Wednesday, May 9 6:46 PM SGT

World Bank: China Water Shortage Threatens Catastrophe

BEIJING (Dow Jones)--China's acute water shortage and pollution problems will soon become unmanageable with catastrophic consequences for future generations, the World Bank warned in a report issued Wednesday. Referring to a government plan to divert water from the Yangtze River to China's dry northern region, the report said reforms to pricing, management and regulation are a necessary precondition for the success of such a south-north transfer.

"Continuing and accelerating growth of population and industry over the past century in China has resulted in increasingly severe problems related to freshwater shortage," the World Bank says.

"The acute water shortage and pollution problems in north China will soon become unmanageable - with catastrophic consequences for future generations - unless much more significant, comprehensive and sustained commitments are made to apply without delay strategies and actions needed to bring water resource utilization back into a sustainable balance."

Lack of water threatens future agricultural production, particularly in the arid north, which remains the main income source for 70% of China's 1.2 billion population.

The report says that nowhere is the lack of water resources more evident than in the Yellow, Hai and Huai river basin in northern China. Yet this region accounts for 67% of China's wheat production, 44% of corn and 72% of millet. It also accounts for 65% of peanut production, 64% of sunflower, 50% of sesame and 42% of cotton, the World Bank says.

Total agricultural production from the three-river basin is worth 120 billion yuan ($1=CNY8.28) a year.

(MORE) Dow Jones Newswires 09-05-01

http://asia.biz.yahoo.com/news/asian_markets/article.html?s=asiafinance/news/010509/asian_markets/dowjones/World_Bank__China_Water_Shortage_Threatens_Catastrophe.html

-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), May 09, 2001

Answers

Recent posts said that China's agrilcultural land is threatened and huge chinese dust clouds have blown over here. Maybe messing with our plane is a distraction for their politicos.

-- John littmann (LITTMANNJOHNTL@AOL.COM), May 09, 2001.