Shijiazhuang, China - Economic Growth @ 11%+ In 2006 - As Two-Thirds Of City Groundwater Now Gone

[hatrack]

SHIJIAZHUANG, China — Hundreds of feet below ground, the water supply for this provincial capital of more than two million people is steadily running out. Municipal wells have already drained two-thirds of the local groundwater, and the water table is sinking fast. Above ground, this city in the North China Plain is having a party. Economic growth topped 11 percent last year. Population is rising. One new upscale housing development is advertising waterfront property on lakes filled with pumped groundwater. Another half-built complex, the Arc de Royal, is rising above one of the lowest points in the city’s water table.

“People who are buying apartments aren’t thinking about whether there will be water in the future,” said Zhang Zhongmin, who has tried for the past 20 years to raise public awareness about the city’s dire water situation. For three decades, water has been indispensable in sustaining the rollicking economic expansion that has made China a world power. Now, China’s galloping, often wasteful style of economic growth is pushing the country toward a water crisis. Water pollution is rampant nationwide, while water scarcity has worsened severely in north China — even as demand keeps rising everywhere.

China is scouring the world for oil, natural gas and minerals to keep its economic machine humming. But trade deals cannot solve water problems. Water usage in China has quintupled since 1949, and leaders will increasingly face tough political choices as cities, industry and farming compete for a finite and unbalanced water supply.

One example is grain. The Communist Party, leery of depending on imports to feed the country, has long insisted on grain self-sufficiency. But growing so much grain consumes huge amounts of underground water in the North China Plain, which produces half the country’s wheat. Some scientists say farming in the rapidly urbanizing region should be restricted to protect endangered aquifers. Yet doing so could threaten the livelihoods of millions of farmers and cause a spike in international grain prices.

EDIT

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/28/world/asia/28water.html?ex=1348632000&en=f62fec022afb4c5c&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

[hogwyld]

1. They'll get it from us

Since we don't have any manufacturing here any more, we are now reduced to selling our resources like a 3rd world country. I'm sure we'll sell them all the water they need, or they'll call in their debt...

[phantom power]

2. For some reason that headline....

makes me think of the end of Koyaanisqatsi. Everything faster and faster, until the rocket burns up. The ending is suddenly quiet.

[AlecBGreen]

3. sigh

we've long ago stopped living off the interest and are now throwing a huge party with the principal. bankruptcy isnt far behind.