The Final Chapter

And so we come to the end of this blog! I want to apologise to my many fans for the lack of posting over the last couple of few weeks but alas the Christmas period has had me extremely busy.

So on to the blog…..

I wanted to use this last post to sum up, give you some final thoughts. I have discussed and analysed a number of different practices and projects that are being employed to tackle this crisis. Some are small-scale projects taking place at local levels while others are taking place on an unthinkably large scale. The current most popular policy tends to be the latter, as the Chinese government has woken up to the severity of the situation and is doing what it does best, throw money at the issue. These projects such as the SNWDP are costing many tens of billions of dollars and some believe that the cost of these projects simply isn’t worth the cost.

After all my research on this topic my personal belief is that the solution to this issue lies in the small scale. Rather than spending billions on projects that act as a temporary fix, what are needed are small changes on a large scale. Working with industry and local people to improve conservation, efficiency and reuse will make a much more permanent and significant difference. Policies to move water intensive industries out of the arid northern regions is essential to improving the water security of those regions. Promoting and investing in renewable energy will also help to drastically reduce the amount of water that those industries consume. These technologies will also have the added bonus of reducing carbon emissions and help to slow down climate change. Policies to reduce polluting will also help to make the most of the natural water available.

However it is worth noting that this is not something that can happen over night, the culture and attitude to water is something that will have to be changed over time. With this being said I find it hard to blame China for taking on the huge projects that have caused so much controversy. This crisis is exactly that, a crisis, it’s a problem that is simply too important. To not do everything within their power to address it would be a monumental mistake.  To Chinas credit they have made huge strides over the last decade when you consider the vast amount of time, energy and money they have devoted to finding a solution you cannot doubt their commitment.

I hope you have enjoyed reading this blog as much as I have enjoyed writing it.