Water Diverted from Poor Provinces

Provinces That Export "Virtual Water" Products—Mostly to Wealthy Places likeShanghai, Tianjin, and the Provinces ofZhejiang and Guangdong—are Using up Much of Their Own Water to Do So

China's approach to water scarcity—shipping water vast distances via massive water transfer systems, or exporting "virtual water" by shiftingwater-intensive productslike coal or livestock—isn't working. According toa new studyby a consortium of British, Chinese, and American universities, China's policies are exacerbating and spreading water stress across the country, especially to poorer provinces.

"China's current transfer program is pouring good water after bad: the problems of water-stressed regions aren't being alleviated and the provinces sharing their water are suffering greatly," Dabo Guan, a professor in climate change economics at the University of East Anglia and co-author of the study, said in a statement. The report notes that"affluent net virtual water-importing easternprovinces ameliorate their water stress by externalizing waterstress to other regions."

Provinces that export "virtual water" products—mostly to wealthy places likeShanghai, Tianjin, and the provinces ofZhejiang and Guangdong—are using up much of their own water to do so. Xinjiang, Heilongjiang, and Inner Mongolia have seentheir water stress thresholds growto severe from moderate, while Guangxi, Hunan, and Jiangxi provinces have gonefrom no stress to moderate stress.

Meanwhile, exporting physical water from China's water-rich regions risks causinglong-term harm, asQuartz has reported—China is currentlydeveloping more than 20 large-scale water transfer projects. Initiativeslike theSouth North Water Transfer projectto divert44.8 billion cubic meters of water across the country each year, will almost double the water stress index in Hubei province, whichis pumping its water toBeijing. (Not to mention thehundreds of thousands of peoplewho have been forciblyrelocated for the project.)

The real kicker is that even the regions receiving all the physical and virtual water imports are not seeing their water stress levels improve. The12 provinces that imported the most water remained in the same category of water stress, according to researchers.

Source: Quartz

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