China Water: June 30, 2008: Floods in southern China, Inner Mongolia.

Not only are there floods in southern China, but there is also flooding in Inner Mongolia at the other end of the country.

===

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/29/content_8457668.htm

Man killed in southern China rainstorm
www.chinaview.cn 2008-06-29 13:43:36 Print

SHENZHEN, June 29 (Xinhua) -- A man was killed in the rainstorm in Shenzhen of the southern Guangdong Province, said local sources on Sunday.

The man, a 19-year-old migrant worker surnamed Jia from Nanchong of Sichuan province, fell into the sluice channel of a reservoir on Saturday. Rescuers found his body three hours later in a nearby fishing pool.

Three reservoirs were swollen following the rainstorm, flooding many parts of the city.

Heavy rains this summer have racked havoc in many areas of China.

In Inner Mongolia, flood triggered by torrential rain since Saturday afternoon besieged more than 2,500 people from 800 households in the Xing'an League, with depth of water averaging atone meter in more than ten villages.

They have now been evacuated to safe places.

Constant rains forced up water level of the Holin River. Armed police together with local people are reinforcing dams.
Editor: Bi Mingxin

China Water: June 30, 2008: Algae blooms on Yangtze tributaries.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/26/content_8445550.htm

Central China harnesses algae in Yangtze tributaries

WUHAN, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Authorities promised swift steps Thursday to clean up the algae-plagued tributaries of the upper Yangtze River as water was affected in central China's Hubei Province.

The blue algae bloom started last week in Yichang City along the Xiangxi River and had expanded about 23 km, stretching from Xingshan County to Zigui County where it converged with the Yangtze.

The outbreak also occurred along the Shennong Stream, a major tourist site. It converged with the Yangtze River in Badong County. The river water had since turned emerald green and opaque.

The slow water flow, deep humus and rich nutrients from farm and domestic run-off have provided ripe conditions for the algae bloom, Badong environmental protection officials said.

But heavy rains in the areas have curbed the outbreak these days.

Blue algae, which exists widely in water bodies and is not harmful itself, grows easily in polluted water with high concentrations of nitrogen and phosphorous and a temperature of about 18 degrees Celsius.

The provincial officials earlier vowed to rule out agricultural and industrial pollution along the rivers.

Net-pen fish culture in the river would be banned within a month and polluting factories closed until the emissions standards were reached, said Hubei provincial governor Li Hongzhong.

A timetable had also been made to ban planting vegetables that required large use of fertilizer and pesticide in areas along the rivers.

More sewage treatment plants would be built to ensure first-grade water emission standards, Li said.

Local governments are closely monitoring the water quality and the spread of the algae and have advised residents against eating fish or drinking water from the river.

Blue algae choked the eastern Taihu Lake last summer, triggering a drinking water crisis for residents in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.

All Roads lead to China

If one has an interest in China water issues, it's worth checking out this blog, "All Roads Lead To China," today.

http://www.allroadsleadtochina.com/index.php/2008/06/28/chinas-water-woes-part-2-new-algae-and-lakes-losing-water/

Original Content: China People's Armed Police Hydropower Units.

While translating the piece below, I stumbled across a term I had not seen before.

武警电水部 which means something like "Martial Police Electric Water Department." After doing a quick Chinese language google search, I soon discovered that the term referred to the following: hydropower units, the People’s Armed Police Hydropower Corp, a specialized branch of the People’s Armed Police Force.

Here's a quick summary of who they are. The military forces of the People's Republic of China are divided into three sections, The People's Liberation Army (the "big" or "real" primary army), the militia and reserve forces, and the People's Armed Police Force. (People's Armed Police: Simplified Chinese: 中国人民武装警察部队, Traditional Chinese: 中國人民武裝警察部隊; pinyin: Rénmín Wǔzhuāng Jǐngchá Bùduì)

The People's Armed Police Hydropower Corp ((Simplified Chinese: 水电部队; Traditional Chinese: 水電部隊, pinyin: shuǐdiàn bùduì) is one division of the People's Armed Police.

According to www.sinodefence.com the People's Armed Police are responsible for internal security, but during time of war could be used as light infantry to support the People's Liberation Army. Although units similar to the People's Armed Police date back to at least 1949 with the creation of the "People's Public Security Force," the actual organization with this name dates back to the early 1980s when several military and paramilitary organizations were merged to create a dedicated force for internal security duties. For a complete history, I recommend following the link to
sinodefence.com .

Sinodefence.com also has an article that gives a good introduction to the People's Armed Police Hydropower Corp.

According to this article (supplmented by other English and Chinese sources), the orgnization is a specialized branch of the People's Armed Police dedicated to building dams and power stations. The organization has a national command headquarters, a local command at the Three Gorges Dam, and three Hydropower General Corp, as well as a number of commercial companies. The First PAP Hydropower Corps is based in Nanning. The Second PAP Hydropower General Corps is based in Xinyu and the third is based in Chengdu.

For maps, see:
Nanning in Guangxi Zhuang.
Xinyu in Jiangxi Province.
Changdu, in Sichuan
Three Gorges Dam


The main headquarters of the People's Armed Power Hydropower Corps is in Beijing and is subordinate to the main People's Armed Police Headquarters.

Its lineage dates back to 1966 when the People's Liberation Army created a Capital Construction Company.

Interestingly, units of the Chinese military often engages in independent or semi-independent for-profit enterprises. (This is a complicated situation and some have questioned how it affects the combat-readiness of the Chinese military. What I find fascinating is the fact that many of these independent for-profit activities are being done in partnership with Taiwanese companies, but that's a very complicated issue, that, like many, is fascinating.)

When the People's Armed Police Hydropower Corp engages in for-profit activities it does so under the name "Anlian Hydropower and Hydraulic Engineering Company."

Other sources, aside from www.sinodefence.com, used to write this article were:

wikipedia accessed on 6/26/2008 (And yes, I know all about the questionable nature of Wikipedia articles.)

China Power .

Translation: State Department offers congratulations to earthquake workers.

One of the reasons, I began this blog is to keep myself in touch with China and to force myself to "keep my hand in practice" as a China expert. In other words, this blog gives me an impetus to study China and do so on a regular basis.

For any non-Chinese Sinologist, one of the greatest difficulties is the language. I am no exception and for me the Chinese language has always been a great challenge and the one place at Cornell where I was definitely sub-standard. However, I do continue to work at it and therefore translated this piece, taken from the Chinese Ministry of Water's website on June 10, 2008.

I hope people find it interesting. I am not aware of it being translated into English anywhere else.

Peter Huston
===
http://www.mwr.cn//xwpd/slyw/20080610212036b3f55e.aspx

Specialized vocabulary:

武警电水部 == hydropower units, the People’s Armed Police Hydropower Corp, a specialized branch of the People’s Armed Police Force.

国务院抗震救灾总指挥部 = State Department Earthquake Relief Headquarters

汶川地震 = Wenchuan earthquake (or Wen River Earthquake). This is the official Chinese term for the recent earthquake in China.

唐家山 = Tang Jia Mountain

堰塞湖 = “Quake Lake”

堰= yan(4) = a bank of earth, a dike, a levee,

塞 = blockage

湖 = lake

国务院抗震救灾总指挥部电贺唐家山堰塞湖险情处置成功
2008-06-10

本站讯国务院抗震救灾总指挥部今天电贺唐家山堰塞湖应急处置指挥部，对成功处理唐家山堰塞湖险情，消除了汶川地震次生灾害的一个特大威胁表示慰问。

　　贺电说，经过连续十多天的艰苦奋战，按照安全、科学、快速的要求，成功地处理了唐家山堰塞湖险情，消除了汶川地震次生灾害的一个特大威胁，确保了人民群众生命安全，避免了大的损失，创造了世界上处理大型堰塞湖的奇迹。国务院抗震救灾总指挥部特向奋战在第一线的全体解放军指战员武警水电部队官兵，水利、地质、地震、气象等部门的工程技术人员和干部职工，以及沿线疏散的广大干部群众表示衷心地慰问、感谢和敬意！希望大家继续做好工程除险和转移避险的后续工作，圆满完成唐家山堰塞湖处理的全部任务。

责编：向日葵



The State Department Earthquake Relief Headquarters today sent congratulations electronically to the Tang Family mountain “Quake lake” Emergency Headquarters for the successful handling of the Tang Jia mountain “Quake lake” crisis and the elimination of the recently-created Wenchuan earthquake disaster’s great threat, as well as to express sympathy and raise morale during the situation.

The electronic congratulations, was due to the Earthquake Relief Workers continuously spending more than ten days of difficult fighting, basing their work on principles of safety and science, working quickly to successfully handle the Tang Jia Mountain “Quake lake” crisis, as well as the elimination of the recently created Wenchuan earthquake disaster’s great threat and to express sympathy, concern and appreciation. The Earthquake Relief Workers ensured the people’s safety, avoided great loss, and achieved globally-recognized achievement of the great “Quake Lake” miracle. The State Department Earthquake Relief Headquarters directed the men and officers of the People’s Liberation Army to fight on the front lines, People’s Armed Police Hydropower unit team officers and soldiers, as well as ministry of water, geology, and meteorology department engineers, skilled workers, as well as cadres and workers worked to achieve the evacuation of large numbers of cadres and masses who express heartfelt appreciation, as well as gratitude and respect. Hope continues that through good engineering, the removal of dangers and the prevention of danger during follow-up will continue, as the Tang Jia Mountain “Quake Lake” situation continues and the headquarters and workers complete their mission.

China Water: June 28, 2008: Canadian not-for-profit predicts severe Beijing water problems.

This article discsses a report from a not for profit organization called probe international. The organization has predicted great water problems for Beijing.

Probe International describes its purpose as "Probe International exposes the devastating environmental, social, and economic effects of Canada's aid and trade abroad. In a democracy, there is no greater guarantee of justice than the free flow of information. Probe International names names. Because we aren't dependent on governments or industry for our funding, we are free to reveal exactly who is doing what, and when. Probe International works to hold accountable government agencies such as the Canadian International Development Agency, the Export Development Corporation, and the World Bank, as well as Canadian corporations, for damages they inflict on developing nations."

Although I have not read the actual report, in fact to be honest prior to this news article I'd never heard of Probe International although their website does look very interesting and quite relevant to the topic of this blog, but I agree that the problem is serious. (Hence this blog.) On the other hand, my guess is that it's like a lot of things in life and history. The Chinese government is quite aware that there is a big water problem developing in China. As the book "Retreat of the Elephant" shows Chinese civilization has had a tight inter-relationship for water issues for over two thousand years. Hu Jintao has a strong background in water issues as well.

The issues, I imagine, are how much is China willing to forego in order to address water needs and how much control over water issues in China can the government of China actually exert effectively.

Time will tell and more clues will unfold.

My guess of the moment is that once the Olympics are over and the world's attention is safely away from Beijing, the government of China will be much more willing to impose harsh measures on its citizens in order to address water problems. I say this without editorializing.

Peter Huston
===

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g8MFxNPerl76w3sC63T4j8GEjhHw


Beijing faces turmoil due to water crisis: Probe International

1 day ago

BEIJING (AFP) — Beijing's water crisis is so critical that the city is facing economic collapse and the need to resettle part of its population in coming decades, a leading development policy group said Friday.

Experts predict the Chinese capital could run out of water in five to 10 years, according to Grainne Ryder, policy director at Canada-based Probe International.

She said Beijing would potentially have to start shutting down industry, as the city would be incapable of supporting current levels of infrastructure or population.

"I would imagine it would be a phased shut-down of its economy, an economic collapse," she said.

Speaking at the launch of a report on Beijing's water crisis just six weeks before the "Green Olympics" in August, Ryder said authorities had already discussed moving people out of the capital to other cities in the future.

According to the report by Probe, called "Beijing's Water Crisis: 1949-2008 Olympics," Beijing's 200 or so rivers and streams are drying up, and the city's reservoirs are almost empty.

The available water supply, according to Ryder, amounts to less than 200 cubic metres (7,060 cubic feet) per person a year.

One thousand cubic metres is the indicator of extreme water stress according to international standards.

At the same time, water demand is rising, and the Olympic Games -- for which Beijing has developed man-made lakes, musical fountains and new parks -- will consume around 200 million cubic metres of water, the report said.

This is the equivalent of 80,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

More than two thirds of the city's water supply now comes from groundwater, and Beijing is having to extract water originally intended for use in emergencies, such as war, from 1,000 metres (3,280 feet) or more underground.

Not only that, but Beijing is to start transferring water from existing and proposed reservoirs in neighbouring Hebei province this year, and plans to divert water from the Yangtze River in central China from 2010, the report said.

"The answer is we're going to start draining other regions so the proliferation of the crisis is then related to keeping Beijing on life support," Ryder said.

But Jiang Wenlai, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, said he thought the comments were exaggerated.

"Currently, Beijing uses 0.5 billion cubic metres of recycled water every year, which is quite advanced on a national level."

He added an ambitious project to bring water via newly dug canals from the Yangtze river to north China will bring 1.2 billion cubic metres of water to Beijing.

"But the report is a warning to us all to do more about the water shortage," he said.

Probe International called for China to set up a special government agency to get the water system under control.

"Nobody is in charge. There are overlapping responsibilities, so they need to have a regulator that can seriously look at what can be done, and what should be done first," Ryder said.

The report also urged the Chinese government to introduce higher prices to encourage people to use less water and to promote efficiency.

Currently, the price in Beijing is 0.54 dollars a cubic metre, the report said, compared to between 0.65 and 0.80 dollars in Brazil, and between 2.2 and 2.7 dollars in England and Wales.

"Beijing needs to start acting like it has a crisis on its hands," Ryder said.

Asia Water: June 26, 2008: New Asia-Pacific Water Coalition forms.

Interesting story, whose significance will emerge over time. It appears that Taiwan is not included in this organization. A shame.

Peter Huston
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http://www.environmental-expert.com/resultEachPressRelease.aspx?cid=27279&codi=33284&idproducttype=8&level=0

New Asia-Pacific network launched to tackle water problems
Source: Asian Development Bank
Published Jun. 26, 2008


Twelve organizations from across the Asia-Pacific region today launched a network to share solutions for improving water management to tackle the region’s many pressing water challenges.

The network, known as “KnowledgeHubs,” is an initiative of the Asia-Pacific Water Forum, which was established in 2006 with support from Japan and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) to promote leadership and boost investment in the water sector.

Some 650 million people in the Asia-Pacific region lack access to clean water and 2 billion are without adequate sanitation. Economic development, rural-to-urban migration, and greater industrial demand have increased competition for clean water. Meanwhile, climate change has made rainfall harder to predict, and floods and droughts are on the increase.

“The region is in urgent need of updated solutions—and more water professionals to implement them,” ADB Lead Water Resources Specialist Wouter Lincklaen Arriens said at the launch. “KnowledgeHubs will harness the region’s rich experience with water issues and give governments, water sector agencies, institutions and communities access to the best solutions available.”

Through KnowledgeHubs, decades of experience with the region’s most urgent water issues will be channeled into an open network of centers of excellence, each of which will take region-wide responsibility for knowledge networking on a priority water topic. The hubs will work together to coordinate services to clients and to leverage their respective experiences and the experiences of local, national, and international clients and partners.

“There’s no question that our region has the expertise to solve its water challenges. Where we must do better is in knowledge sharing and in developing the capacity to produce results at the local level. For that, we need knowledge networks that connect people to feasible solutions and help them adapt those solutions to their local conditions,” said Singapore’s Ambassador-at-Large Professor Tommy Koh, Chair of the Asia-Pacific Water Forum’s Governing Council.

KnowledgeHubs is supported by ADB, Singapore’s national water agency PUB, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education.

At the launch, Ravi Narayanan, Vice Chair of the forum’s Governing Council, introduced the 12 founding members of KnowledgeHubs. They are PUB WaterHub, Singapore; International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management, Japan; National Hydraulic Research Institute of Malaysia; Center for River Basin Organizations and Management, Indonesia; Korea Water Resources Corporation, the Republic of Korea; Center for Hydroinformatics in River Basins at the Yellow River Conservancy Commission, the People’s Republic of China; Institute of Water Policy at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, Singapore; International Water Management Institute, Sri Lanka; Central Asia IWRM Resource Center, Uzbekistan; Pacific IWRM Resource Centre, the Fiji Islands; International Research and Training Center on Erosion and Sedimentation, the People’s Republic of China; and the International WaterCentre, Australia.

China Water: June 25, 2008: Int'l loans to help Baiyangdian lake.

It would be interesting to see what exactly the money is being used for. Although information undoubtedly is available at http://www.adb.org/ the site seems to be having problems at the moment. I hope to explore more later.

Peter Huston
===

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/25/content_8436895.htm


ADB helping China improve ecosystem in major lake

MANILA, June 25 (Xinhua) -- The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is helping China address and reverse decades of ecological degradation to one of the nation's most valuable fresh-water resources, the lender said on Wednesday.

Called the "Kidney of North China," the Baiyangdian Lake and the ecosystem it supports are at constant risk from falling water levels, soil erosion and wastewater runoff, the multilateral development bank said in a press release.

To help counter the environmental damage, ADB is providing a loan of 100 million U.S. dollars for the 273 million-dollar Integrated Ecosystem and Water Resources Management in the Baiyangdian Basin Project. The project will focus on the critical needs to conserve Baiyangdian Lake, one of the most important and vulnerable ecosystems in China, ADB added.

"The project will demonstrate an innovative integrated ecosystem and water resources management approach to improve the environmental condition in the Baiyangdain Basin," said Akmal Siddiq, Natural Resources Economist of ADB's East Asia Department.

"The ecosystem in the lake is constantly at risk," the economist said.

Located in the central part of Hebei province, Baiyangdian Lakehas a total area of 366 square kilometers. It is home to 36 lake villages and 62 lakeside villages with a population of 200,000 people. It is the largest fresh water lake and wetland in north China, and plays an important role in balancing the ecosystem there.

Reeds grown in the area are used to produce about 7 million tons of reed mats a year, making up 40 percent of the national total. Lotus and water chestnuts are also grown there, and the lake is home to more than 50 types of fish. It is also an important refueling site for migratory birds on the East Asian-Australasian flyway.

The project will also engage in a wide range of sub-projects that will improve wastewater treatment plants, water supply systems, urban flood management, comprehensive water management, and solid waste management in the basin which covers 31,500 square kilometers, according to ADB.

In the last four decades, the functions and values of the basin and the lake have been eroded substantially with adverse impacts on its ecosystem. The lake and its upper watershed support significant biodiversity of regional and global significance. The open water and aquatic beds of the lake are spawning grounds and feeding habitats for a diverse array of fish and other animal species.

The size of the lake has decreased by almost half in the past four decades because of controlled water flows, continuous droughts, and soil erosion. Rising population, expanded agricultural and industrial activities, with limited solid and wastewater disposal measures, have transformed the lake into a major depository of wastewater discharges, pollutant substances, and sediments.

China Water: June 24, 2008: China refills major lake drained for Olympics.:

Fascinating story direct from the website of the Chinese Ministry of Water. It hints at the major problems caused in China by the drought and the way these have been exacerbated by efforts to ensure that not only is there enough water for the Olympics but that foreigners who visit for the Olympics leave with a good impression.

For more information on Baiyangdian (白洋淀)

http://www.worldlakes.org/lakedetails.asp?lakeid=10455

Peter Huston
===

http://www.mwr.gov.cn/english/20080623/91564.asp

China refills major lake affected by Olympic water use
2008-6-23

China has refilled its largest freshwater lake in the north in a five-month operation with diverted water from the Yellow River, saving the lake from drying out as a result of its headwaters being used for Olympic emergency water supply reservoirs.

A total of 156 million cubic meters of water from the country's second longest river had been injected into the Baiyangdian lake in north China's Hebei Province by early on Friday morning, said the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters in a press release on Friday.

Stricken by continuous drought, the lake has seen water levels sharply lower over the past few years and has had to give up its nearest water sources to back up Beijing's water use for the coming Games.

After the diversion was completed, the water surface area of the lake more than doubled to 140 from 60 square kilometers, said the office.

"The project is an important part of the work to ensure water supply for the Olympics and protect north China's ecological environment," it said. "It was of political significance."

With the water coming through a 400-meter route from the Huanghan Lock Gate in Liaocheng City, Shandong Province, Baiyangdian saw its water level rise to 7.42 meters from 6.2 meters. The official gauge of dryness for the lake is 6.5 meters.

The lake's water line dropped to 6.32 meters because of scant rain fall last October, causing damage to the local ecological system and affecting 230,000 residents, according to project organizers.

The 148-day project was launched in January, the second such project since November 2006, when the lake was hit by the worst drought in half a decade.

Three of the lake's upstream reservoirs in Baoding City of Hebei -- Wangkuai, Xidayang and Angezhuang -- provide 300 million cubic meters of back-up water for Beijing. Their combined reserves were 467 million cubic meters last winter, according to project engineers.

Baiyangdian, dubbed the "pearl of north China", is the region's largest marsh and essential to local climate adjustment and ecological balance, said the statement.

Baiyangdian is actually a collection of 143 small lakes about 160 kilometers southwest of Beijing. It has relied on reservoir water replenishment since 1992.

Source: Xinhua

China Water: June 24, 2008: Flood waters recede in south China.

Posted without comment.

Peter Huston
===

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/23/content_8422650.htm

River water levels recede in Guangxi, Guangdong
www.chinaview.cn 2008-06-23 13:03:56 Print

BEIJING, June 23 -- Weather experts say the recent heavy rains that swept through southern China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and Guangdong Province have basically ended.

Starting at two o'clock on Saturday afternoon, water levels at tributaries of the Pearl River in Guangdong Province began to fall below alert levels. And on Saturday morning, provincial authorities lifted their emergency flood prevention response. But not before Guangdong Province suffered its worst torrential rains in 57 years for this period of the year.

Torrential rains left 33 people dead and affected more than nine million local residents. Direct economic losses have been estimated at over 6.4 billion yuan. That's more than 900 million US dollars.

In Guangxi, river water levels have also receded to safe levels. Meanwhile, roads are being cleared in rain-swept cities and counties, and damaged facilities are under repair.

(Source: cctv.com)

China Water: June 23, 2008: Floods in south China.

Flood continue in southern China.

Click here to see a map of Anhui province.

Peter Huston
===

http://www.reuters.com/articlePrint?articleId=USPEK210362

Rains, floods wreak havoc in China
Sat Jul 21, 2007 8:18am EDT
(Adds threat of dikes being breached)

BEIJING, July 21 (Reuters) - The death toll from storms in east China's coastal Shandong province has risen to 40, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday, citing the provincial civil affairs bureau.

China's flood season, which usually lasts from May to September, has already killed hundreds of people this year and caused a plague of rats fleeing rising waters in the southeastern province of Hunan.

Xinhua cited officials with the flood control centre in eastern Anhui province as saying that they faced a "severe" challenge in controlling flooding in the middle and lower reaches of the Huai River in the coming days.

Dikes in those areas, already soaked for more than two weeks, would be at a heightened risk of giving way in the coming 10 days as water levels are expected to remain dangerously high for at least that long, the agency said.

Heavy rain is forecast to continue to hit large swathes of China over the weekend, including the central Huai River basin.

Hundreds of thousands of residents along the Huai, which runs through the central province of Henan as well as Anhui and Jiangsu in the east, have had to evacuate their homes.

Rising water levels there forced another 67,000 people from their homes in Anhui on Thursday, Xinhua said.

China Water: June 23, 2008: Pollution, the Olympics and lawsuits in China.

Hmmm, why is it that people put the Olympics in a country with a history of human rights problems, and then were surprised when the Olympics became tarnished with human rights problems?

Go figure. Actually of real interest to China watchers is the mention of lawsuits seeking compensation for damages caused by and correction of pollution sources. This is a relatively new use of legalistic methods to address underlying social problems.

If China is going to continue to grow in a stable manner and integrate itself into the international business community of nations, two big issues that must be addressed are underlying internal social tensions and inequalities within Chinese society as well as the problem that corporations doing business in China become uncomfortable when the Chinese authorities occasionally do not follow or enforce laws or legal agreements as expected. Many have commented that the increased use of law suits in China over the past ten or twenty years will work to address both of these problems. We'll just have to wait and see how much really happens.

Peter Huston
===

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/22/china.olympicgames2008/print

Scandal of the cancer villages lurks behind China's 'green' makeover

Activists have been gagged and lawsuits buried until after the Olympics

* Jason Burke in Hou Wang Ge Zhung
* The Observer,
* Sunday June 22, 2008
* Article history

Beijing is shrouded with smog

Beijing is shrouded with smog on May 20, 2008 in Beijing, China. Photograph: Guang Niu/Getty Images

The walls of the village have recently been repainted with trees, waterfalls and the uplifting slogan: 'I will contribute to the success of the Olympics and help establish a civilised new community.'

The people of Hou Wang Ge Zhung, however, have other matters on their mind. Sitting in front of his traditional brick house a few yards away, Kong Qingyu, 77, a farmer, spoke about his brother's recent death from throat cancer. 'Everything was OK until the factory came and then people started to die. You can't see the pollution. But it is there. The factory pumps out waste after midnight.'

In a side street, Kong Xiang We, 57, described her husband's illness - stomach cancer, according to doctors from Beijing University. 'He's getting weaker and weaker,' she said. 'In the past two months there have been two new cases.'

The people of Hou Wang Ge Zhung believe that their small community, hidden among fields and birch trees an hour's drive from Beijing, has joined the ranks of China's 'cancer villages'. They blame the chemical factory built in the area five years ago for 25 villagers having had the disease diagnosed and 19 having died since 2002. Like the vast majority of the scores of such communities where 'cancer clusters' have been detected, they have little hard evidence to back their claim - which is denied by the factory owners. Nevertheless, they have launched a legal case for compensation, inspired by the success of other communities which have won money from polluters.

Now, because of the Olympic Games, the villagers of Hou Wang Ge Zhung will have to wait until the autumn for a decision. 'We have been told nothing will be settled either way until after the Olympics,' said one villager. 'Otherwise it could be bad for the image of Beijing and the country.'

With the Games six weeks away, authorities in China are going to extreme lengths to ensure that nothing mars the opportunity to flaunt the nation's new economic, political and cultural power - and its new green credentials - to the world. A vast programme of 'beautification' has seen 40 million flowers and tens of thousands of trees planted in Beijing alone.

Lu Haijun, director of the Beijing 2008 Environmental Construction Office, said that more 'aesthetically pleasing' curving roofs had been fitted to 2,615 old blocks of flats and 20,000 more repainted. Other infrastructure projects, such as a vastly expanded and heavily subsidised metro system, will also help to 'green' the capital, it is hoped.

During the two weeks of the Games, to ensure a semblance of clean air for the athletes, the dirtiest power stations, construction sites and industries around the city will be shut down, Du Shaozhong, deputy director of the Beijing Environment Protection Bureau, said.

More controversially, public opinion is being buffed and polished by the authorities as well. A crackdown has begun on negative press and potentially 'destabilising' environmental activism, even that as apparently unthreatening as the legal action of the villagers of Hou Wang Ge Zhung.

The stories that regularly expose pollution and corruption - the two are often interlinked - have disappeared from the wires of the state Xinhua news agency. Normally vocal environmental activists now avoid talking. One said last week that she had been told by the government not to speak to the foreign press. Some experts have been warned off making public statements.

Within 30 minutes of arriving in Hou Wang Ge Zhung, The Observer was firmly escorted to the local Communist party office, lectured, shown government reports on tests on the local water that revealed 'no problem', detained while more senior officials arrived and then escorted from the village by police.

'Until the Olympics are over, things have to be regulated. This is the order we have had from the government,' said Wang Hue, village chairman and local Communist party chief. 'There is no point in interviewing the villagers. I am their representative and I know they agree with the government. Those who launched the lawsuit are troublemakers.'

China has long been sensitive to its reputation as a major polluter - both internally and in terms of global carbon emissions. The World Health Organisation recently estimated that diseases triggered by air pollution kill 656,000 Chinese citizens a year and polluted drinking water kills another 95,600. One Chinese government report attributed a 40 per cent rise in birth defects since 2001 to pollution.

The government has taken major steps in recent years to improve the situation, with a series of laws passed to punish offenders and to force disclosure by industries of discharges of hazardous chemicals. 'China has really made progress in the last five years, especially in disclosure and environmental information, and is strengthening enforcement,' said Mah Jongg, a high-profile environmental campaigner. However, enforcement of the new laws is variable and problems persist at a local level where officials often collude with polluting businesses. 'The Olympics has helped focus attention on environmental protection, but it is a one-off event and environmental protection is long-term,' said Mah.

In Hou Wang Ge Zhung, the villagers are resigned. 'If it is bad for the image of the city to have a decision on our court case before the Olympics, we will wait,' said one farmer playing cards in the street. 'We can't do anything else. We are just poor villagers.'
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This article appeared in the Observer on Sunday June 22 2008 on p36 of the World news section. It was last updated at 14:58 on June 23 2008.

China Water: June 22, 2008: China constructs world's largest water rediversion project.

A very important article that discusses a mammoth project to send water from the south, where it is in excess, to the north where there are shortages. Naturally the environmental effects are uncertain and the economic costs of the project will be great.

Peter Huston
===

http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/environment/2008-06-19-chinawater_N.htm


China carves paths to address flooding, drought
By Calum MacLeod, USA TODAY
BEIJING — Floods in south China have killed at least 176 people this month and forced the evacuation of 1.6 million people. Yet the deadly start of China's rainy season masks a bigger crisis: not enough water.

To tackle the water shortage threatening China's breakneck development, the nation is constructing the world's largest water diversion project.

The dramatic scheme aims to defy the laws of nature on a scale that only China would attempt. The plan is to draw water from the flood-prone south, and send it through channels, tunnels and pump stations up to the drought-ridden north.

The $61 billion South-to-North Water Transfer Project is in its sixth year of construction and has at least three more years to go.

"In scale and investment, this is the biggest water engineering project in China's history," said Jiang Xuguang, a leading official at the central government commission responsible for the project. "It is five times bigger than the Three Gorges Dam," a controversial hydropower project. Jiang estimated that 400 million people — a third of China's population — will benefit from the borrowed water.

Thousands of Chinese workers are carving two mighty canals from the Yangtze, China's longest river, up to and under the Yellow River, the nation's second largest river.

By 2010, the eastern and central routes of the diversion project will channel 26 billion cubic yards of water annually from the flood-prone Yangtze to the parched plains of north China.

To ensure that Beijing has plenty of water for the Olympics Aug. 8-24, one section of the central canal was rushed and completed in May.

Mao's mega-project

Chairman Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic of China, has been dead 32 years, but his words still move mountains across this communist country. "Water is abundant in the south and scarce in the north," he said in 1952 on the banks of the Yellow River. "If it's feasible, we could borrow some from south to north."

After 50 years of discussions and designs, the groundbreaking came in 2002.

"Mao was a poet, and he had a flash of inspiration," said Ma Jun, one of China's top water analysts. But for five decades after Mao spoke, "we've been using water in a non-sustainable way, thinking there is a solution somewhere," said Ma, who runs a civic group to educate the Chinese public about water pollution. "We believed water would flow to our doorsteps from the Yangtze River."

China's per-capita water volume is one-fourth of the global average, according to the World Bank.

Jiang, in an interview in November 2006, said China needs more water: "If we don't take any measures, there will be an eco-catastrophe in north China. Even after saving water and raising prices, we still lack resources, and we can't solve it without more water."

The water diversion project raises environmental concerns, just as building the giant Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River did.

The strongest criticism targets the most ambitious part of the project — the western routes that will begin construction in 2010. The plan calls for blasting through the Tibetan mountains to link the upper Yangtze to the Yellow River, which would boost the annual volume of borrowed water to 59 billion cubic yards by 2050. That's enough water to cover all of New Jersey with more than 7 feet of water.

Environmental activist Yu Kongjian, a Beijing University professor and consultant to the city government, criticizes the project, saying it costs too much, risks environmental problems for the region and doesn't solve basics such as pollution.

A better use of the billions of dollars would be to treat China's wastewater and sewage, said Ma, the water analyst. "There is a growing understanding within China that this is not the answer, it is only an emergency relief project. The real answer to our water problems is conservation," Ma said.

He urges compliance with water-use regulations, better pollution control and increased recycling. Concrete measures could include fixing millions of leaking pipes, toilets and faucets in Beijing, instead of spending money on resources 746 miles from Beijing. "The 1.3 billion people of China should be smart enough to stop this self-damage," Ma said.

Ma said the water aquifers beneath Beijing have been greatly depleted in recent years. "The government has said that once water flows from the south, it will start reducing the use of underground water and allow the aquifers to be replenished. I hope the government sticks to that plan," he said.

Calls to change behavior

Other analysts say such plans are irrelevant, because Beijing, home to 17 million people, is doomed to a chronic water shortage. "It does not matter how much water you transfer from elsewhere, it will never be enough unless the citizens of Beijing change their behavior and water usage," said Dai Qing, a Beijing-based writer and water policy specialist whose works are banned in China.

"For 800 years as China's capital, Beijing enjoyed good water supplies, but only in the last 10 years has there been dramatic change, with the growth of the city and its population and continuous drought," she said. "Today Beijing faces a very dangerous situation."

Water needed for the Olympics, including one of the world's highest fountains, will "give 500,000 foreign visitors a false impression," Dai said.

"For example, the Olympic rowing venue on the Chaobai River is not a real river at all but a man-made section" on a previously dry riverbed, Dai said. After the Games, she said, the city will let it go dry again.

Virtual Water

"Virtual water" is a new yet fundamental concept in the world of water ecology and water economics. Essentially the concept refers to the way in which virtually all products, particularly agricultural products such as food but also cotton, require water to be grown or produced. The amount of water required, of course, varies from product to product, but it is often substantial. Therefore when a product such as wheat, beef, eggs or what have you, is exported, the export of the "virtual water" that was used to produce the product needs to be calculated and taken into account in order to fully understand the economic and ecological costs of producing then exporting the product.

Forbes has recently run a good series of articles, including a slide show, that describe this concept. Rather than repaste the artlcles I've included a link. It's well worth checking out.

Peter Huston
===

http://www.forbes.com/home/2008/06/19/water-food-trade-tech-water08-cx_fp_0619virtual.html

Map links: China Water: June 21, 2008.

This article discusses flooding and rain in the following places:
Sichuan Basin;
Hanjiang River region:
Yangtze River;
the Yellow or "Huang" river;
the Huai river or Huai He;
Although it is not mentioned in this article, here is an interesting article, and a link to a map, related to China's grand canal. Grand Canal article and map link;

It's well worth browsing through the linked articles.


http://www.travelchinaguide.com/news/show.asp?nid=1110

Storms in South China tapering off, rain belt shifts northward
176 killed, 43 million affected in floods
Published : 3:29 A.M. EST, Jun 19, 2008
News from China Central Meteorological Office is that the heavy rainfall over South China and South of Yangtze River is now easing up. The rain belt is moving northward, from June 20, and will affect the Sichuan Basin, Yangtze-Hanjiang River Region, Yangtze-Huaihe River Region and Yellow-Huaihe River Region, all of which will have heavy rain or storms.


Moderate to heavy rain is expected to hit the quake-stricken area in Southwest China. From 21 to 22, these areas will have heavy rain or storms.


Since June 7, heavy rain has fallen on the region south of the Yangtze River three times, causing severe floods in nine provinces including Anhui, Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hubei, Hunan, Yunnan and Zhejiang. By June 18, the death toll mounted to 176 while 52 are missing and 43 million people were affected. Meanwhile, more than 9,500 square miles of crops have suffered from flooding. Hundreds of highways were under water and the resultant economic loss of over 2.9 billion RMB.

Original Content: China, Water and the origins of civilizations.

I am currently reading Mark Elvin's "The Retreat of the Elephants --an Environmental History of China." It got good reviews from my classmates in graduate school, although I had not read it until now.

According to Elvin, generally speaking early civilizations begin along rivers, generally seeking to control the water resources in what he describes as an adversarial relationship. Man seeks to control the water to protect himself from floods, while simultaneously seeking to control the water in order to provide for his irrigation needs. This fuels population growth along the banks of the river and throughout the surrounding area.

Ultimately, says Elvin, as population increases, the civilization outstrips its resources and the center of civilization has to expand or shift. According to Elvin, European civilization began in the Egyptian and later Greek areas and after resources were depleted in this area, shifted following what he terms "resource frontiers" to the north and west and ultimately overseas. Chinese civilization, he says, followed the same pattern of beginning in river valleys and outstripping resources, save that the civilization expanded following resource frontiers to the south and west.

This following map, which does not come from Elvin, illustrates the beginnings fo the process. Although it illustrates the sites of four of the world's earliest river valley civilizations, a reader will note that none of the four sites are considered "centers of global civilization" today.

Although Chinese civilization originated along the Yangtze river, the centers of power and industry are now to the north, in the Beijing area, to the north of the Yangtze, and the Guangzhou area, to the south of the Yangtze. Although Shanghai is near the mouth of the Yangtze it is not on the mouth of the Yangtze and the city itself only dates from the nineteenth century. See this map,http://encarta.msn.com/map_701517763/yangtze.html for details.

Fascinating stuff,

Peter Huston

China Water: June 20, 2008: China's first pesticide law passed.

China passes new laws regulating pesticide discharge into water sources. The real question, as always, with China is whether or not enforcement will follow.

Peter Huston
===

http://www.chinacsr.com/2008/06/20/2452-chinas-first-pesticide-industry-water-pollutant-discharge-standard-to-be-implemented/

China's First Pesticide Industry Water Pollutant Discharge Standard To Be Implemented
June 20, 2008

China's Ministry of Environmental Protection and General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine have issued "Heterocyclic Pesticides Production industrial Pollutants Discharge Standard", which will go into effect on July 1, 2008.

This is the first pesticide industry water pollutant discharge standard in China. It will play an important role in pesticide industrial structure adjustment and technological progress.

The new standard takes clean production and management technology of heterocyclic pesticides industry as foundations, prescribes the control projects and discharge limits of heterocyclic pesticides such as imidacloprid, triadimefon, carbendazim, paraquat, atrazine and fipronil, and is applicable to pesticide companies producing above heterocyclic pesticides.

The new standard will also play an important role in eliminating high-pollution and under-developed technology and promoting low-pollution and advanced technology, and will be carried out by environmental protection administrative departments above county level.

Original Content: China water through maps: Rough draft.

Greetings! This is the start of a project I've wanted to add to this blog for a while now. China's culture and water situation through maps. It doesn't make much sense now, but keep checking back and it'll become clearer.

China Water: June 19, 2008: Flood fears cause 70,000 to be evacuated from earthquake zone.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUKSP15561120080619
China moves 70,000 from quake areas, fearing flood
Thu Jun 19, 2008 9:38am BST

By John Ruwitch

SANSHUI, China, June 19 (Reuters) - China has evacuated more than 70,000 people near the epicentre of last month's devastating earthquake to avoid further casualties from landslides and other disasters during the annual flood season.

Rain and floods, concentrated in China's heavily industrialised south, have killed at least 176 people already this year, and left 52 missing, as authorities struggle to shelter millions made homeless by the 7.9 magnitude quake that struck the southwestern province of Sichuan on May 12.

Authorities in Aba prefecture had moved 72,000 people living in "highly dangerous terrain" in Wenchuan county, the epicentre of the quake, to safer areas ahead of downpours on Wednesday night, Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday.

"The three-day mass relocation concluded at 8 p.m., just two hours before heavy rain hit the county," Xinhua quoted local disaster prevention authorities as saying.

It did not explain why the already devastated area was still home to so many people, whether they were living in tent cities or in homes, or where they would be evacuated to.

Authorities had started to evacuate another nearly 40,000 residents from other regions of the prefecture on Sunday, the report said, without elaborating.

China suffers floods, droughts and other disasters across its huge landmass every year. The State Flood Control and Relief Headquarters said the death toll so far was significantly lower than for similar periods in previous years.

SECONDARY DISASTERS

Since the earthquake struck, killing more than 69,000, Wenchuan county alone had experienced nearly 5,000 "secondary geological disasters", including hundreds of major landslides and mudslides, Xinhua said.

State television showed footage of villagers carrying belongings and picking their way gingerly down steep mountain paths.

The death toll in China's flood season, which has forced the evacuation of about 1.66 million people and damaged or destroyed 9,000 square miles of crop-land, had risen to at least 176 people by Thursday, 50 days before the Olympic Games open in Beijing.

Rainstorms and floods had been recorded in nine provinces, from Yunnan in the far southwest to Zhejiang in the east, where 2,000 people were evacuated in Pingyao city as waters threatened to engulf their roof-tops.

More than 800 residents were trapped and awaiting relief in Liyang, a village in the mountains of the Guangxi region, east of Yunnan, where roads and power lines had been cut since Monday, the China Daily said.

Floodwaters near Foshan, a manufacturing hub in Guangdong's Pearl River Delta, were subsiding slowly as rains eased, but teams of engineers and troops remained on standby along the banks of the swollen Beijiang river.

Some economists have said the cost of this year's flooding appears no greater than in previous years, but add that thousands of hectares of lost crops could add to price pressures as China battles inflation that has been driven by soaring food costs over the past year. (Writing by Ian Ransom; Editing by Nick Macfie and Roger Crabb)



© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved.

Korea Water: June 19, 2008: Deep-sea mineral water commercially exploited.

Business news about the extraction and commercial sale of deep-sea water in the Republic of Korea. The water is apparently desalinated and then used for high end commercial use, including manufacture of mineral water for domestic use and export. Deep-sea water is also used in commercial fisheries for raising fish. I've also decided to share a second news story which discusses the same commercial industry but in Hawaii. This second article includes good background material.

Peter Huston
===

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-06/19/content_8397707.htm
SK Gas to take over local deep-sea water supplier
www.chinaview.cn 2008-06-19 09:06:10 Print

SEOUL, June 19 (Xinhua) -- SK Gas Co. has signed a deal to take 67 percent of the stake in Ulleung Mineral Co., a deep-sea water supplier, to meet the growing high-end water demand in South Korea, local daily Korea Herald reported Thursday.

Cheong Kyung-hui of new business development at the South Korea's energy firm was quoted as saying on Wednesday that "We think water is another important resource to develop. The revenue is currently very petty, but we plan to expand sales channels further."

Deep-sea water is largely considered free of chemicals, pollutants and pathogens, but rich in minerals, attracting many South Korean consumers who are becoming more concerned of the quality of drinking water, said the English-language newspaper.

According to the daily, major beverage makers such as Lotte Chilsung and Dongwon have already set foot in the deep-sea water business seeking to extract the high mineral water from the East Sea where large amount of high quality water is considered to be embedded underground.

Currently in South Korea, a variety of deep sea-water products such as sports drinks, salts and cosmetics are selling in the market, the report added.

According to the estimation of some optimists, annual sale of deep-sea water products is expected to grow to 1 trillion won (990U.S. million dollars) in two years.

Acknowledging the growing demand, South Korea's National Assembly passed the law on developing deep-sea water last year to facilitate the investment and researches in the water reserves under the ocean floor.
Editor: Jiang Yuxia




http://www.argusleader.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080602/LIFE/806020309/1004

Asians love Hawaii's bottled deep-sea water

GREG WILES • The Honolulu Advertiser • June 2, 2008

HONOLULU - More than 19 tons of desalinated drinking water was exported from Hawaii to Japan and other countries in the first three months of this year as the market for deep-sea water from Hawaii continued to blossom.

Figures released by Foreign Trade Zone No. 9, one of 12 in Hawaii, show there was about a 16 percent increase in exports of the water overseas during the first quarter, with more than 38,000 pounds shipped to international locales.

Hawaii's deep-sea water business sprang up about five years ago and has for the most part enjoyed rapid growth as consumers in Asia seek out the drink, marketed as a natural, pathogen-free product drawn from thousands of feet below the ocean's surface.
Advertisement

The Foreign Trade Zone statistics show total export sales of the water rose to $41.7 million last year, while first-quarter revenue totaled $9.69 million.

"I think some people were skeptical that the water companies would last," said Mark Anderson, deputy director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. "I'm happy to see that they've been successful so far."

Anderson said Hawaii is a factor in that success since similar products drawn from waters off Japan do not have the association with the pristine image of water from the state.

"The water companies have been able to capitalize on that," he said.

For example, Koyo USA Corp. markets its MaHaLo Hawaii Deep Sea Water as being pumped from 3,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, where the water "is safe from surface pollutants caused by industry, farming, chemicals or human waste" while brimming with essential minerals.

Koyo is one of a handful of water companies located or planning facilities at the Natural Energy Laboratory of Hawaii Authority's ocean and science technology park at Keahole Point on the Big Island.

On Oahu, two companies have set up shop to draw water from 2,000 feet deep and several miles offshore. Deep Ocean Enterprises is desalinating and selling its Hawaii Deep Blue water in Honolulu, but is about to expand internationally, said Richard Paige, Deep Ocean president. He said the company is about to sign a contract for Asia.

"They're going to be wanting a lot of bottled water from us," said Paige. "We've got some huge opportunities overseas."

He said there is a certain cachet in selling water from Hawaii and that the company also markets the water as being sound environmentally because it isn't depleting water tables.

The company started production late last year and since its sales have only been in Hawaii, the numbers don't show up in the export data. Foreign Trade Zone numbers aren't representative of total industry revenue because sales here and on the Mainland aren't counted as exports.
AP-NY-05-30-08 1000EDT

Vietnam Water: June 18, 2008: Pollution from golf course in Hoa Binh.

http://www.intellasia.net/news/articles/health/111245263_printer.shtml

Unclean water irks villagers
Source: 17-JUN-2008 Intellasia | Thanhniennews
Jun 17, 2008 - 7:00:00 AM
Nguyen Van Sen knows the water he uses contains pesticides and grass fertilisers from a nearby golf course but he does not have access to any other water.

For more than three-years, hundreds of households in the northern province of Hoa Binh have been living in a resettlement area where the only water source is contaminated by toxic chemicals from the golf course.

The families were resettled after their homes were taken to make way for the golf course in the mountainous Lam Son Commune of Luong Son District.

The plans for the golf course included a clean water supply for the resettled households but this has yet to be delivered.

Recent tests by officials from the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment found the water used by Lam Son residents was highly poisonous.

Sen said he spent millions of dong [1 million dong = US$63] on filtering devices and a water tank but using the water still caused skin irritations.

"Clean water here is more precious than rice," the 50-year-old said.

Sen said sometimes his family traveled to the mountain two kilometres away to ask for water for drinking and cooking.

At one point, some officials from the provincial Department of Natural Resources and Environment gave Lam Son residents packets of water purifying powder, which costs 25,000 dong (US$1.50) apiece, but the powder didn't prove very effective, he said.

Many of the commune's families once used well-water but now the underground water is also polluted.

Rong Tam stream, which ran through the commune's previous site, once supplied clean water to four wells used by all families in the commune.

However, the stream now flows through the golf course before reaching the commune.

Chemicals and fertilisers used by the club wash into the stream every day.

Nguyen Thi Kim, 48, said the well that her family had used for more than 30 years was now unusable.

"It stinks," she said.

Dinh Thi Nhuoc, 61, said it's not simply the unpleasant smell that mattered.

"There are many harmful chemicals that endanger public health," she said.

Bui Duc Hien, chair of Lam Son People's Committee, said the commune authorities were not involved in the golf project.

He said the province had promised to build a water plant for the residents of the resettlement area.

However, the work has been postponed for two-years after a 70 metre deep hole was drilled there, Hien said.

The water that Lam Son residents are living with was planned as a temporary water supply when the golf ground project was initiated, he said.

CHINA WATER ENTERS PHASE TWO!!

Greetings! It's been a month now, a full month, and for a month I've been essentially selecting and sharing news reports on the water situation in China and surrounding areas. Although I did this in part to test my commitment to the project, having passed that test, it's now time for a change. For the next month, I plan to take some of the time I've spent on sharing news and using it to develop myself in other areas related to the China water situation. Some of this will not be readily visible on the blog, at least not at first. For instance, I intend to spend time working on translating water related articles from the Chinese and reading more on behind the scenes and developing deeper background knowledge. I have some ideas for original content for the site. I wish to familiarize myself further with several of the on-line resources that I have discovered over the last month.

A blog is several things. One is a way to show public commitment to an issue or field. Another, however, is that occasionally a blog becomes a trap, an end in itself, something that becomes done whether it serves a purpose or not. Clearly this is undesirable.

Readers of this blog are encouraged to contact me or comment on what's out there. Should it appear that there is a slowing of commitment to this project, please understand that there is not. There has merely been a shifting of energies, and much of these energies are going to China water related projects that do not have an immediate, visible effect on the website. Instead, it is hoped that the effects of these off-web China water related projects will have a long-term, positive effect on the quality of this blog. But there will be a slowing of new content on this blog.

As they say in Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, "Don't panic and bring a towel!"

China water blog is improving. but for the next month much of these improvements will be off scene and not visible on the net.

Please stay tuned, and let me know what you think please.

Philippine Water: June 18, 2008:

Although I do not plan to cover news from the Philippines, this interesting editorial contained much of interest. Rainwater harvesting is an exciting, low tech solution to some water problems. For more information, on the subject and other low tech or low cost solutions water problems to one might see the Indian website Rainwater Harvesting.


http://globalnation.inquirer.net/cebudailynews/opinion/view/20080616-143012/Lets-harvest-waternow

Let’s harvest water—now!

By Dr. Philip S. Chua
Cebu Daily News
First Posted 16:42:00 06/16/2008

A water crisis is threatening the world, and the Philippines is not immune to it. As a matter of fact, the United Nation appears to be a notch more concerned about this than about global warming. And rightfully so, because water is life, and no water means no life on earth.

The Philippine archipelago, made up of 7,107 islands, is located in southeastern Asia, between the Philippine Sea and the South China Sea, east of Vietnam. The Philippines has a population of 91,077,287 and an adult literacy rate of 92.6 percent. Only about 85 percent has access to safe drinking water, the remaining 15 percent, which constitutes the 40 percent who are under the poverty line, does not. The median age is 22.7 years and the Infant Mortality Rate is 22.12 deaths per 1,000 live births. The Average GDP growth is about 5 percent between 2002 and 2006.

Energy conservation is an essential environmental policy. While water has no calorie, it is, practically speaking, a form of “energy”. Water conservation is taken very seriously in the well developed countries like the United States and in European countries, where restaurants no longer serve water automatically but on request, and where hotels encourage water saving measures besides electrical power conservation, with a sign requesting unused towels be left on the shelves, etc. Desert cities, like Las Vegas, and those in other parts of the world, water conservation consciousness and practice are part of children’s education and the daily life of the people. It only makes sense. Why waste water or anything valuable at all?

There are “three main plans to institute, which include water conservation, water justice and water democracy,” according to Maude Barlow, co-founder of the Blue Planet Project and a vocal advocate of clean water for all, “in order for our planet to avert a catastrophe regarding this crisis that, according to the United Nations, should be our top priority.”

In her book, entitled The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for Right to Water, Barlow points out that “access to clean water is a human right,” and exhorted the global community “to see beyond the borders to the moral courage necessary to conserve and share this precious resource, as well as working on a treaty like the one we hope to see regarding the climate crisis that sets goals for conservation, sharing of resources, providing technology necessary to developing countries that helps them with conserving through agriculture, infrastructure, and basic education.”

A water crisis is already a reality and a nightmare among 15 percent of all families in the Philippines who do not have access to safe drinking water, 28 percent of them also do not have sanitary toilets. As a result, waterborne illnesses are a major cause of infections in the country. Other countries around the world are also in potential peril.

Water harvesting and conservation are already a practical and beneficial technology in a few rural areas in the Philippines. One of them, the “WaterPartners” program in the Barangay (village) Villahermosa near Cebu, on Camotes Island, started in 2003. The local government and the townspeople share the cost of running and maintaining the program. The 278 households (1368 people) in that town are among the pioneers in this field and are very happy with the system.

Simply put, rainwater could be harvested from rooftops, from land surface or rock catchments and collected in pots, jars, barrels, etc., or in a more sophisticated reservoir like underground check dams, for future use.

Water harvesting was practiced in the 9th or 10th century in the rural areas of South and Southeast Asia, and for almost 2000 years in Thailand. According to UNEP, 1982, “about 40 000 well storage tanks, in a variety of different forms, were constructed between 1970 and 1974 using a technology which stores rainwater and stormwater runoff in ponds of various sizes. A thin layer of red clay is generally laid on the bottom of the ponds to minimize seepage losses. Trees, planted at the edges of the ponds, help to minimize evaporative losses from the ponds.”

This centuries-old technology used by ancient civilization still offers our modern world of today a simple and practical way for almost every household or town to minimize the adverse effects of the predicted water crisis. Needless to say, water conservation (the wise and judicious use of water) is an essential part of the solution.

The popular systems have three major components: the catchment area, the collection device, and the conveyance system. An inexpensive filtration device is a fabric sack, used to remove particles before water enters the storage reservoir. A small chlorine dosage pump may also be used to sterilize the water. While rain-water linked illnesses have been reported to be few and insignificant, a treatment and filtration system may be added to ensure the water is safe for drinking. Boiling rainwater, and throwing away mineral sediments, is certainly a practical alternative.

Crisis or not, rainwater harvesting today is a prudent and easy way to collect water for general use, help in protecting our environment, and, at the same time, save on our water bills too. Water is essential to life. Why waste it?

With the looming water crisis, it behooves governments and private sectors of all countries around the globe to formulate national policies to address the issue before an actual crisis dries up our wells and annihilate all living forms on earth. An intelligent, well-structured, pre-emptive, and prompt strategy today might spell the difference between survival and extinction of all life on this planet tomorrow.

Copyright 2008 Cebu Daily News. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

China Water: June 17, 2008: South China floods affect global aluminum prices.

Should there be a theme to this blog, it is that if the world's most populous nation and fastest growing economy is heading on the way to severe water problems, then the effects will be felt worldwide. Here we can see that the recent floods in south China are starting to affect global aluminum prices.

Peter Huston
===

http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSHKG8606920080617?sp=true

China to raise aluminum exports after Guangdong floods
Tue Jun 17, 2008 6:45am EDT

By Polly Yam

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Floods in China's southern Guangdong province and tightening power supply are weakening domestic demand for aluminum, spurring smelters to raise exports, traders and industry sources said on Tuesday.

Guangdong is an aluminum fabricating base in China, the world's top consumer and producer of aluminum. Any unexpected move in exports could drive global prices.

Weak domestic prices are spurring exporters to sell alloyed ingots and billets at low prices, traders said.

"Firms are very keen to export alloyed ingots. One Korean company has contracted 10,000 tonnes per month and an Western trading house got 6,000 tonnes a month," said a trader at an international trading house said.

Chinese aluminum alloy ingot is being offered at nearly flat to cash LME aluminum prices in Asia, compared with spot premiums of about $90 a tonne over the cash price for Western grade primary metal.

China's exports of primary and alloyed aluminum surged 22 percent on the month to 86,669 tonnes in May, according to Customs data. Most of it was believed to be alloyed ingot which does not carry export tax, while primary metal carries 15 percent tax.

Floods in Guangdong, already struggling with power supply problems, were adding pressure on the aluminum market, said a manager at a fabricating plant in Nanhai city, home to dozens of aluminum window and door frame manufacturing plants.

"The flooding should affect aluminum demand. Roads are blocked and purchases of products have been delayed," a manager at a fabricating plant in Nanhai said.

Downpours have affected many cities in Guangdong this month. Guangdong officials warned of a "black June" as high tides, rain and two converging swollen rivers threatened levees, Xinhua news agency said.

"Fabricators are cutting buying of aluminum. Heavy rain should be affecting house building," a trader in Nanhai said.

Aluminum demand growth has fallen in past few months as Beijing's credit tightness reduced fabricators' cash to buy the metal, traders and aluminum smelter officials said.

The country's weak exports of aluminum-contained products such as bicycles and of semi-finished aluminum products have also slowed the growth.

Fabricators in Nanhai have suffered reduced voltage three times a week since March and used diesel-powered generators to keep up production.

But the fabricators are no longer able to maintain production after local authorities stopped them using such generators from last week, the fabricator manager said. He added this would cut fabricators' demand further.

Benchmark three-month aluminum on the London Metal Exchange has risen 24 percent this year to $2,981 per tonne on Tuesday.

But the three-month Shanghai aluminum contract, currently September, is only up 5 percent at 19,005 yuan.

($1=6.8914 yuan)

(Editing by Peter Blackburn)

© Thomson Reuters 2008 All rights reserved

China Water: June 17, 2008: Xinjiang coal-gasification project will consume large quantities of water.

As mentioned more than once on this blog, water and energy usage are linked. Previously, I posted about the coal-gasification project in Xinjiang. Here we kearb that it will consume 25 million tons of water (the article does not clarify if this is metric tons are English tons. My guess is that if it uses Xinhua sources, we may assume metric tons.)

Peter Huston
===

http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock%20News/1689603/
Huaneng Xinjiang Energy starts feasibility study on Shiqiantan coal-chemical pro
Tuesday, June 17, 2008; Posted: 03:54 AM
BEIJING, Jun 17, 2008 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- EYDVF | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Huaneng Xinjiang Energy Development Co., Ltd. has started feasibility study on the Shiqiantan coal- chemical project in Northwest China.

The project is planned to take Shiqiantan mine's coal as raw material and adopt Shell's coal gasification technology to produce 2.1 million tons of methanol, 600,000 tons of polypropylene, 220,000 tons of gasoline and 44,000 tons of liquefied gas every year.

It is predicted to consume 5 million tons of coal and 25 million tons of water every year.

The project is planned to start construction in 2009, and commence operation by the end of 2012, requiring a total investment of 18.3 billion yuan.

Huaneng Xinjiang Energy Development is a sister company of China's largest listed power producer Huaneneng Power International ( 600011.SH; 0902.HK; HNP.NYSE).

China Water: June 17, 2008: Floods threaten south China.

From the BBC.

Peter Huston
===

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7459628.stm


More floods threaten south China

Dykes and embankments are being reinforced in southern China amid some of the worst storms in decades.

At least 63 people have already died in nine provinces in the south - China's industrial heartland - this month, said the civil affairs ministry.

It said 1.66 million people had been evacuated from the hardest-hit areas over the past 10 days.

Up to 70,000 of those being evacuated are from Wenchuan county in Sichuan - the epicentre of May's deadly quake.

Crops submerged

Flooding from the recent heavy rain has destroyed tens of thousands of homes and submerged swathes of farmland, said the civil affairs ministry.

The ministry is quoted as saying the floods are the worst in decades, and puts economic losses so far at 14.5bn yuan ($2.1bn).

Soldiers have been deployed to reinforce the banks of rivers across the south.

Rivers in the country's prosperous Pearl River delta are suffering "not only the biggest-volume floods in over 50 years but simultaneously also the highest tides in over 10 years", said a report by the water resources office in Guangdong province, according to Reuters news agency.

"The water came up to here," said one 64-year-old farmer, pointing to a spot on a river embankment three or four metres (10-12 feet) above the level of a river in Guangdong.

"It washed away all my cabbages," he told Reuters.

In neighbouring Guangxi province, water levels on the Xijiang River are also said to be several metres above maximum safe levels.

Authorities say that in total this summer season, floods may have claimed up to 200 lives.

Even so, they remain less deadly than floods in recent years - such as in 1998, when more than 4,000 people reportedly died.

Inflation fears

The National Meteorological Centre has forecast more downpours over the next two days in nine provinces - including already hard-hit Guangdong, Guangxi, Hunan and Jiangxi.

But the floods are not confined to the south - authorities have also expressed concern that the Yellow River, the country's second biggest, could also burst.

That brings the risk of flooding to the central or northern provinces of Shanxi, Shaanxi, Henan and Shandong.

The destruction of crops risks inflationary price spikes in local food markets, and inspectors have been ordered to clamp down on unacceptably high price hikes, reported Associated Press.

China had already been suffering high inflation before the heavy rains.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/7459628.stm

China Water: June 16, 2008: Conde Nast discussed Beijing's water drain on nation.

http://www.portfolio.com/news-markets/international-news/portfolio/2008/06/16/Chinas-Growing-Drought-Problem
China's Big Drain
by Peter Waldman July 2008 Issue
When the Beijing Games open, they will present a lush tableau—an Olympian feat in this semiarid capital. But the water has been wrung from the countryside. Farms and villages are dying, and the poor are the losers.


by Tunku Varadarajan
Coke, G.E., and McDonald's will get global exposure from the Beijing Olympics. Now they need to end their silence on China. Read More

WET AMBITIONS The plaza fronting Beijing’s “bird’s nest” Olympic arena will feature one of the world’s longest and tallest water sculptures. About 80 billion gallons of water will be diverted from a neighboring province for the Games.
Photograph by: Michael Christopher Brown
As the opening of the Olympic Games in Beijing draws near, spare a thought for a Chinese peasant named Yan. He lives in the mountains about an hour’s drive north of the main Olympic Green, not far from the Great Wall. His village, Shijiayao, is wasting away.

That’s because authorities in Beijing, bent on fueling the capital’s epic growth, have commandeered nearly every drop of water they can pump from the surrounding countryside. Deprived of government help to drill wells or dam springs, Shijiayao’s 30 inhabitants—all that’s left of a population of about 300 peasants two decades ago—have no water to farm their terraced fields. They subsist on a rain-dependent crop and on raising a few scrawny donkeys, which they sell for cash or slaughter for meat. Shijiayao’s main water source is a seep in a notch in the barren mountainside, which drips about a dozen bucketfuls a day—except in summer, when it dries up completely. No one bathes in ­Shijiayao. Next month, while visitors to Beijing amble along man-made lakes and fountains at the grand Olympic Green and Olympic Forest Park, ­Shijiayao residents will trek about 12 miles a day for drinking water. Li Feng Xian, the village’s 91-year-old matriarch, pleads with us to tell Shijiayao’s story and bring its inhabitants water. (View slideshow.)

Adding to these water woes: May’s earthquake in south-central China that killed tens of thousands and injured about 250,000. The quake also sent engineers scurrying to inspect 400 dams across the nation, highlighting yet another risk of relying on distant water sources for a city the size of Beijing. What happens if the infrastructure fails?


Map of China

Part of the problem is a decade-old drought that has sapped water supplies across northern China. But the main cause of Shijiayao’s decline and the collapse of many other nearby villages harks back millennia, to the demands of imperial Beijing—which is currently in a headlong rush to stoke economic growth in China’s big cities. Even in wet years, peasants in the highlands north of the capital are no longer permitted to cultivate rice because growing the staple requires too much water. Instead, the runoff from their lands is captured for the Miyun Reservoir, Beijing’s last repository of unpolluted surface water.

Now the Olympics are exacerbating China’s water problems. To ensure enough potable water for an expected 1.5 million visitors in August, Beijing is tapping 80 billion gallons of so-called backup supply from four reservoirs in neighboring Hebei Province. Yet water levels in these reservoirs are already dangerously low. So to sustain the population boom on the semiarid Beijing plain, China’s water planners are scrambling to build pipelines, canals, and water tunnels farther and farther into the hinterlands.

Worse, the water routed from Hebei to the Olympics site was supposed to shore up Lake Baiyangdian, an environmental jewel with its own drought problems. To feed the lake, China is pumping 40 billion gallons of water from the Yellow River in Shandong Province, 250 miles away. For every gallon from the Yellow River that arrives at the lake via the 1,400-year-old Grand Canal, nearly four gallons are lost along the way, according to the Dazhong Daily, a state newspaper in China.

Beijing itself is quietly sinking. With much of its surface water fouled by pollution—and a population that has exploded from 2 million in 1948 to 18 million today—the city relies on groundwater for most of its needs. But drought and overpumping are rapidly depleting the area’s underground aquifer, causing sinkholes that have destroyed factories and homes. Subsidence is threatening sections of the Beijing-Shanghai railway line and parts of the city’s international airport. “Subsidence security” is a major issue.

So it’s easy to see why many Chinese environmentalists regard the splashy Olympic site in Beijing as a Potemkin village. The rowing and canoeing venue is on the ­Chaobei River, but the Chaobei hasn’t flowed in nine years. To refill two miles of dry riverbed, organizers spent $57 million diverting 450 million gallons of water from the Wenyu River eight miles away. The Chaobei now boasts one of Asia’s most potent fountains, its water jet thrusting 450 feet in the air.

Almost half of the Olympic events will take place at the Olympic Green, a symbol of China’s pledge to throw a green Olympics. The 1,000 acres of wetlands, lawns, plazas, and stadiums are carved right into the concrete core of north-central Beijing. In 2004, as part of an effort to find an architecture firm for the Olympic Green and the adjoining Olympic Forest Park, China’s Olympic organizers asked for bold ideas in urban ecology. Sasaki Associates of Boston won the contest with a blueprint for an aquatic landscape of rain-fed canals and lagoons designed to support wildlife in the urban park. Within months, though, the plan encountered problems. “We saw it all unravel before our eyes,” says Mark Dawson, the project’s leader.

Chinese officials were concerned that locals would hunt any animals or waterfowl reintroduced to the city, Dawson says. The officials opted instead for a shallower aquatic system—decorative, not ecological—fed by an existing canal just north of the site. The American designers knew that farmers and others depended on that canal for water and felt such a diversion would be counter to the spirit of the green Olympics that China had promised. In the end, the project was reassigned to several Chinese design institutes.

Beijing’s water bank, in the surrounding Hebei Province, is broke. Among China’s provinces, Hebei ranks near the bottom for available water resources in per capita terms, at just 12 percent of the national average. In southwest Hebei, an obelisk atop Xidayang Dam, a two-hour drive from Beijing on jammed country roads, bears slogans from Chairman Mao glorifying the “taming” of China’s rivers. Built in 1958 by 84,000 workers, the dam created a reservoir that flooded 1,700 square miles, as well as the homes of 29,000 people. The reservoir supplies water to Baoding, a city of 11 million; next month, somehow, it will also supply the Olympics. Yet since 1996, its water level has steadily retreated; it’s now at less than 30 percent of its capacity. The drought has left the dam and a pair of pipeline-control stations looming 10 stories above the reservoir.

Downstream, in Wangdu County, villagers have turned a dried-up, tree-lined canal into a garbage dump. A pipeline from Xidayang now bypasses the villages, carrying water destined for Beijing via a new cement-lined channel that workers are rushing to complete for the Games. In Yan’s village of Shijiayao, summer rains cascade down the denuded mountainside, flooding paddy terraces and the access road. But with no storage facilities, the village can’t save the runoff. Yan says his people have but one hope: that the sprawling capital will grow to engulf them and thus permit them to tap their own water supplies.

Vietnam Water: June 16, 2008: Fear of desertification.

This article measures ground area in "ha" which, as many of you know bu tothers might not, is "hectares." According to
http://www.sizes.com/units/hectare.htm is "A unit of land area, = 100 ares = 10,000 square meters, approximately 2.471054 acres. Symbol, ha."

Posted without further comment.

Peter Huston
===

http://english.vietnamnet.vn/tech/2008/06/788589/


Vietnam’s efforts to combat desertification
20:56' 15/06/2008 (GMT+7)

VietNamNet Bridge - Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hua Duc Nhi said Vietnam is taking important measures to combat desertification.



According to statistics, about 9.3 million ha of Vietnam ’s land, representing 28 percent of the land acreage nationwide, is currently desertified.

The area includes more than 5 million ha of waste land, about 2 million ha of seriously degraded cultivated land and more than 2 million ha under threat of degradation.

At the launch of a national action plan against desertification held in Hanoi on June 11, the deputy minister outlined measures to promote sustainable forest expansion, conduct research and prevent erosion.

Desertification has seen growing strips of sand along the central region’s coast. Over the past 40 years, moving sand has caused serious desertification and encroached on 10-20ha of cultivated land every year.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) said complicated developments of desertification are being seen in the southern central coastal region because hot weather and low annual average rainfall of about 700mm expand white sand areas.

Soil is facing a reduction in quality due to erosion, laterisation and saltwater encroachment and exploitation of marine products and uncontrolled development of aquaculture in some localities have also narrowed areas of protective forest and degraded land and water sources.

MARD highlighted the theme “For a sustainable agriculture” of the World Day to Combat Desertification (June 17), saying it is important to fight desertification in sustainable development of agriculture and rural areas in Vietnam and the world.

In addition to the national action plan, the government says the past two years have seen the introduction of legal documents to address the problem, such as the strategy on forest development till 2020, the national strategy on natural disaster prevention and combat, a policy to support forest development, and experimental regulations on payment for forest environment services.

Desertification is not only a major environmental challenge in the world, but also a threat to the quality of existence for those living in drought areas. It is estimated that desertification effects the health and life of about 1.2 billion people in more than 100 countries and territories.

(Source: VNA)