Water Scarcity In China Essay

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The reasons of water scarcity can be divided into natural and human factor.

For natural factor, there is uneven distribution of water resources. Due to its large and diverse geography, China has a wide spectrum of terrains and climate zones. Water is abundant in the South but extremely scarce in the North.


In North China, there is high temperature and low rainfall. High summer temperature is due to continental climate. Also, hot dry winds occasionally blow towards Loess Plateau from Gobi Desert in the north. Summer temperature of Less Plateau is high, e.g. Xian ever reached 42.5℃. High summer temperature causes the high evaporation and lead to dryness. The precipitation reduces. Finally, it causes the expansion of dry areas and drought. Water scarcity becomes worse.

Since there is semi-arid climate, there is low and unreliable rainfall. Mean annual rainfall in North China is only 400-500mm, but mean annual evaporation reaches 1500mm in China, resulting in water deficit.

Second, long term and short term climate changes (e.g. global warming and El Nino) may lead to dryness. Global warming rises …show more content…

Due to industrial waste ,domestic wastes and agriculture wastes entering into water source, Chinese government reporting that nearly 60 percent of China’s groundwater is polluted. It also leads the decrease in water quality. A large amount of water cannot be used and thus foster the water scarcity problem in China.














Fourthly, water waste worsens water scarcity. Water is cheap in China by international standard which is much cheaper than its real cost. Industry uses 4 to 10 time more water per units of production than the average in industrialized nations. Since the price is low, people do not save the water. Also, water leakage in water distribution networks is seriously in China. The total loss of 5 × 106 m3 of water per year (Chen et al., 2008). It also leads to water

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