Sunday, October 22, 2006

It's the water, stupid

Add a water shortage to China's problems. Overall, the per-capita availability of water is one-fourth of the world average; it's worse in Beijing, with one-thirtieth of the world's per-capita available water. About one in four Chinese do not have access to clean drinking water.

One way the government is trying to solve the problem is by diverting water from the wet south to the arid north. But there is a lot of controversy both within and without the government as to the merits of this strategy. Not only do some scientists claim that the project would cause more damage than benefits, but it will also displace 200,000 people.

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