Effects of Overpopulation on Water Stress in China

Source: http://overpopulationinchina.wikispaces.com/Pictures+of+Overpopulation+In+China?responseToken=0923f5195bb9cb370f526e8bc8d660a05

Our project researched the effect overpopulation in China has on water stress. While the problem affects certain regions greater than others, the problem impacts the entire country as a whole. China is geographically diverse, but the areas most affected by water stress are the Northern regions and extremely urban areas. Northern China is predominantly farmland, and it most prominently identifies with the deciduous forest and temperate grassland biomes. Cities sprawl the entire country of China, and therefore water stress affects numerous biomes.

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History:

Population growth in China began in the 1950s, when the infant mortality rate when down and the immigration rate went up. In 1950, China’s population was a mere 583 million, but dramatic population growth caused this number to rise to one billion people in 1980. In attempt to slow population growth, the Chinese government implemented the One Child Policy, making it a federal law for families to have no more than one child. While this slowed population growth, it prompted many people to move into urban areas. In rural areas, it was typically necessary to have a big family in order to survive as a farmer. Without this as an option, many people felt obliged to move into cities. Cities became more crowded, and therefore there was stress on the amount of freshwater needed to sustain the new urban population. Overpopulation within cities was also greatly caused by The Great Leap Forward in 1958 when Mao Zedong attempted to make China more industrialized in order to compete with the United States. As a result, many people were forced into working in factories, and there was migration from rural to urban areas. Industrialization and urbanization led to population growth, and the the amount of cities grew from only sixty-nine in the 1940s to 670 in 2007. Now, half of China’s population lives in cities. In order to provide energy to those living within cities, there are many power plants near the cities. As China is the world’s largest producer of coal, there is a large amount of carbon dioxide emissions that pollute the air. Further, China also has a great deal of pollution due to the large emissions from automobiles. Both of these factors contribute to global warming within China. As a result of higher temperatures caused by global warming, many rivers, lakes, and reservoirs evaporate much quicker than they had in the past. These higher temperatures have a very negative impact on Northern China because the region has ⅔ of China’s farmland but only receives 14% of China’s rainfall. The Yellow River, one of China’s largest rivers, has dried up every year since 1985, and the province of Hebei has lost 969 of its 1,052 lakes. However, water scarcity is not the only problem, as many of China’s water sources are also polluted. Contaminated groundwater from cities causes 70% of China’s lakes and dams to be contaminated as well. People no longer can swim in the Yellow River due to contamination, and many even consider the Yangtze river to be “cancerous.” The waters are contaminated by cadmium, lead, DDT, coliform, bacteria, and arsenic, among other things. Due to water shortages, these contaminants are not flushed out of water sources, worsening the problem. As a result, 300 million Chinese people lack adequate drinking water. and water stress is a huge problem that affects China.

Source:http://www.moneymorning.com.au/20100406/australia-and-its-population-control.html

Source: http://worldwater.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2013/07/ch05.pdf

Global Issues

Water stress affects every continent on earth, although there are some areas in which the problem is worse than others. Overall, there are about 1.2 billion people in the world that lack access to a clean water source. Countries that are especially plagued by water stress include countries in Southern Asia, Northern Africa, and the Middle East. However, even places in the United States suffer from water scarcity, especially in areas such as Southern California and Nevada. Las Vegas, for example, gets its water from nearby Lake Mead. However, the water level of the lake has been decreasing every year, and it is likely that if Las Vegas does not find an alternate source of water, it will run out of water by 2036. In India, the government has poorly planned how to give Indian citizens water. As a result, there is very poor quality of water and 21% of the country’s diseases are actually water related. India is a rapidly developing country, and therefore there has not been sufficiently regulating industry and waste management. This has had detrimental effects on the country’s people. India is also extremely poor, and children in 100 million homes lack access to water. Finally, the Middle East also experiences great water stress as a result of overuse of water for agricultural purposes. This accounts for 85% of all water used in the Middle East. The United Arab of Emirates is experiencing a similar situation as that of Las Vegas, and their overuse in water will cause them to deplete their freshwater source in about 50 years. Therefore, water stress is a problem that affects the entire earth, and it will have very dangerous global consequences. The population will continue to grow, and the statistic that one in every seven people lack access to clean water will worsen. Water is necessary for food production and energy production, both of which continue to be threatened as a result of overpopulation. Many areas- if they have not already started- must ration the amount of water used by each person. To conclude, as water sources cross country borders, there is potential conflict on how the water is used and who will get the privilege of using it. Though no large-scale conflict has yet to come to fruition, many people worry that the next world war will be over water conflicts. Water therefore must be utilized efficiently, and many countries will need to conserve their water in order to avoid crises.

Potential solutions

Although China’s water-stress is not entirely due to overpopulation, the boom in fertility rate the country saw in the last century has caused water resources to become highly polluted and scarce. In response to its booming population, China’s government implemented population control methods in the 1980s. One of the methods, known as the “one child policy” has been successful in decreasing the fertility rate, but detrimental to China’s urban population. Traditionally, rural families require a large amount of children to sustain the rural lifestyle in agriculture. Essentially, “the distribution of resources across social classes of the population results in the abandonment of many rural communities and the establishment of inefficient and harmful methods of resource consumption”(Environmental Sustainability in China: A Historical Perspective).
The one child policy effectively caused thousands of families to relocate to urban areas of China, in turn causing major stress on water resources of Chinese cities as they become increasingly crowded. For this reason, water pollution and shortages have been a growing concern for China. As China expands economically and advances technologically, more and more of the available water will become unproductive and unusable.

Source:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/in_depth/china_modern/html/2.stm

The two most feasible types of solutions for China’s water-stress are supply and demand management of water. Supply management of water deals with solutions which would exploit and develop new sources of water, while demand management deals with promoting water conservation and efficient water use. Although both have been explored and are realistic, they come with drawbacks and complications. China’s attempt to deal with its problem of overpopulation has also led it to the building of dams. Dams not only cause many environmental problems, but in China it also caused the relocation of millions of people. The purpose of dams is to create hydropower, for flood control and navigation of water. China’s three decade long project, the Three Gorges Dam is predicted to rapidly expand renewable energy by 2020 but also harm the environment. As the biggest dam in the world, the Three Gorges Dam was constructed to supply China with renewable energy and prevent floods downstream, however it will most likely cause more environmental problems than it will resolve. It will most likely threaten animal and plant species, cause landslides, and because it is located on top of multiple fault lines, it will possibly be impacted by earthquakes.

Another Project China has taken on, is known as the South-North Water Transfer project. China has tried dealing with water stress problems with the construction of three water reservoirs on the Yellow River. Since 2002, China has been working on a project called the South-North Water Transfer Project. It aims to bring water from the south, which has an abundant supply of water, to the north, which remains arid and scarce in water. It will use three canals to move 44.8 billion cubic meters of water each year from the south to the north. However, the supplying of more water to the North won’t solve the fundamental problem of water pollution or the growing demand of water. In addition, the newly completed Central Canal won’t account for all the needed water per capita, and demand will only continue to increase.

Source: http://www1.american.edu/ted/ICE/china-dam-impact.html

Source: http://www1.american.edu/ted/ICE/china-dam-impact.html

Source: http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/d5b9172e-e8ee-11de-a756-00144feab49a.html

Organizations that are acting to address this environmental issue:

The World Health Organization, which is advocating for China to take more proactive actions to reduce water pollution, released a report on China’s water safety. According to the WHO/UNICEF Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation Report, “the percentage of the population receiving piped water has risen to 72%, and 69% of the population has access to improved sanitation facilities in rural areas in China”(Country CooperationStrategy, WHO World Health Organization, 29). The report claimed that although the amount of safe drinking water is increasing steadily, there still exists many risks to drinking water due to the high amount of air pollution. UNICEF works with the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Water Resources and other partners in China to help guarantee access to clean water for all children. With a program called Water Safety Plan, UNICEF hopes to prevent pollutants from reaching children by assisting water treatment plants, identifying water sources contaminated by pollutants. They also train local professionals in mapping data about arsenic in water. China has tried dealing with water stress problems with the construction of three water reservoirs on the Yellow River. The reservoirs, called Guxian, Qikou, and Heishanxia – will be manufactured over the next two decades and, will hopefully ameliorate “water and silt control, flood prevention, water and soil erosion prevention, water resource allocation and utilization, water resource and water ecology protection, and the drainage areas’ comprehensive management”(Water Scarcity and Social Equality in China, The Diplomat). In addition, the government has enacted several environmental protection laws since the 1970s, including the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Water and Soil Conservation , the Water Law of the People’s Republic of China, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution, amongst several others. A critique of most of these laws was that there was no opportunity for public participation, meaning general citizens held no  power under these laws. In 2008, however, many of the laws were revised. The Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution, for example, Increased Opportunities for Public Participation in Environmental Protection. In addition, to discourage pollution, the amount of the fines has been raised in the new law. The limit on the maximum amount of fines on entities causing water pollution incidents has been lifted.The China Pollution Source Census (CPSC) was started by SEPA in February 2008 to discuss the need for more trustworthy statistics on pollution sources. Though the CPSC, factories, farms, and other polluters have to provide data on the amount and kind of pollutants they use or treat. It can be seen that one environmental problem leads to another, and that when efforts were made to solve one, multiple problems arose.

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