China’s groundwater scandal: the missing waste water
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Government
For over a decade China's scientists have called for action on groundwater pollution, but there has been little effective response.
Three years ago Ma Zhong, dean of Renmin University's School of the Environment and Natural Resources, came across an anomaly while researching water prices: Water input to Chinese industry was four times recorded waste water output. 

Even accounting for various losses and uses, 16 billion tonnes of waste water was going missing. Suspecting it was ending up underground, he reported his findings to the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP). But he saw no more done to protect groundwater.
Ten years ago Li Wenpeng, assistant to the director at the Chinese Institute of Geological Environment Monitoring, and his colleagues, joined with 40 academics in signing a letter to the State Council. It called for a central groundwater monitoring body to be established. In 2011 the National Groundwater Monitoring Project got underway to fill that gap, with tens of thousands of people on call - but after the initial excitement, nothing happened.
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