Alternative Water Resources

Over the last decade China’s stance on it’s water crisis has been based around throwing money at the problem and hoping it will go away. They seem to think that large problems need large solutions, hence the construction of the gigantic South-to-North Water Diversion Project, huge desalination plants and The Three Gorges Dam, the worlds largest. However they have not completely overlooked other alternative smaller scale water saving technics and practices.

Rainwater Harvesting

This is an extremely cheap way of increasing water resources in arid regions and has been overlooked for some time. With some simple equipment, rainwater can be effectively captured and stored for use in any household or agricultural setting. Rainwater harvesting is now being widely promoted in many of the most arid northern regions of China. It is being used in urban and rural environments and is becoming a crucial asset in China’s struggle for water security. The central government has now made it a top priority in some of its driest regions (Cheng, et al, 2009).

The Loess Plateau of Gansu in northwest China is an area where water is scarce and most of the locals have suffered a lack of water for centuries. Rainwater harvesting has been implemented here to great effect bringing 1.2 million people out of water insecurity (Qiang, Yuanhong). And due to the fact that water shortage is often a root cause of poverty, since the rainwater harvesting system has been implemented there has been significant economic development.

Precipitation Enhancement

This technic is often referred to as ‘cloud seeding’ and it has recently been proposed as a potential solution to the many droughts that China experiences in its northern provinces. China is the number one practitioner of cloud seeding and they have invested a great deal of time and money into the technology. They believe that precipitation enhancement has the potential to create new freshwater resources in its most arid areas and will help them push back the ever-encroaching Gobi desert. However recent studies have suggested that using aerosols to enhance precipitation could have a significant harmful impact on crops, air quality and the hydrological cycle (Zhao, et al, 2006).

Municipal Wastewater Reclamation

This is another practice that has a lot of promise and could significantly improve water resources in urban areas. The idea is to capture water from municipal and industrial sources and then to process this wastewater and make it suitable for household, agricultural and industrial reuse. Treating this wastewater so that it can be suitable for human consumption is an expensive process and advanced treatment such as reverse osmosis is rarely undertaken. This means that any reclaimed water is of a low quality and could pose a potential health risk. However despite this, there is still a lot of potential in reclaiming water and reusing it in agriculture and industry. Such practices will help reduce the pressure on water in urban areas and free up the clean water for more important household uses.

These ideas all hold a great deal of promise and show that huge and expensive infrastructure projects are not the only way to tackle China’s water crisis. I believe that small-scale ideas, like these, implemented on a large-scale hold a great deal of value. Instead of trying to drastically reengineer the geography of the land, the local and national governments must re focus their attention on these more practical solutions.

Renewable Energy

In my post relating to the South-North Water Diversion Project I outlined how China has become over reliant on water intensive energy sources such as coal, which accounts for 12% of total water withdrawals. With demand for energy and coal expected to rise as the population increases and urbanises, this will put further pressure on water resources in the already arid northern provinces. The northern provinces will suffer most as this is where most of the coal is mined and where the power plants are located. Four-fifths of China’s total coal reserves are located in these regions, meaning that the need for less water intensive modes of energy generation has never been greater.

Figure 1: Areas of water stress and mode of power generation

Source: China Water Risk

This is one of the reasons behind China’s recent surge in investment and production of renewable energy sources. A new report has suggested that by increasing reliance on renewable energy sources and adapting China’s current energy sector with new improved technologies they could reduce water use by 42% (IRENA and China Water Risk,2016).
“The global issues of water, energy and climate are completely interconnected. The only effective, immediately available solution to meet the rising demand for energy while limiting environmental impacts, is to scale up renewable energy. China has recognised this and must continue its leadership in the global energy transition.” Adnan Z. Amin, IRENA Director-General.

The IRENA report focuses on the interconnected nature of China’s energy production and water resources. It concludes that in order to reduce carbon emissions and free up water for more important uses in agriculture and households China must invest in renewable energy.

China it seems has got the message, as it has become one of the leaders in the renewable energy transition, spending $103bn on renewable energy last year (36% of world total spend) (Rumney, 2016). China is aiming to source 20% of its energy from renewables by 2030, in a bid to reduce carbon emissions and save water. Experts believe that it is economically and technically feasible for China to reach a stage where they are producing 26% of their energy thorough renewable sources (IRENA). If China were to reach their target of 20% by 2030 then they will be reducing the pressure on their water resources for energy by 42%. This saving is mainly due to the fact that the two main renewable sources that China are investing in, solar and wind, can operate efficiently at an extremely low water cost. Solar requires a significantly lower amount of water than is required by thermal to produce the same amount of electricity and wind requires non at all.

Figure 2: Water and carbon intensity of power generation

Source: IRENA

Figure 2 shows the potential improvements in water consumption and emissions that switching to renewable energy could provide by 2030. It is clear then that policies and practices such as these are making a real difference in China’s struggle for water security. It is not the grandiose engineering projects that cost billions and displace millions but the more subtle and sustainable policies, such as investing in renewable energy, that will help the most.

Desalination

Figure 1: Bohai Bay Plant site near industrial city of Tangshan 

Source: Yiting Sun, 2016

The picture above shows the site for a proposed new seawater desalination plant. This plant, costing $1.1 billion, is located 200 km southeast of water scarce Beijing and will have the potential to provide for one third of the capitals total household water needs via a pipeline direct to the city (Larson,2015). The facility, which is located in Bohai Bay, was originally supposed to be completed by 2019 and is intended to help China reach its 2020 target of achieving a desalination capacity of three million tons of fresh water per day (Sun, 2016).

This was what the government intended in 2014, but since then progress on the project has been limited. While it has secured approval from regional and national governments and is still held up as one of China’s major initiatives to help battle water scarcity in the north, major construction on this project is yet to begin.

After some early success in desalination, with China managing to increase its desalination capacity by 70% yearly from 2006 to 2010, they began to miss targets and progress slowed (Gleick, 2013). In 2014 they produced 2.2 million tons of desalinated water a day, just missing their target of 2.6 million tons and then by the end of 2015 their capacity had dropped to just 1.03 million tons a day (Larson, 2015).

This is an issue that demands immediate attention as government stats suggest that by 2030, costal areas will have water shortages totalling 21.4 billion cubic meters (Sun, 2016). China however faces many challenges in order to improve its desalination capacity. One of which is the energy intensive nature of desalination that results in desalinated water being both environmentally and economically expensive. As a result building large desalination projects is not the most attractive prospect for local governments and residents who are forced to pay high prices for their water. Wang Zhi, director of desalination technology says that “When there is a drought, local officials and enterprises all come to see us and say, ‘We want to desalinate seawater, but if there is sufficient rainfall the next year, they will drop the idea and invest their money in other things first.”

Demand then for new projects is inversely proportional to fluctuations in ground and surface water resources. If for example natural water resources are high then seawater desalination projects are often put on hold.

A new policy was introduced a few years ago by the Chinese government in an attempt to prioritise freshwater resources. It stated that in certain costal areas new industrial facilities which are deemed water intensive may not make use of local surface water resources but will have to provide their own. This is why 60% of the water produced by desalination is used in industry (Walker, 2015).

The South North Water Diversion Project that I discussed in my previous post has reduced the importance of desalination projects in the north. But the many drawbacks of the mammoth diversion project have caused some environmentalists and academics to question the sustainability of the project that has displaced thousands and caused an unprecedented level of environmental destruction. The choice between water transfer and desalination is complex, as any major new desalination project must also be designed to minimise its environmental impact. The director of the Centre for Clean Water and Clean Energy at MIT, John Lienhard, claims that this can be achieved by “diluting and diffusing the concentrated salt water discharged back into the sea after the fresh water has been extracted”.

While this process of desalination may help increase the water resources of the dry north it comes at a considerable economic and environmental cost. This then begs the question of whether this is yet another one of China’s grandiose engineering projects that they are so fond of. Is desalinating water the solution to China’s crisis? Probably not, it’s just not a sustainable practice; the plants just put too much stress on local ecosystems and increases the demand for water and coal. Many critics claim that major projects such as these distract from the more important goals of improving conservation of resources, efficiency and cutting carbon emissions (Watts, 2011).

The South-to-North Water Diversion Project

My first post discussed many of the issues surrounding China’s water security, however recent scrutiny of China’s over-reliance on coal for energy production has revealed that an alarming amount of water is consumed by this industry. As the population continues to grow and modernise demands for energy are expected to increase drastically. While China has made significant improvements in the amount of energy it draws form renewable sources, over a quarter of this new energy is expected to come from coal.

Figure 1: Coal mine in Inner Mongolia

 Source: Cho, 2011

12% of national water resources are consumed by coal industries through its processing, mining and combustion. This figure is expected to rise to 17% by 2020, with coal-fired plants using around 34billion m3 of water per year by themselves (IRENA, 2014). The issue is one of a spatial nature as the coal resources lie in the dry northern and western provinces that are already considered water scarce. Ma Jun, author of China’s Water Crisis and Director of the institute for Public and Environmental Affairs, in an interview with Circle of Blue, claimed that if this water-energy problem is not resolved, then there could be devastating consequences for energy security, public health, global relations, biodiversity and even social stability.

Over the last decade as new reports such as this are published and the full extent of China’s water shortage becomes apparent, there has been an increase in political pressure from the international community on both supranational and national levels for China to take action. The numerous media outlets and academic studies that have commented on the problem have also helped ramp up this pressure. When it is published that 24,000 settlements in North and West China have been abandoned over the last 5 decades due to desertification, then it creates a host of other issues for the central government, other than the water shortage itself (Brown, 2011). One of these being that this sort of press is highly damaging to the carefully crafted geopolitical image that China has made for itself. China’s 21st century image of being the new hyper power on the global stage, the main economic and political rival to the USA is undercut by reports that it can’t manage to provide its own population with clean fresh water.

In an attempt to address both the negative media and the issue of water scarcity itself the Chinese government have moved away from the soft approaches of water conservation and efficiency toward large scale hard engineering projects. They believe that these projects will gain more media traction and help to improve their international image as well as their fresh water resources.

 Figure 2: Water scarcity map of China

Source: Quartz, 2014

One of the biggest issues surrounding China’s water crisis is the spatial and temporal mismatch of resources that I discussed in my first post. Figure 2 clearly shows the disparity between the arid north and relatively water rich south. The solution as Mao Zedong first said in 1952, is to “borrow a little water from the south” (Quartz, 2014). His suggestion was finally taken forward 50 years later in December 2002 as work began on the controversial and imaginatively named South-to-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP). The project expected to cost a staggering $62billion is the largest of its kind ever attempted. Once it is completed in 2050 they will have essentially created a link between the Yangtze, Yellow, Huaihe and Haihe rivers. It will, once completed divert 44.8 billion cubic meters of water 2,700 miles (the distance between the two coasts of the USA), this represents a reallocation of almost 10% of Chinas total surface water resources (Cheng, et al, 2013). They are planning to divert more water than what currently flows through the River Thames by using a series of canals (the longest in the world); pipelines; pumping stations that could fill Olympic sized pools in minuets; and a giant aqueduct. The Chinese government it seems are taking no half measures.

 Figure 3: Map showing the routes of the SNWDP

Source: Quatrz, 2014

However there are a number of academics, environmentalists and economists who have voiced concerns about the project. They worry that even with the numerous water treatment plants that will run along the course of the canals the diverted water will still be to polluted, especially if further industrialisation takes place along the canal routes (Zhang, 2009). There are also fears that the rivers from which the water is being diverted will also suffer. By removing water and slowing the flow you risk damaging the rivers environmental capacity, its ability to clear out pollution (Zhang, 2009). Also as Climate change continues to create a dryer climate some fear that the southern provinces may soon have water scarcity issues of their own. The project will also damage or destroy hundreds of culturally valuable archaeological and religious sites as well as displacing almost a half million people.

Considering the extent of the human and environmental costs of this project it raises the question is this truly worth it just for a 10% reallocation in water. It has been described as a “high-risk gamble” as instead of displaying the power and strength of the central government it may well have the opposite effect and highlight the governments glaring inadequacies in managing and resolving China's water crisis. (Feng, et al, 2007)

Of the SNWDP, Ma Jun said, “this extra volume will only delay the coming of the crisis a little bit. It will not really resolve the whole problem…it cannot fill out even the current, existing gap, let alone that much bigger gap in the future, unless we do something very, very different in our water governance.” (Circle of Blue, 2011)

It is clear then that this is not going to solve China’s water problem, and they know this as the head engineer of the project said that “for now, the transfer project is just compensating an amount. It can’t completely fix the problem” (Quartz,2014). However you must consider the position they are in, with conservation and efficiency projects failing to have the desired effect, the central government has been forced to take action.

Figure 4: Canal of the SNWDP

Source: Quartz, 2014