May 29 2008
* Article history
The next scourge to afflict the global economy after soaring oil and food prices will be a surge in the cost of water brought on by growing scarcity, one of the world's biggest companies warned yesterday.
General Electric, the US industrial group, said it would cut its own use of water by 20% by 2012 and export water-saving and recycling technology to countries - often emerging economies - hit by shortages. Jeff Immelt, chief executive, said in Beijing: "We believe that, just as greenhouse gas emissions have been a big societal challenge, the same thing is true for water."
Lorraine Bolsinger, vice-president of GE's Ecomagination green technology division, added: "There is going to be a price on water that is going to reflect its scarcity in a way it doesn't today. We're going to see that change over time - certainly in emerging markets."
The move by GE comes as scientists are warning that 50% of the world's nations will be hit by water shortages by 2025 and 75% by 2050. Barcelona is already importing water from France.
Drought, already one source of surging food prices and water shortages could prompt fresh outbreaks of war and terrorism as global warming, if unchecked, spreads desertification around the world and causes increasing crop failures, they say. A billion of the world's poorest people drink unsafe water, according to Unicef. Senior UN officials warned MEPs this year that nuclear power plants in Europe and the US could face shutdown because of a lack of cooling water, while the switch to biofuels was proving a big drain on dwindling supplies.
A cabinet office report predicted that by 2050 half of arable land in the world might no longer be suitable for production because of water shortages and climate change. By then the global population is expected to have grown from today's 6.3 billion to 9 billion.
GE said its water reduction target would save 7.4m cubic metres of fresh water - enough to fill more than 3,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.
John Rice, GE vice-chairman and head of its infrastructure division, said in Brussels it was impossible to calculate cost-savings as the price of water was bound to rise over the next few years.
The group plans to employ water re-cycling technologies at more than 1,000 plants around the world - mainly in the US, Europe and Asia. Rice said some of the sites would cut water usage by more than others. "We expect that we will be able to improve and continue improving technologies which we will then be offering to other companies in other countries."
Immelt added: "We will use our broad portfolio to reduce water consumption, ensure long-term supplies and increase operational returns at GE facilities around the world."
DuPont, the US chemicals group, has set itself a target of a 30% reduction in water consumption by 2015, while Coca-Cola has said it has achieved a cut of almost 20% since 2003.
The GE initiative is under the umbrella of Ecomagination, which includes energy-saving lighting and renewable energy. It boosted its sales to 8% of global turnover last year.
The group, which reduced its own greenhouse gas emissions by 8% last year, separately announced a deal with oilfield services company Schlumberger to develop clean coal technology.
===
http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5g9Iot2x1U6u0yBeXY76abLPg4fKQD90UNGAG1
e
GE to cut water usage by 20 percent
By JOE McDONALD – 21 hours ago
BEIJING (AP) — General Electric Co. will cut its global water use by 20 percent over five years, CEO Jeff Immelt said Wednesday.
Immelt also spoke of leading acquisition candidates for GE's appliance unit, which the company said this month was up for sale.
"We believe just like greenhouse gas emissions have been a big societal challenge, the same thing is true for water," Immelt said at a news conference in the Chinese capital. "We are committed to using our technology both inside and outside the company to reduce our water consumption by 20 percent by the year 2012."
The Fairfield, Conn.-based company said it used 10 billion gallons of fresh water in 2006 for cooling towers and other manufacturing processes. GE will re-evaluate its worldwide water usage, Immelt said, and will reduce it by about 1.8 billion gallons a year.
GE also raised sales targets for its three-year-old initiative to promote environmentally friendly technology, Immelt said.
GE sales of energy efficient, water saving and pollution reducing products and services exceeded $14 billion in 2007, Immelt said.
GE's previous revenue target for its "ecomagination" initiative was for $20 billion in annual sales by 2010. Immelt said the company is now raising that target to $25 billion.
Speaking earlier Wednesday in Seoul, Immelt said South Korea's LG Electronics is a leading candidate to buy GE's appliance unit, which is being sold or spun off.
Asked in Beijing whether China's Haier Electronics Group might also be a potential buyer, Immelt said, "Much still has to be decided in that area and whether LG or Haier or Electrolux or others participate remains to be seen."
In Seoul, Immelt said Haier and Mexico's Controladora Mabe, a unit of Controladora Comercial Mexicana, were companies that could make bids, and said interest has also come from Turkey.
LG Electronics Inc. said Wednesday in a regulatory filing it has made no decisions on a possible bid. The Korea Exchange had earlier asked LG to clarify media reports it might be in the running for the appliance unit.
LG Electronics Chief Executive Yong Nam had said Tuesday that his company was closely watching developments on GE's proposed sale, saying that the entire appliance industry could be reshaped by the outcome.
Haier already has a partnership in some areas with GE and made an unsuccessful bid in 2005 to buy the U.S. appliance maker Maytag.
GE also plans to sell its consumer finance unit in Japan. Immelt said GE expects to name a buyer from among several Japanese bidders by the end of June and close the deal this year.
GE shares fell 3 cents to $30.37 Wednesday.
Asia Water:May 29, 2008: Singapore Water Show.
Interesting looking conference and a lot can be learned by examining what is being discussed.
I wonder if Taiwan will be involved? (Taiwan, due to its unusual international status and China's objection, is not able to participate officially in WHO activities. Personally, I feel that this puts not just Taiwan and Taiwanese people at risk, but also everyone who lives in a country that does business with or has citizens traveling to and from Taiwan.)
Peter Huston
===
http://www.siww.com.sg/
http://www.siww.com.sg/newsroom/26may08.php
News
26 May 2008
Singapore to Host High-Level International Water Meetings in June
A gathering of WHO experts, an ASEAN working group meet and international collaborations between Singapore and water agencies from the region are just some of the events being held on the sidelines of Singapore International Water Week
SINGAPORE (26 May 2008) –Singapore will play host to more than 20 international high-level meetings, forums, award ceremonies and workshops on the sidelines of Singapore International Water Week, the global event on water solutions which will be held here from 23 to 27 June 2008.
For the first time in Singapore, the World Health Organisation (WHO) will be holding an international meeting on the fourth edition of the WHO guidelines on drinking-water quality from 19-23 June 2008. More than 20 WHO water quality experts will be in Singapore to review the work for the 4th edition of the WHO guidelines on drinking water quality which will be used by both developing and developed countries worldwide as the basis for regulation and standard setting to ensure the safety of drinking-water.
In its capacity as the WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention, the Singapore Health Promotion Board is also organising a sharing session (23 June 2008) on “Healthy Cities for a Sustainable Future”, to highlight the role governments and NGOs can play in building healthy communities.
“The Singapore International Water Week is attracting many top figures from governments, international organisations, NGOs, business and academia to our shores, so it presents the perfect opportunity for us to organise concurrent meetings for various international and regional leaders in the water industry. This is very much in line with our vision to make Singapore a Global Hydrohub and for Singapore International Water Week to be the global platform for water solutions,” said Mr Michael Toh, General Manager of Singapore International Water Week 2008.
Also held for the first time in Singapore is the workshop on new concepts in integrated management of the urban water cycle jointly organised by UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Asian Development Bank and PUB, Singapore’s national water agency. The workshop on 22 June 2008 will see participants from Asia-Pacific countries such as China, India, Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. They will be introduced to state-of-the-art concepts in urban water management and the adaptation and transfer of technology and knowledge to regional mega-cities.
For the first time in Asia, the Global Water Research Coalition (GWRC) will be holding their twice-yearly Board of Directors Meeting in Singapore from 22 to 23 June 2008. 15 leading water research organisations in the world will meet to update on projects in progress and to discuss on new research ideas.
Two international award ceremonies will also be held on the sidelines of Singapore International Water Week.
The International Water Association (IWA) Project Innovation Awards ceremony which celebrates excellence and innovation in water engineering projects worldwide will be held in Singapore on 26 June 2008. The programme runs on a two-year cycle with the regional projects awarded at three regional forums (North America, Europe and East Asia and Pacific) and the global projects awarded at the biennial IWA Congress (which will be held in Vienna in September 2008). The ceremony in Singapore will present innovation awards for the East Asia & Pacific region.
The inaugural International Desalination Association (IDA) Fellowship award ceremony is the second award ceremony to be held in Singapore. The IDA Fellowship Scheme which was established last year, aims to promote knowledge sharing and information exchange through attachments of professionals to major water companies. The value of the IDA Fellowship Award is US$10,000 and IDA had chosen PUB to be the first hosting agency for the inaugural IDA Fellowship Award where the IDA Fellow will be attached to spearhead a project about desalination or water reuse. The selection committee has selected two IDA Fellows this year. They are Mr Salah I. Al Khamis from Saline Water Conversion Corp, Saudi Arabia and Mr Jorge Arroyo from Texas Water Development Board.
There are also three youth-focused events that will be held concurrently during the week. They are the inaugural Singapore Junior Water Prize (9 June 2008), a contest for students aged 15 to 20, the winners of which will be sent to an international event in Stockholm; the Symposium for Young Water Talents (23 June 2008), for graduate students doing water-related research; and the National Youth Achievement Awards / Gold Award Holders Alumni’s 2nd Asia Pacific Youth Water Forum (24-26 June 2008), where 150 youth leaders from Singapore and 30 from the region will discuss sustainable water management and solutions.
Other international co-located events during Singapore International Water Week include:
* South-east Asian Water Utilities Network (SEAWUN) Board of Directors Meeting which is non-governmental organisation with 56 members that include water utilities, water associations and consulting companies from across Southeast Asia. SEAWUN aims to strengthen regional ties and improve performance in the water and sanitation sector.
* The Asia-Pacific Water Forum Governing Council (APWF) chaired by Professor Tommy Koh, Ambassador-at-large, will be holding its 3rd meeting in Singapore. The APWF‘s goal is to contribute to sustainable water management in order to achieve the targets at the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Asia and the Pacific region.
For the full list of co-located events during the Singapore International Water Week, log on to http://www.siww.com.sg/aboutevent/colocatingevents.php
During the Singapore International Water Week from 23 to 27 June 2008, over 200 top policy makers, ministers, mayors, academics and decision-makers in the water industry and international organisations such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank will be in Singapore for the Water Leaders Summit, one of the key components of the Water Week. Some 600 delegates will also attend the Water Convention, a scientific conference on technology and practical solutions in the water industry. In addition, more than 5,000 trade visitors are expected at the Water Expo, another Water Week event for buyers and sellers of water technologies and solutions.
About the Singapore International Water Week
The Singapore International Water Week is the global platform for water solutions. It will bring policymakers, industry leaders, experts and practitioners together to address challenges, showcase technologies, discover opportunities and celebrate achievements in the water world.
Comprising the Water Leaders Summit, Water Convention, Water Expo and Water Festival, it culminates in the presentation of the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize, a prestigious international award to recognise outstanding contributions in solving global water issues. The inaugural Singapore International Water Week will be held from 23 to 27 June 2008. The theme is Sustainable Water Solutions for Cities.
For further information, contact:
Sally Toh, sally_toh@pub.gov.sg
Teo Yin Yin, teo_yin_yin@pub.gov.sg
Adeline Goh, agoh@iconinternational.com.sg
Andrew Wong, awong@iconinternational.com.sg
Tel: +65 6220 2623
I wonder if Taiwan will be involved? (Taiwan, due to its unusual international status and China's objection, is not able to participate officially in WHO activities. Personally, I feel that this puts not just Taiwan and Taiwanese people at risk, but also everyone who lives in a country that does business with or has citizens traveling to and from Taiwan.)
Peter Huston
===
http://www.siww.com.sg/
http://www.siww.com.sg/newsroom/26may08.php
News
26 May 2008
Singapore to Host High-Level International Water Meetings in June
A gathering of WHO experts, an ASEAN working group meet and international collaborations between Singapore and water agencies from the region are just some of the events being held on the sidelines of Singapore International Water Week
SINGAPORE (26 May 2008) –Singapore will play host to more than 20 international high-level meetings, forums, award ceremonies and workshops on the sidelines of Singapore International Water Week, the global event on water solutions which will be held here from 23 to 27 June 2008.
For the first time in Singapore, the World Health Organisation (WHO) will be holding an international meeting on the fourth edition of the WHO guidelines on drinking-water quality from 19-23 June 2008. More than 20 WHO water quality experts will be in Singapore to review the work for the 4th edition of the WHO guidelines on drinking water quality which will be used by both developing and developed countries worldwide as the basis for regulation and standard setting to ensure the safety of drinking-water.
In its capacity as the WHO Collaborating Centre for Health Promotion & Disease Prevention, the Singapore Health Promotion Board is also organising a sharing session (23 June 2008) on “Healthy Cities for a Sustainable Future”, to highlight the role governments and NGOs can play in building healthy communities.
“The Singapore International Water Week is attracting many top figures from governments, international organisations, NGOs, business and academia to our shores, so it presents the perfect opportunity for us to organise concurrent meetings for various international and regional leaders in the water industry. This is very much in line with our vision to make Singapore a Global Hydrohub and for Singapore International Water Week to be the global platform for water solutions,” said Mr Michael Toh, General Manager of Singapore International Water Week 2008.
Also held for the first time in Singapore is the workshop on new concepts in integrated management of the urban water cycle jointly organised by UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Asian Development Bank and PUB, Singapore’s national water agency. The workshop on 22 June 2008 will see participants from Asia-Pacific countries such as China, India, Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. They will be introduced to state-of-the-art concepts in urban water management and the adaptation and transfer of technology and knowledge to regional mega-cities.
For the first time in Asia, the Global Water Research Coalition (GWRC) will be holding their twice-yearly Board of Directors Meeting in Singapore from 22 to 23 June 2008. 15 leading water research organisations in the world will meet to update on projects in progress and to discuss on new research ideas.
Two international award ceremonies will also be held on the sidelines of Singapore International Water Week.
The International Water Association (IWA) Project Innovation Awards ceremony which celebrates excellence and innovation in water engineering projects worldwide will be held in Singapore on 26 June 2008. The programme runs on a two-year cycle with the regional projects awarded at three regional forums (North America, Europe and East Asia and Pacific) and the global projects awarded at the biennial IWA Congress (which will be held in Vienna in September 2008). The ceremony in Singapore will present innovation awards for the East Asia & Pacific region.
The inaugural International Desalination Association (IDA) Fellowship award ceremony is the second award ceremony to be held in Singapore. The IDA Fellowship Scheme which was established last year, aims to promote knowledge sharing and information exchange through attachments of professionals to major water companies. The value of the IDA Fellowship Award is US$10,000 and IDA had chosen PUB to be the first hosting agency for the inaugural IDA Fellowship Award where the IDA Fellow will be attached to spearhead a project about desalination or water reuse. The selection committee has selected two IDA Fellows this year. They are Mr Salah I. Al Khamis from Saline Water Conversion Corp, Saudi Arabia and Mr Jorge Arroyo from Texas Water Development Board.
There are also three youth-focused events that will be held concurrently during the week. They are the inaugural Singapore Junior Water Prize (9 June 2008), a contest for students aged 15 to 20, the winners of which will be sent to an international event in Stockholm; the Symposium for Young Water Talents (23 June 2008), for graduate students doing water-related research; and the National Youth Achievement Awards / Gold Award Holders Alumni’s 2nd Asia Pacific Youth Water Forum (24-26 June 2008), where 150 youth leaders from Singapore and 30 from the region will discuss sustainable water management and solutions.
Other international co-located events during Singapore International Water Week include:
* South-east Asian Water Utilities Network (SEAWUN) Board of Directors Meeting which is non-governmental organisation with 56 members that include water utilities, water associations and consulting companies from across Southeast Asia. SEAWUN aims to strengthen regional ties and improve performance in the water and sanitation sector.
* The Asia-Pacific Water Forum Governing Council (APWF) chaired by Professor Tommy Koh, Ambassador-at-large, will be holding its 3rd meeting in Singapore. The APWF‘s goal is to contribute to sustainable water management in order to achieve the targets at the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Asia and the Pacific region.
For the full list of co-located events during the Singapore International Water Week, log on to http://www.siww.com.sg/aboutevent/colocatingevents.php
During the Singapore International Water Week from 23 to 27 June 2008, over 200 top policy makers, ministers, mayors, academics and decision-makers in the water industry and international organisations such as the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank will be in Singapore for the Water Leaders Summit, one of the key components of the Water Week. Some 600 delegates will also attend the Water Convention, a scientific conference on technology and practical solutions in the water industry. In addition, more than 5,000 trade visitors are expected at the Water Expo, another Water Week event for buyers and sellers of water technologies and solutions.
About the Singapore International Water Week
The Singapore International Water Week is the global platform for water solutions. It will bring policymakers, industry leaders, experts and practitioners together to address challenges, showcase technologies, discover opportunities and celebrate achievements in the water world.
Comprising the Water Leaders Summit, Water Convention, Water Expo and Water Festival, it culminates in the presentation of the Lee Kuan Yew Water Prize, a prestigious international award to recognise outstanding contributions in solving global water issues. The inaugural Singapore International Water Week will be held from 23 to 27 June 2008. The theme is Sustainable Water Solutions for Cities.
For further information, contact:
Sally Toh, sally_toh@pub.gov.sg
Teo Yin Yin, teo_yin_yin@pub.gov.sg
Adeline Goh, agoh@iconinternational.com.sg
Andrew Wong, awong@iconinternational.com.sg
Tel: +65 6220 2623
China Water: May 29, 2008: |Water quality in Taihu Lake.
At times it seems that to get a picture of events in China, it's interesting that instead of getting reports on problems, such as happens in the USA and many other countries with a less controlled media, one instead gets reports on how problems are being fixed.
After a while, however, one can begin to read around the lines, and get a more complete picture of the overall situation.
Peter Huston
===
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/29/content_8272716.htm
Water quality stable in China's once algae-choked lake
www.chinaview.cn 2008-05-29 00:02:22 Print
SHANGHAI, May 28 (Xinhua) -- The water quality at China's Taihu Lake remained stable and no algae outbreak would happen in the near future, the water resources authority said on Wednesday, one year after the algae-choked lake turned nearly one million residents' tap water undrinkable for about 10 days.
"The water quality at the lake and its source remains stable," said Ye Jianchun, chief of the Taihu Basin Authority of China's Ministry of Water Resources.
The indices of algae-related chemicals, such as ammonia and nitrogen, were decreasing while the water channeled from the Yangtze River helped accelerate the water flow and thus hampered the algae growth, he added.
The lake, China's third largest body of freshwater, suffered from an algae outbreak at the end of May last year, affecting a large number of residents in Wuxi City.
According to the latest statistics, 92 percent of the lake was at a moderate level of nutrient enrichment, which means the algae would not endanger the water quality and no algae outbreak would happen in the near future, Ye said.
Blue-green algae, which exists widely in water bodies and is not harmful itself, grows easily in polluted water with a high concentration of nitrogen and phosphorous and a temperature of around 18 degrees Celsius.
An excess of blue-green algae removes oxygen from the water, killing fish and other aquatic life, which then decay and release toxin.
No large areas of algae had been spotted in the lake and water supply to neighboring cities was normal, Ye said.
About 30 million people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai rely on Taihu Lake as a drinking water source.
Editor: Yan Liang
After a while, however, one can begin to read around the lines, and get a more complete picture of the overall situation.
Peter Huston
===
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-05/29/content_8272716.htm
Water quality stable in China's once algae-choked lake
www.chinaview.cn 2008-05-29 00:02:22 Print
SHANGHAI, May 28 (Xinhua) -- The water quality at China's Taihu Lake remained stable and no algae outbreak would happen in the near future, the water resources authority said on Wednesday, one year after the algae-choked lake turned nearly one million residents' tap water undrinkable for about 10 days.
"The water quality at the lake and its source remains stable," said Ye Jianchun, chief of the Taihu Basin Authority of China's Ministry of Water Resources.
The indices of algae-related chemicals, such as ammonia and nitrogen, were decreasing while the water channeled from the Yangtze River helped accelerate the water flow and thus hampered the algae growth, he added.
The lake, China's third largest body of freshwater, suffered from an algae outbreak at the end of May last year, affecting a large number of residents in Wuxi City.
According to the latest statistics, 92 percent of the lake was at a moderate level of nutrient enrichment, which means the algae would not endanger the water quality and no algae outbreak would happen in the near future, Ye said.
Blue-green algae, which exists widely in water bodies and is not harmful itself, grows easily in polluted water with a high concentration of nitrogen and phosphorous and a temperature of around 18 degrees Celsius.
An excess of blue-green algae removes oxygen from the water, killing fish and other aquatic life, which then decay and release toxin.
No large areas of algae had been spotted in the lake and water supply to neighboring cities was normal, Ye said.
About 30 million people in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces and Shanghai rely on Taihu Lake as a drinking water source.
Editor: Yan Liang
China Media: May 29, 2008: Protests in quake zones.
As always, this is not a blog devoted to Chinese media issues bur from time to time it is beneficial to touch on them.
Putting on my Asian studies scholar hat, commentary about this story would go along the following lines; the prevailing atmosphere of corruption in China, a long history of peasant uprisings when conditions become too harsh to be perceived as bearable, perhaps a reference to natural disasters being seen as heaven showing displeasure with the rulers (perhaps), and the use of modern recording technology to ensure the message is spread as far and wide as possible.
Peter Huston
===
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-protests29-2008may29,0,5264936.story
In China, protests flare over quake aid
Though the central government has been widely applauded for its relief efforts, some local officials have been accused of corruption.
By Don Lee, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 29, 2008
LUOJIANG, CHINA -- This county in Sichuan province sustained relatively little damage from the devastating May 12 earthquake. But nine days later, Luojiang felt one of the biggest political aftershocks: Thousands of residents jammed a public square here, demanding that local officials explain why relief supplies were misused.
The protesters, many of them young students, fought police with their fists and water bottles, witnesses said. They smashed police vehicles, even flipping one upside down.
* China eager to show it can handle Olympics and crisis
"The government was corrupted, so ordinary people were all protesting," said Yang, a 13-year-old student who left her family store nearby to participate.
The Chinese central government has been widely applauded for quickly and effectively mobilizing national resources for rescue and relief efforts, but the magnitude 7.9 quake and its aftermath have sparked anger toward local governments. In several cities and towns, residents have accused officials of corrupt acts, including taking the best tents for themselves and underreporting the extent of quake casualties so as not to draw scrutiny from Beijing.
Protests and complaints against local officials aren't rare, but what's different is that the grievances are being captured on television or being reported by a press that has traditionally been tightly controlled but has had more freedom in the immediate aftermath of the natural disaster.
As well, parents whose children were killed are protesting the failure of local leaders to provide answers about why so many schools collapsed while structures around them, including government buildings, remained standing. Some believe local officials are trying to cover up shoddy construction.
In Mianzhu, villagers clashed with police Sunday over the government's handling of disaster relief and its response to the collapse of the Fuxin No. 2 Elementary School, where as many as 129 children were buried alive. Earlier that day, dozens of parents marched to complain to higher authorities in Deyang, and, in a scene that has been widely publicized, were met by Mian- zhu's party secretary, Jiang Guohua, who kneeled and begged them to stop.
"None of us were listening to him. We all kept walking," said Chen Xuefen, 32, whose 11-year-old son was killed when the school crumbled. "They ignored us. It has been so many days since that day, but no one came to investigate. . . . I told him [Jiang], 'Now you're kneeling to us, but if you can return my son to me, our entire family will kneel to you for three days and nights.' "
Though some quake survivors have spoken of local officials going beyond their duty to help victims, it is the central government that has won overwhelming praise for its leadership and caring hand during the crisis that has claimed more than 67,000 lives.
"The central government is managing the situation much more skillfully, including its public image," said Minxin Pei, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
On Wednesday, Beijing said it would allocate $28.6 million to help Sichuan deal with swelling quake-spawned lakes that are at risk of overflowing and inundating hundreds of thousands of people downstream.
Jing Zhengfu, 36, a farmer in Mianzhu, put it this way: "The party is good. [President] Hu [Jintao] and [Premier] Wen [Jiabao] are good. But the local-level government is corrupted. . . . It's hard to find any honest officials here."
Such sentiments reflect a general dissatisfaction and mistrust of local government that experts say were bound to manifest themselves or become amplified in the wake of a disaster of this magnitude. Officials of towns, counties and cities are chosen by the local party leadership. Only about 1,000 officials at the provincial level are appointed by Beijing and serve at the will of the central government, Pei said. That makes it very difficult for Beijing to monitor or fire local leaders.
"It shows the existence of the corruption problem and the increasing conflicts between officials and ordinary people," said Hu Xingdou, a professor of economics at Beijing Institute of Technology.
Hu believes the airing of such grievances could lead to reforms that will bring a cleaner, more transparent and competent local government. Last week, a deputy bureau chief of civil affairs in Dujiangyan, a hard-hit resort area northwest of Chengdu, was dismissed by the local government for "inaccurate calculation of statistics" related to the earthquake.
China's chief justice this week pledged that courts would impose severe punishment for quake-related corruption. The central government has been battling graft and other abuse-of-power problems for years, but lacking resources and political reach, Beijing has focused on punishing egregious offenders to send a message to localities.
"I think smart officials sitting in Beijing would be thinking of using this [earthquake] incident to give local officials a good lesson," said Lynette Ong, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto.
But Ong, who has done fieldwork in rural China, doubts significant reforms are ahead in local governance.
Finances remain a major concern in rural China, so while the publicity over school collapses is likely to bring scrutiny and oversight of construction, Ong said, that won't necessarily address problems in healthcare and other social programs. When the nation's attention on the quake diminishes, it remains to be seen how well local officials will deliver aid to help more than 5 million homeless people resettle and pick up their lives.
Nor does Ong see drastic changes in the government allowing protests or more aggressive media coverage of social issues and local leaders. "At the end of the day," she said, "it is social stability that the central government values most."
The May 21 protest in Luojiang, about 50 miles west of the epicenter in Wenchuan, stemmed from complaints that relief supplies -- bottled water, instant noodles and sausages -- had been stored in a children's clothing shop. Some residents say they believed the shop operators had close connections to local officials.
People in the area said police arrived May 21 and sealed the clothing shop and detained at least one person. Later in the day, crowds gathered at a square and began to question authorities about the case. Scuffles broke out and police arrested a number of students, witnesses said.
"People were shouting: 'Release the students! Take out disaster relief goods!' " said Sun Dejian, 25, a restaurant worker who watched the protest.
The protest was covered on local TV, but there's been little coverage since. A foreign reporter asking questions was tailed by a local official, who insisted that he should participate in interviews.
Asked why, he said, "Residents may not have the correct understanding."
don.lee@latimes.com
Putting on my Asian studies scholar hat, commentary about this story would go along the following lines; the prevailing atmosphere of corruption in China, a long history of peasant uprisings when conditions become too harsh to be perceived as bearable, perhaps a reference to natural disasters being seen as heaven showing displeasure with the rulers (perhaps), and the use of modern recording technology to ensure the message is spread as far and wide as possible.
Peter Huston
===
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-protests29-2008may29,0,5264936.story
In China, protests flare over quake aid
Though the central government has been widely applauded for its relief efforts, some local officials have been accused of corruption.
By Don Lee, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
May 29, 2008
LUOJIANG, CHINA -- This county in Sichuan province sustained relatively little damage from the devastating May 12 earthquake. But nine days later, Luojiang felt one of the biggest political aftershocks: Thousands of residents jammed a public square here, demanding that local officials explain why relief supplies were misused.
The protesters, many of them young students, fought police with their fists and water bottles, witnesses said. They smashed police vehicles, even flipping one upside down.
* China eager to show it can handle Olympics and crisis
"The government was corrupted, so ordinary people were all protesting," said Yang, a 13-year-old student who left her family store nearby to participate.
The Chinese central government has been widely applauded for quickly and effectively mobilizing national resources for rescue and relief efforts, but the magnitude 7.9 quake and its aftermath have sparked anger toward local governments. In several cities and towns, residents have accused officials of corrupt acts, including taking the best tents for themselves and underreporting the extent of quake casualties so as not to draw scrutiny from Beijing.
Protests and complaints against local officials aren't rare, but what's different is that the grievances are being captured on television or being reported by a press that has traditionally been tightly controlled but has had more freedom in the immediate aftermath of the natural disaster.
As well, parents whose children were killed are protesting the failure of local leaders to provide answers about why so many schools collapsed while structures around them, including government buildings, remained standing. Some believe local officials are trying to cover up shoddy construction.
In Mianzhu, villagers clashed with police Sunday over the government's handling of disaster relief and its response to the collapse of the Fuxin No. 2 Elementary School, where as many as 129 children were buried alive. Earlier that day, dozens of parents marched to complain to higher authorities in Deyang, and, in a scene that has been widely publicized, were met by Mian- zhu's party secretary, Jiang Guohua, who kneeled and begged them to stop.
"None of us were listening to him. We all kept walking," said Chen Xuefen, 32, whose 11-year-old son was killed when the school crumbled. "They ignored us. It has been so many days since that day, but no one came to investigate. . . . I told him [Jiang], 'Now you're kneeling to us, but if you can return my son to me, our entire family will kneel to you for three days and nights.' "
Though some quake survivors have spoken of local officials going beyond their duty to help victims, it is the central government that has won overwhelming praise for its leadership and caring hand during the crisis that has claimed more than 67,000 lives.
"The central government is managing the situation much more skillfully, including its public image," said Minxin Pei, senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington.
On Wednesday, Beijing said it would allocate $28.6 million to help Sichuan deal with swelling quake-spawned lakes that are at risk of overflowing and inundating hundreds of thousands of people downstream.
Jing Zhengfu, 36, a farmer in Mianzhu, put it this way: "The party is good. [President] Hu [Jintao] and [Premier] Wen [Jiabao] are good. But the local-level government is corrupted. . . . It's hard to find any honest officials here."
Such sentiments reflect a general dissatisfaction and mistrust of local government that experts say were bound to manifest themselves or become amplified in the wake of a disaster of this magnitude. Officials of towns, counties and cities are chosen by the local party leadership. Only about 1,000 officials at the provincial level are appointed by Beijing and serve at the will of the central government, Pei said. That makes it very difficult for Beijing to monitor or fire local leaders.
"It shows the existence of the corruption problem and the increasing conflicts between officials and ordinary people," said Hu Xingdou, a professor of economics at Beijing Institute of Technology.
Hu believes the airing of such grievances could lead to reforms that will bring a cleaner, more transparent and competent local government. Last week, a deputy bureau chief of civil affairs in Dujiangyan, a hard-hit resort area northwest of Chengdu, was dismissed by the local government for "inaccurate calculation of statistics" related to the earthquake.
China's chief justice this week pledged that courts would impose severe punishment for quake-related corruption. The central government has been battling graft and other abuse-of-power problems for years, but lacking resources and political reach, Beijing has focused on punishing egregious offenders to send a message to localities.
"I think smart officials sitting in Beijing would be thinking of using this [earthquake] incident to give local officials a good lesson," said Lynette Ong, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Toronto.
But Ong, who has done fieldwork in rural China, doubts significant reforms are ahead in local governance.
Finances remain a major concern in rural China, so while the publicity over school collapses is likely to bring scrutiny and oversight of construction, Ong said, that won't necessarily address problems in healthcare and other social programs. When the nation's attention on the quake diminishes, it remains to be seen how well local officials will deliver aid to help more than 5 million homeless people resettle and pick up their lives.
Nor does Ong see drastic changes in the government allowing protests or more aggressive media coverage of social issues and local leaders. "At the end of the day," she said, "it is social stability that the central government values most."
The May 21 protest in Luojiang, about 50 miles west of the epicenter in Wenchuan, stemmed from complaints that relief supplies -- bottled water, instant noodles and sausages -- had been stored in a children's clothing shop. Some residents say they believed the shop operators had close connections to local officials.
People in the area said police arrived May 21 and sealed the clothing shop and detained at least one person. Later in the day, crowds gathered at a square and began to question authorities about the case. Scuffles broke out and police arrested a number of students, witnesses said.
"People were shouting: 'Release the students! Take out disaster relief goods!' " said Sun Dejian, 25, a restaurant worker who watched the protest.
The protest was covered on local TV, but there's been little coverage since. A foreign reporter asking questions was tailed by a local official, who insisted that he should participate in interviews.
Asked why, he said, "Residents may not have the correct understanding."
don.lee@latimes.com
China Water: May 29, 2008: Chemicals in quake lakes pose hazards.
A terrible tragedy, with yet more complications for the water system.
It's interesting to compare this with last week's reports that water quality was not affected by the earthquake.
Peter Huston
===
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/05/29/asia/OUKWD-UK-QUAKE1.php
Chemicals add to China's quake lake fears
By Tyra Dempster Reuters
Published: May 29, 2008
DUJIANGYAN, China: Five thousand tonnes of dangerous chemicals and heavy rain are adding to the mix of threats from one of China's "quake lakes" in danger of bursting their banks, a newspaper said on Thursday.
Illustrating the sense of urgency, the Finance Ministry said it was funnelling an extra 1 billion yuan (73 million pounds) into relief work on an estimated 35 quake lakes in addition to 400 million yuan already allotted to work on smaller, damaged dams.
About 5,000 tonnes of chemicals, including sulphuric and hydrochloric acid, were trapped downstream from the Tangjiashan lake and had to be moved to safe ground, the Beijing News said, citing local environmental authorities.
China has evacuated more than 150,000 people living below the swollen Tangjiashan lake, formed by the devastating May 12 earthquake, amid fears it could burst and trigger massive flooding.
The official death toll from the 7.9 magnitude quake is already more than 68,500 and is certain to rise further, with nearly 20,000 listed as missing. Aftershocks on Tuesday toppled 420,000 houses, many already uninhabitable.
The chemicals, adding pollution to the threat of flooding, were stranded in different work sites downstream from the lake, the newspaper said.
The Tangjiashan lake was created when landslides blocked the Jianjiang river above the town and county of Beichuan in mountainous Sichuan province, near the quake epicentre.
It has been raining at the site from early Thursday, hampering efforts by more than 600 soldiers to open a giant sluice to discharge floodwaters, Xinhua news agency said. Helicopters shipping in equipment were unable to take off.
Some 1,000 People's Liberation Army soldiers were making their way by foot to the lake, carrying more than 10 tonnes of diesel for bulldozers already there.
SUDDEN BREAK
Alexander Densmore, a seismologist at Durham University in Britain, said any break in a quake lake would likely be sudden.
"These landslide dams pose a really significant risk in these mountain regions, and in these narrow valleys it doesn't take much material to create a complete blockage," he said by phone.
Once a breach occurred, there could be an accelerating process leading to a sudden rush of water downstream.
"Once that process starts, it's virtually impossible to do anything to decrease the water... When they fail, they tend to fail catastrophically," he said of the quake dams.
Given the topography of Sichuan, with the western mountain country giving way to plains around Mianyang, a major rush of water could spill downstream and possibly affect lower-lying areas of cities such as Mianyang, he said.
The region along the faultline is densely packed with dams, raising concerns that if either the quake lakes or the weakened dams burst, the rush of water could cause others to fail.
A massive relief effort, which involves providing food, tents and clothing for millions and the reconstruction of housing and infrastructure, including the many destroyed schools, is expected to take up to three years.
Donations from home and abroad had reached 37.3 billion yuan by Thursday, up 2.5 billion yuan from the previous day, the Information Office of the State Council said.
China did not confirm reports on Wednesday that it had requested aid from Japan.
"If the Japanese self-defence forces are ready to provide assistance, the specifics will be discussed at the defence departments of the two countries," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference, adding that South Korean President Lee Myung-bak would visit Sichuan on Friday.
Thousands of injured have been transferred to other provinces and the capital for treatment. Song Liangwei, 9, had always dreamed of visiting Beijing, but not as a quake victim.
"I wanted to go to Tiananmen Square, to climb the Great Wall, and to watch the Olympic Games," he said.
(Writing by Nick Macfie; Additional reporting by Lindsay Beck, Chris Buckley, Guo Shipeng and Phyllis Xu in Beijing; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
It's interesting to compare this with last week's reports that water quality was not affected by the earthquake.
Peter Huston
===
http://www.iht.com/articles/reuters/2008/05/29/asia/OUKWD-UK-QUAKE1.php
Chemicals add to China's quake lake fears
By Tyra Dempster Reuters
Published: May 29, 2008
DUJIANGYAN, China: Five thousand tonnes of dangerous chemicals and heavy rain are adding to the mix of threats from one of China's "quake lakes" in danger of bursting their banks, a newspaper said on Thursday.
Illustrating the sense of urgency, the Finance Ministry said it was funnelling an extra 1 billion yuan (73 million pounds) into relief work on an estimated 35 quake lakes in addition to 400 million yuan already allotted to work on smaller, damaged dams.
About 5,000 tonnes of chemicals, including sulphuric and hydrochloric acid, were trapped downstream from the Tangjiashan lake and had to be moved to safe ground, the Beijing News said, citing local environmental authorities.
China has evacuated more than 150,000 people living below the swollen Tangjiashan lake, formed by the devastating May 12 earthquake, amid fears it could burst and trigger massive flooding.
The official death toll from the 7.9 magnitude quake is already more than 68,500 and is certain to rise further, with nearly 20,000 listed as missing. Aftershocks on Tuesday toppled 420,000 houses, many already uninhabitable.
The chemicals, adding pollution to the threat of flooding, were stranded in different work sites downstream from the lake, the newspaper said.
The Tangjiashan lake was created when landslides blocked the Jianjiang river above the town and county of Beichuan in mountainous Sichuan province, near the quake epicentre.
It has been raining at the site from early Thursday, hampering efforts by more than 600 soldiers to open a giant sluice to discharge floodwaters, Xinhua news agency said. Helicopters shipping in equipment were unable to take off.
Some 1,000 People's Liberation Army soldiers were making their way by foot to the lake, carrying more than 10 tonnes of diesel for bulldozers already there.
SUDDEN BREAK
Alexander Densmore, a seismologist at Durham University in Britain, said any break in a quake lake would likely be sudden.
"These landslide dams pose a really significant risk in these mountain regions, and in these narrow valleys it doesn't take much material to create a complete blockage," he said by phone.
Once a breach occurred, there could be an accelerating process leading to a sudden rush of water downstream.
"Once that process starts, it's virtually impossible to do anything to decrease the water... When they fail, they tend to fail catastrophically," he said of the quake dams.
Given the topography of Sichuan, with the western mountain country giving way to plains around Mianyang, a major rush of water could spill downstream and possibly affect lower-lying areas of cities such as Mianyang, he said.
The region along the faultline is densely packed with dams, raising concerns that if either the quake lakes or the weakened dams burst, the rush of water could cause others to fail.
A massive relief effort, which involves providing food, tents and clothing for millions and the reconstruction of housing and infrastructure, including the many destroyed schools, is expected to take up to three years.
Donations from home and abroad had reached 37.3 billion yuan by Thursday, up 2.5 billion yuan from the previous day, the Information Office of the State Council said.
China did not confirm reports on Wednesday that it had requested aid from Japan.
"If the Japanese self-defence forces are ready to provide assistance, the specifics will be discussed at the defence departments of the two countries," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang told a news conference, adding that South Korean President Lee Myung-bak would visit Sichuan on Friday.
Thousands of injured have been transferred to other provinces and the capital for treatment. Song Liangwei, 9, had always dreamed of visiting Beijing, but not as a quake victim.
"I wanted to go to Tiananmen Square, to climb the Great Wall, and to watch the Olympic Games," he said.
(Writing by Nick Macfie; Additional reporting by Lindsay Beck, Chris Buckley, Guo Shipeng and Phyllis Xu in Beijing; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)
China Water: May 29, 2008: Xinjiang water review.
This article is over two years old but contains good information on the water situation in Xinjiang.
Posted without further comment.
Peter Huston
===
http://english.gov.cn/2006-02/07/content_180358.htm
Water-saving agriculture promotes Xinjiang's rural economy
GOV.cn Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Xinjiang is located in the inner continental drought area. The lack of water resources becomes a bottleneck for its economic development. In order to ensure the sustainable development of Xinjiang's agricultural economy, during the 10th Five-year Plan, great efforts were put in Xinjiang in promoting the water saving agriculture; the annual saved water reached over 100 mln cubic meters. The water saving technique not only increased farmers' income, but also pushed forward the reform of agriculture production mode.
During the 10th Five-year Plan, Xinjiang's water saving work had accompanied with the whole process of the optimized allocation of water resources. It consistently improved the utilization efficiency of water resource. While intensifying the water saving reconstruction in large irrigation area, comprehensive agricultural development and quality cotton base construction, Xinjiang put great efforts in promoting spray, dripping and seeping irrigation as well as other advanced water saving technique.
Besides, the implementation of high-efficiency water saving project promoted the reform of agricultural production mode in project areas. Through setting down favorable policies, establishing new water saving system, intensifying pilot, and other measures, Xinjiang consistently strengthened the promotion of high-efficiency water saving work. During the period of the 10th 5-year Plan, Xinjiang has diffused 74 high-efficiency water saving demo projects in 45 counties and cities of 13 prefectures. With the total investment of 94 mln RMB, Xinjiang has totally constructed 276,700 mu of high-efficiency water saving irrigation area, saving over 100 mln cubic meters of water annually.
During the 11th 5-year Plan, Xinjiang will intensify the efforts on developing water-saving agriculture, so as to promote the development through saving water and build up irrigation support system for sustainable agricultural development, thus ensuring the construction of new socialist countryside.
Editor: Mo Honge
Source: Xinjiang.gov.cn
Posted without further comment.
Peter Huston
===
http://english.gov.cn/2006-02/07/content_180358.htm
Water-saving agriculture promotes Xinjiang's rural economy
GOV.cn Tuesday, February 07, 2006
Xinjiang is located in the inner continental drought area. The lack of water resources becomes a bottleneck for its economic development. In order to ensure the sustainable development of Xinjiang's agricultural economy, during the 10th Five-year Plan, great efforts were put in Xinjiang in promoting the water saving agriculture; the annual saved water reached over 100 mln cubic meters. The water saving technique not only increased farmers' income, but also pushed forward the reform of agriculture production mode.
During the 10th Five-year Plan, Xinjiang's water saving work had accompanied with the whole process of the optimized allocation of water resources. It consistently improved the utilization efficiency of water resource. While intensifying the water saving reconstruction in large irrigation area, comprehensive agricultural development and quality cotton base construction, Xinjiang put great efforts in promoting spray, dripping and seeping irrigation as well as other advanced water saving technique.
Besides, the implementation of high-efficiency water saving project promoted the reform of agricultural production mode in project areas. Through setting down favorable policies, establishing new water saving system, intensifying pilot, and other measures, Xinjiang consistently strengthened the promotion of high-efficiency water saving work. During the period of the 10th 5-year Plan, Xinjiang has diffused 74 high-efficiency water saving demo projects in 45 counties and cities of 13 prefectures. With the total investment of 94 mln RMB, Xinjiang has totally constructed 276,700 mu of high-efficiency water saving irrigation area, saving over 100 mln cubic meters of water annually.
During the 11th 5-year Plan, Xinjiang will intensify the efforts on developing water-saving agriculture, so as to promote the development through saving water and build up irrigation support system for sustainable agricultural development, thus ensuring the construction of new socialist countryside.
Editor: Mo Honge
Source: Xinjiang.gov.cn
Taiwan Water: May 29, 2008: Green Island needs wastewater treatment plant.
Posted without comment.
Peter Huston
===
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/local/offshore%20islands/2008/05/29/158544/Green%2DIsland.htm
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Green Island urges water treatment system
CNA
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Green Island, located off the southeastern coast of Taiwan, urgently needs a waste water treatment plant to prevent further pollution of its coastal waters and consequent damage to its coral reefs, a researcher said Wednesday.
Chen Chao-lun, a research fellow at the Biodiversity Research Center of Academia Sinica, said waste water is believed to be the prime cause of "black-band disease," which originates from a blue-green algae that kills off coral reefs.
Green Island, which housed political prisoners during Taiwan's martial law period, is now a favorite site for scuba divers because of the rich and diverse marine ecology supported by its coral reefs.
The island, which has a registered population of 3,000, is categorized as a township of Taitung County in eastern Taiwan.
Chen said further research is needed to determine whether waste water is directly related to black-band disease, but added that the research team led by Chen is sure that the most severe coral damage has occurred near the most densely populated areas of the island.
At least, an easy-to-use waste water treatment plant should be set up soon to help address the problem, Chen said.
Echoing Chen's appeal, an official at the East Coast National Scenic Area Administration said Green Island draws more than 300,000 visitors per year, which makes it urgent for a waste water treatment facility to be installed to help protect the island's ecology.
The official suggested that treatment plants for both rain water and waste water should be built at local schools, hotels and the prison, before installing larger systems for households.
According to an official at Taitung County's Environmental Protection Bureau, Green Island discharges up to 1,550 tons of waste water per day into the sea.
The central government had planned to build waste water treatment systems in three of the island's villages. However, authorities in charge of the plan had the second thoughts and decided instead to build a recycling and reuse facility, the official said, adding that further evaluation is needed.
Peter Huston
===
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/local/offshore%20islands/2008/05/29/158544/Green%2DIsland.htm
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Green Island urges water treatment system
CNA
TAIPEI, Taiwan -- Green Island, located off the southeastern coast of Taiwan, urgently needs a waste water treatment plant to prevent further pollution of its coastal waters and consequent damage to its coral reefs, a researcher said Wednesday.
Chen Chao-lun, a research fellow at the Biodiversity Research Center of Academia Sinica, said waste water is believed to be the prime cause of "black-band disease," which originates from a blue-green algae that kills off coral reefs.
Green Island, which housed political prisoners during Taiwan's martial law period, is now a favorite site for scuba divers because of the rich and diverse marine ecology supported by its coral reefs.
The island, which has a registered population of 3,000, is categorized as a township of Taitung County in eastern Taiwan.
Chen said further research is needed to determine whether waste water is directly related to black-band disease, but added that the research team led by Chen is sure that the most severe coral damage has occurred near the most densely populated areas of the island.
At least, an easy-to-use waste water treatment plant should be set up soon to help address the problem, Chen said.
Echoing Chen's appeal, an official at the East Coast National Scenic Area Administration said Green Island draws more than 300,000 visitors per year, which makes it urgent for a waste water treatment facility to be installed to help protect the island's ecology.
The official suggested that treatment plants for both rain water and waste water should be built at local schools, hotels and the prison, before installing larger systems for households.
According to an official at Taitung County's Environmental Protection Bureau, Green Island discharges up to 1,550 tons of waste water per day into the sea.
The central government had planned to build waste water treatment systems in three of the island's villages. However, authorities in charge of the plan had the second thoughts and decided instead to build a recycling and reuse facility, the official said, adding that further evaluation is needed.
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
China Water: May 28, 2008: A Cautionary tale from the Northeast.
On February 29, 2008, I wrote the following for the trade magazine that dealt with water. Note that this is not a new story. It ran on February 11, 2008.
I think it serves as an important cautionary lesson for people who wish to do business in China. It also helps explain my comment (in the post that follows) that I question China's ability to enforce its own laws.
Peter Huston
===
BEIJING — Despite widespread interest in the China water market, one of Suez Group’s experiences there could serve as a warning, says a February 11 Business Week story.
In 2000 Suez Group, a French company, signed a $1.6 million deal to set up a joint venture in Siping. Siping is a city of 3 million in Jilin province, located in China’s financially-strapped northeastern region (sometimes known as Manchuria.)
A written agreement from the Siping municipal government promised that Suez’s partner, the Siping Municipal Water Co. (SMW), would buy a fixed amount of water from the French company every year.
The municipal government also promised to crack down on illegal water well drilling by local companies. Because the illegal wells were obtaining water without payment as well as reducing demand for water from municipal sources, putting a stop to the practice was required to ensure profitability for the joint-venture, according to Business Week.
Now the deal has fallen apart in several ways and Suez is uncertain how to collect the debt, says the story.
In 2001, the first problem occurred when SMW refused to pay Suez, claiming budget problems. This left the company with many local expenses but little local income.
Around the same time, SMW, a Chinese state-owned company, began privatizing. As part of the privatization effort, assets were transferred to the newly created company, Siping Longyuan Water.
Siping Longyuan Water then began to compete for services in Siping with Suez. And in 2006, Siping Municipal Water, the former state-owned company, filed for bankruptcy, still owing Suez money. Siping Longyuan Water, although having a historical connection to SMW, denies responsibility for its debts.
“It’s not us that owes the joint-venture money. It was the government that made the promise. The government owes them money,” Liu Xiaodong, general manager of Siping Longyuan Water, said in the article. Siping Longyuan Water also argues they have not been able to buy as much water from Suez as promised in the original joint venture because of poor demand on the part of their customers.
In the more than seven years that have passed since the city promised a crackdown on illegal water wells, little has changed, the story said. Although the municipal government has passed laws and issued edicts against the practice, enforcement has been lax, and the city is still full of illegal water wells. This lax enforcement is in part due to the belief that if the wells were not allowed to remain, businesses might leave the city and move elsewhere.
The Siping municipal government has tried to improve the problem with Suez, by promising them a subsidy, but this led to further frustrations. “Because the government did not close down the underground wells, [it] has agreed to give Sino-French Water Development a subsidy to cover their losses," said Zhang Ziyong, head of the Siping Municipal Public Utilities Bureau, in the article. “But because some of the subsidy still hasn’t been paid, the French aren’t very happy.”
Suez has met with the provincial governor and renegotiated with the mayor. Still, there’s been little success in receiving payment. “It’s the difference between can’t and won’t. We assumed that they couldn’t pay because of the financial difficulties, so we appreciated that,” Steve Clark, executive director of Sino French Water Development, was quoted as saying in the article. “Now I’m sure they can pay.”
The article concludes by saying that Suez, which has several other projects in China that are successful, intends to be more careful about investing in projects in China, particularly in its less-wealthy regions.
===
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/feb2008/gb20080211_112680.htm
Corporation February 11, 2008, 6:58AM EST text size: TT
A French Water Company's Cautionary Tale in China
Suez Group, a global player in water treatment projects, is shying away from China's impoverished northeast after a joint venture in Siping turned bad
by Chi-Chu Tschang
Asia
Paris-based Suez Group (SZE) is a global player in the business of water treatment plants—those elaborate systems built to purify water and deliver it to a local utility or directly to customers. Suez has targeted China for a major drive. That makes sense: 312 million Chinese, or a quarter of the population, do not have clean water to drink.
By and large the venture has been successful. But in Siping, an urban area of 3 million in China's impoverished northeast, Suez can't get paid despite years of trying. Its project in Siping, though small (Suez invested $1.6 million), has turned into a cautionary tale not just for investors interested in China's water treatment industry but also for all foreigners doing business in China—even in a surefire business like water.
Like many local governments throughout China in the late 1990s, Siping welcomed foreign investors with open arms, hoping they could help build infrastructure projects the local government couldn't afford to build. In 2000, Suez signed a deal to set up a joint-venture water treatment plant in Siping. The French secured a written guarantee from the Siping municipal government promising that Suez's state-owned Chinese partner, Siping Municipal Water Co., would buy a fixed amount of water from the joint venture every year.
City Customer Files for Bankruptcy
The authorities also pledged to close down the city's underground wells within three years. Factories had long been illegally digging the wells to get free water, so shutting them down was key to the profitability of the Suez venture. "A lot of industries and customers in Siping itself take water from underground wells. So they are not buying it from Siping Water Co., which reduces the amount that they sell, so that impacts them financially," says Steve Clark, executive director of Sino French Water Development.
But after the first year, in 2001, Siping Municipal Water failed to pay Suez's joint venture for water, claiming to be financially strapped. Without the money, Siping Sino French Water Supply, the joint venture, has been unable to pay taxes, repair equipment, or pay wages. .
Suez is now having trouble figuring out who to pressure to get its money. Siping Municipal Water's management began privatizing the state-owned enterprise in 2001 and eventually transferred all of its assets to a newly restructured company called Siping Longyuan Water. The new entity actually competes head-to-head with Suez's joint venture in offering water treatment services. Without operating assets, Siping Municipal Water applied for bankruptcy in 2006, claiming it owes creditors, including the Suez joint venture, $2 million.
Free Well Water, Tepid Demand
But Siping Longyuan Water, the new entity, is not honoring the creditors' claims. "It's not us that owes the joint venture money. It was the government that made the promise. The government owes them money," says Liu Xiaodong, general manager of Siping Longyuan Water. Efforts to reach the Siping mayor or his representatives were unsuccessful. Besides, Siping Longyuan Water argues, it hasn't been able to buy the agreed upon amount of water from Suez's joint venture due to tepid demand from its own customers.
One cause of that poor demand is all the illegal wells dug in the city. Despite numerous promises and edicts, the local government has failed to shut down the wells out of fear local companies will close or go elsewhere if they actually have to pay for water. The government has hoped to smooth over the problem in the short term by compensating Sino-French Water so it doesn't not lose too much money on the joint venture. "Because the government did not close down the underground wells, [it] has agreed to give Sino-French Water Development a subsidy to cover their losses," says Zhang Zhiyong, head of Siping Municipal Public Utilities Bureau. "But because some of the subsidy still hasn't been paid, the French aren't very happy."
A French Water Company's Cautionary Tale in China
(page 2 of 2)
Suez has tried quietly to resolve its problems in Siping. The company's senior management gained a private audience with the provincial governor. Soon after, Siping's mayor renegotiated the contract with the French, who granted the Chinese more lenient terms. But even with the renegotiated contract, Siping has not paid. "It's the difference between can't and won't. We [had] assumed that they couldn't pay because of the financial difficulties, so we appreciated that," says Clark. "Now, I'm sure they can pay."
Asking for a Fair Price
Suez could sue or take its Chinese partners to arbitration, but the French company has 21 joint-venture water treatment facilities in China, including Siping, and is wary of how its other Chinese partners may react if lawyers get involved. "They don't want to be the pioneer to bring the government and Chinese partner either to court or to arbitration. It may have a negative image for them," says attorney Leo Zhou, who worked for Suez trying to resolve its dispute in Siping.
This is not the first time foreign investors have tried investing in China's water treatment industry and suffered. Thames Water Utilities of Britain, Hong Kong's China Water, and several financial investors have already pulled out of China's water treatment industry after going through similar experiences. In the best-case scenario, the local government will buy out the foreign partner, as the Shanghai municipal government did with Thames' water treatment project in 2004. Suez would happily sell its stake to the Siping municipal government if it could get a fair price for it.
Bad for the Region
For now, Suez is shying away from making further investments in northeastern China and other smaller, poorer Chinese cities. "Quite frankly, our experience in Siping means that we are very careful about which areas of China we go into," says Clark. He adds that Suez is making money on its other water treatment projects in China, particularly in the wealthier coastal regions. During French president Nicolas Sarkozy's state visit to China in late November, Suez signed new deals with Chongqing and Tianjin. The company's experience in Siping—which has an annual per-capita gross domestic product of $1,279—illustrates why Beijing's efforts to revive the northeast have been frustrated.
Based on Suez's original projections of Siping's demand for water, the joint venture hoped to build a second water treatment plant in the city. Now Suez won't go near Siping or anywhere in northeastern China. "This is an extremely huge loss for Siping, because if the Siping municipal government has lost its creditworthiness, not just investors in the water industry but no other investor will dare invest there now," says Chen Jining, professor at Tsinghua University's Water Policy Research Center.
Tschang is a correspondent in BusinessWeek's Beijing bureau
I think it serves as an important cautionary lesson for people who wish to do business in China. It also helps explain my comment (in the post that follows) that I question China's ability to enforce its own laws.
Peter Huston
===
BEIJING — Despite widespread interest in the China water market, one of Suez Group’s experiences there could serve as a warning, says a February 11 Business Week story.
In 2000 Suez Group, a French company, signed a $1.6 million deal to set up a joint venture in Siping. Siping is a city of 3 million in Jilin province, located in China’s financially-strapped northeastern region (sometimes known as Manchuria.)
A written agreement from the Siping municipal government promised that Suez’s partner, the Siping Municipal Water Co. (SMW), would buy a fixed amount of water from the French company every year.
The municipal government also promised to crack down on illegal water well drilling by local companies. Because the illegal wells were obtaining water without payment as well as reducing demand for water from municipal sources, putting a stop to the practice was required to ensure profitability for the joint-venture, according to Business Week.
Now the deal has fallen apart in several ways and Suez is uncertain how to collect the debt, says the story.
In 2001, the first problem occurred when SMW refused to pay Suez, claiming budget problems. This left the company with many local expenses but little local income.
Around the same time, SMW, a Chinese state-owned company, began privatizing. As part of the privatization effort, assets were transferred to the newly created company, Siping Longyuan Water.
Siping Longyuan Water then began to compete for services in Siping with Suez. And in 2006, Siping Municipal Water, the former state-owned company, filed for bankruptcy, still owing Suez money. Siping Longyuan Water, although having a historical connection to SMW, denies responsibility for its debts.
“It’s not us that owes the joint-venture money. It was the government that made the promise. The government owes them money,” Liu Xiaodong, general manager of Siping Longyuan Water, said in the article. Siping Longyuan Water also argues they have not been able to buy as much water from Suez as promised in the original joint venture because of poor demand on the part of their customers.
In the more than seven years that have passed since the city promised a crackdown on illegal water wells, little has changed, the story said. Although the municipal government has passed laws and issued edicts against the practice, enforcement has been lax, and the city is still full of illegal water wells. This lax enforcement is in part due to the belief that if the wells were not allowed to remain, businesses might leave the city and move elsewhere.
The Siping municipal government has tried to improve the problem with Suez, by promising them a subsidy, but this led to further frustrations. “Because the government did not close down the underground wells, [it] has agreed to give Sino-French Water Development a subsidy to cover their losses," said Zhang Ziyong, head of the Siping Municipal Public Utilities Bureau, in the article. “But because some of the subsidy still hasn’t been paid, the French aren’t very happy.”
Suez has met with the provincial governor and renegotiated with the mayor. Still, there’s been little success in receiving payment. “It’s the difference between can’t and won’t. We assumed that they couldn’t pay because of the financial difficulties, so we appreciated that,” Steve Clark, executive director of Sino French Water Development, was quoted as saying in the article. “Now I’m sure they can pay.”
The article concludes by saying that Suez, which has several other projects in China that are successful, intends to be more careful about investing in projects in China, particularly in its less-wealthy regions.
===
http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/feb2008/gb20080211_112680.htm
Corporation February 11, 2008, 6:58AM EST text size: TT
A French Water Company's Cautionary Tale in China
Suez Group, a global player in water treatment projects, is shying away from China's impoverished northeast after a joint venture in Siping turned bad
by Chi-Chu Tschang
Asia
Paris-based Suez Group (SZE) is a global player in the business of water treatment plants—those elaborate systems built to purify water and deliver it to a local utility or directly to customers. Suez has targeted China for a major drive. That makes sense: 312 million Chinese, or a quarter of the population, do not have clean water to drink.
By and large the venture has been successful. But in Siping, an urban area of 3 million in China's impoverished northeast, Suez can't get paid despite years of trying. Its project in Siping, though small (Suez invested $1.6 million), has turned into a cautionary tale not just for investors interested in China's water treatment industry but also for all foreigners doing business in China—even in a surefire business like water.
Like many local governments throughout China in the late 1990s, Siping welcomed foreign investors with open arms, hoping they could help build infrastructure projects the local government couldn't afford to build. In 2000, Suez signed a deal to set up a joint-venture water treatment plant in Siping. The French secured a written guarantee from the Siping municipal government promising that Suez's state-owned Chinese partner, Siping Municipal Water Co., would buy a fixed amount of water from the joint venture every year.
City Customer Files for Bankruptcy
The authorities also pledged to close down the city's underground wells within three years. Factories had long been illegally digging the wells to get free water, so shutting them down was key to the profitability of the Suez venture. "A lot of industries and customers in Siping itself take water from underground wells. So they are not buying it from Siping Water Co., which reduces the amount that they sell, so that impacts them financially," says Steve Clark, executive director of Sino French Water Development.
But after the first year, in 2001, Siping Municipal Water failed to pay Suez's joint venture for water, claiming to be financially strapped. Without the money, Siping Sino French Water Supply, the joint venture, has been unable to pay taxes, repair equipment, or pay wages. .
Suez is now having trouble figuring out who to pressure to get its money. Siping Municipal Water's management began privatizing the state-owned enterprise in 2001 and eventually transferred all of its assets to a newly restructured company called Siping Longyuan Water. The new entity actually competes head-to-head with Suez's joint venture in offering water treatment services. Without operating assets, Siping Municipal Water applied for bankruptcy in 2006, claiming it owes creditors, including the Suez joint venture, $2 million.
Free Well Water, Tepid Demand
But Siping Longyuan Water, the new entity, is not honoring the creditors' claims. "It's not us that owes the joint venture money. It was the government that made the promise. The government owes them money," says Liu Xiaodong, general manager of Siping Longyuan Water. Efforts to reach the Siping mayor or his representatives were unsuccessful. Besides, Siping Longyuan Water argues, it hasn't been able to buy the agreed upon amount of water from Suez's joint venture due to tepid demand from its own customers.
One cause of that poor demand is all the illegal wells dug in the city. Despite numerous promises and edicts, the local government has failed to shut down the wells out of fear local companies will close or go elsewhere if they actually have to pay for water. The government has hoped to smooth over the problem in the short term by compensating Sino-French Water so it doesn't not lose too much money on the joint venture. "Because the government did not close down the underground wells, [it] has agreed to give Sino-French Water Development a subsidy to cover their losses," says Zhang Zhiyong, head of Siping Municipal Public Utilities Bureau. "But because some of the subsidy still hasn't been paid, the French aren't very happy."
A French Water Company's Cautionary Tale in China
(page 2 of 2)
Suez has tried quietly to resolve its problems in Siping. The company's senior management gained a private audience with the provincial governor. Soon after, Siping's mayor renegotiated the contract with the French, who granted the Chinese more lenient terms. But even with the renegotiated contract, Siping has not paid. "It's the difference between can't and won't. We [had] assumed that they couldn't pay because of the financial difficulties, so we appreciated that," says Clark. "Now, I'm sure they can pay."
Asking for a Fair Price
Suez could sue or take its Chinese partners to arbitration, but the French company has 21 joint-venture water treatment facilities in China, including Siping, and is wary of how its other Chinese partners may react if lawyers get involved. "They don't want to be the pioneer to bring the government and Chinese partner either to court or to arbitration. It may have a negative image for them," says attorney Leo Zhou, who worked for Suez trying to resolve its dispute in Siping.
This is not the first time foreign investors have tried investing in China's water treatment industry and suffered. Thames Water Utilities of Britain, Hong Kong's China Water, and several financial investors have already pulled out of China's water treatment industry after going through similar experiences. In the best-case scenario, the local government will buy out the foreign partner, as the Shanghai municipal government did with Thames' water treatment project in 2004. Suez would happily sell its stake to the Siping municipal government if it could get a fair price for it.
Bad for the Region
For now, Suez is shying away from making further investments in northeastern China and other smaller, poorer Chinese cities. "Quite frankly, our experience in Siping means that we are very careful about which areas of China we go into," says Clark. He adds that Suez is making money on its other water treatment projects in China, particularly in the wealthier coastal regions. During French president Nicolas Sarkozy's state visit to China in late November, Suez signed new deals with Chongqing and Tianjin. The company's experience in Siping—which has an annual per-capita gross domestic product of $1,279—illustrates why Beijing's efforts to revive the northeast have been frustrated.
Based on Suez's original projections of Siping's demand for water, the joint venture hoped to build a second water treatment plant in the city. Now Suez won't go near Siping or anywhere in northeastern China. "This is an extremely huge loss for Siping, because if the Siping municipal government has lost its creditworthiness, not just investors in the water industry but no other investor will dare invest there now," says Chen Jining, professor at Tsinghua University's Water Policy Research Center.
Tschang is a correspondent in BusinessWeek's Beijing bureau
China Water: May 28, 2008: China's green future?
I'm not sure how much of this editorial I agree with, but let's say I am listening carefully and taking a wait and see attitude. Although my cynicism stems from a wary attitude towards China's ability and willingness to enforce its own laws, both in ecological matters and elsewhere, this piece does fit in well with the GE Press Releases.
Perhaps these highly educated gentlemen truly do know more about the situation than I do.
Peter Huston
===
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/27/ED2K10U856.DTL
This article appeared on page B - 9 of the San Francisco Chronicl
Open Forum
China just might surprise the U.S. on climate change
Tony Haymet,Susan Shirk
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Opinion
.Open Forum
.Sunday Insight
The next American administration should be prepared for a China that is getting serious about the climate change issue for its own domestic reasons. Chinese experts understand that global warming will affect their country much more severely than North America.
North China already suffers from persistent drought and south China from devastating floods. These conditions pose political as well as economic and social risks. Geopolitical instability caused by global warming may well spread through the rest of south Asia. This gives the Chinese government great motivation to address the problem.
The Chinese government ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2002 after the United States withdrew from it. Last year, the government elevated the group coordinating climate change efforts to a "national leading group" directly under China's cabinet and led by Premier Wen Jiabao, a clear sign that the issue was becoming a higher priority.
China's leaders face little bottom-up pressure to take action on climate change and they believe that they have to keep the economy growing at a rate of more than 7 percent per year in order to prevent blue-collar protests. But domestic environmental problems are becoming a potential political threat to Chinese Communist Party rule. The United States cleaned up most of its local air and water pollution decades ago, but in China, pollution has gotten worse and worse, triggering widespread social unrest.
China improved energy conservation during the first two decades of its market reform and is now making a new commitment. In 2005, its government pledged that, over the next five years, it would reduce energy use by 20 percent and its main pollutants by 10 percent. With economic growth surging into double digits, they failed to meet their 4 percent annual energy efficiency targets during 2006 and 2007. But they now have forced provincial governors to sign energy efficiency contracts and threatened to fire them and withhold approval for major construction projects if they don't improve efficiency by at least 2 percent per year.
Another powerful force at work is technology transfer. Until now the dialogue about emissions-reducing technology has been framed as "the United States has it" and "China wants it for too low a price." But very soon the technology leaders, especially on price, may well be in China. China's entrepreneurs are already planning to market green technology to South America, Africa, and - yes - the United States. The deals have already begun. Before the Summer Olympics, China and Australia plan to open a small coal-fired power station capable of capturing carbon-dioxide emissions on the outskirts of Beijing.
As American carbon-capture projects such as FutureGen are delayed indefinitely by political squabbles and technology questions, who is to say that the first coal-fired plant on U.S. soil that captures some of its waste carbon dioxide will not come from overseas? (FutureGen is a $1.5 billion public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy and a consortium of international energy companies to build a coal-fueled, near-zero-emissions power plant.)
Chinese experts use the word "irrelevant" in reference to America as a player in the green technology game. Hearing this term repeated during our recent visit left us with the strong impression that anyone waiting for a good price before selling such technology to China shouldn't wait too long.
China is rapidly developing its own clean energy technology and has a clear market target in the rest of the developing world. China is looking for ways to show the world that it is a responsible stakeholder, especially in the lead-up to the Summer Olympics. Beijing is perfectly capable of making a significant climate-change deal with Europe and Japan, perhaps even in time for the G-8 + 5 summit that Japan is hosting in July - leaving the United States "irrelevant" and playing catch-up.
Tony Haymet and Susan Shirk are professors of oceanography and chemistry, and China and Pacific relations, respectively, at UC San Diego. Haymet is director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Shirk is director of the UC Systemwide Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, and author of "China: Fragile Superpower," (Oxford University Press, 2007).
Perhaps these highly educated gentlemen truly do know more about the situation than I do.
Peter Huston
===
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/05/27/ED2K10U856.DTL
This article appeared on page B - 9 of the San Francisco Chronicl
Open Forum
China just might surprise the U.S. on climate change
Tony Haymet,Susan Shirk
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Opinion
.Open Forum
.Sunday Insight
The next American administration should be prepared for a China that is getting serious about the climate change issue for its own domestic reasons. Chinese experts understand that global warming will affect their country much more severely than North America.
North China already suffers from persistent drought and south China from devastating floods. These conditions pose political as well as economic and social risks. Geopolitical instability caused by global warming may well spread through the rest of south Asia. This gives the Chinese government great motivation to address the problem.
The Chinese government ratified the Kyoto Protocol in 2002 after the United States withdrew from it. Last year, the government elevated the group coordinating climate change efforts to a "national leading group" directly under China's cabinet and led by Premier Wen Jiabao, a clear sign that the issue was becoming a higher priority.
China's leaders face little bottom-up pressure to take action on climate change and they believe that they have to keep the economy growing at a rate of more than 7 percent per year in order to prevent blue-collar protests. But domestic environmental problems are becoming a potential political threat to Chinese Communist Party rule. The United States cleaned up most of its local air and water pollution decades ago, but in China, pollution has gotten worse and worse, triggering widespread social unrest.
China improved energy conservation during the first two decades of its market reform and is now making a new commitment. In 2005, its government pledged that, over the next five years, it would reduce energy use by 20 percent and its main pollutants by 10 percent. With economic growth surging into double digits, they failed to meet their 4 percent annual energy efficiency targets during 2006 and 2007. But they now have forced provincial governors to sign energy efficiency contracts and threatened to fire them and withhold approval for major construction projects if they don't improve efficiency by at least 2 percent per year.
Another powerful force at work is technology transfer. Until now the dialogue about emissions-reducing technology has been framed as "the United States has it" and "China wants it for too low a price." But very soon the technology leaders, especially on price, may well be in China. China's entrepreneurs are already planning to market green technology to South America, Africa, and - yes - the United States. The deals have already begun. Before the Summer Olympics, China and Australia plan to open a small coal-fired power station capable of capturing carbon-dioxide emissions on the outskirts of Beijing.
As American carbon-capture projects such as FutureGen are delayed indefinitely by political squabbles and technology questions, who is to say that the first coal-fired plant on U.S. soil that captures some of its waste carbon dioxide will not come from overseas? (FutureGen is a $1.5 billion public-private partnership between the U.S. Department of Energy and a consortium of international energy companies to build a coal-fueled, near-zero-emissions power plant.)
Chinese experts use the word "irrelevant" in reference to America as a player in the green technology game. Hearing this term repeated during our recent visit left us with the strong impression that anyone waiting for a good price before selling such technology to China shouldn't wait too long.
China is rapidly developing its own clean energy technology and has a clear market target in the rest of the developing world. China is looking for ways to show the world that it is a responsible stakeholder, especially in the lead-up to the Summer Olympics. Beijing is perfectly capable of making a significant climate-change deal with Europe and Japan, perhaps even in time for the G-8 + 5 summit that Japan is hosting in July - leaving the United States "irrelevant" and playing catch-up.
Tony Haymet and Susan Shirk are professors of oceanography and chemistry, and China and Pacific relations, respectively, at UC San Diego. Haymet is director of Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and Shirk is director of the UC Systemwide Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, and author of "China: Fragile Superpower," (Oxford University Press, 2007).
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