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 China has a fifth of the world's population but just 7 percent of
its water resources, and the situation is especially precarious in
its parched north, where some regions have less water per capita
than the Middle East.
The plan is still being finalized but the budget has been set,
exceeding the 1.7 trillion yuan ($277 billion) China plans to spend
battling its more-publicized air pollution crisis, the China
Securities Journal reported, citing the Ministry of Environmental
Protection.
It will aim to improve the quality of China's water by 30 to 50
percent, the paper said, through investments in technologies such as
wastewater treatment, recycling and membrane technology.
The paper did not say how the funds would be raised, when the plan
would take effect, or what time frame was visualized, however.
Groundwater resources are heavily polluted, threatening access to
drinking water, Environment Minister Zhai Qing told a news
conference in the capital, Beijing, last week.
According to government data, a 2012 survey of 5,000 groundwater
check points found 57.3 percent of samples to be heavily polluted.
China emits around 24 million tons of COD, or chemical oxygen
demand, a measure of organic matter in wastewater, and 2.45 million
tons of ammonia nitrogen, into its water each year, Zhai said.
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Over the next five years, China has previously estimated it will
need to spend a total of 60 billion yuan to set up sludge treatment
facilities, and a further 10 billion yuan for annual operation, the
environment ministry says.
China is short on water to begin with but its water problems are
made worse by its reliance on coal — which uses massive amounts of
water to suppress dust and clean the fuel before it is burnt — to
generate nearly 70 percent of its electricity while self-sufficiency
in food remains a key political priority.
(Reporting by Kathy Chen and Stian Reklev;
editing by Clarence
Fernandez)
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