China's Water Pollution So Bad That Cities' Supplies Under Threat

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"China's booming economy is driving a rapid rise in water pollution so severe that densely crowded cities could be left without adequate supplies, a Cabinet minister said Tuesday. ``Limited water resources are threatened by pollution, and water safety in cities is facing severe challenges,'' said Qiu Baoxing, deputy minister of construction.

The unusually blunt warning came after a separate government report last week said Chinese cities are threatened by rising levels of acid rain from industrial pollution. The reports emphasize the high environmental cost of China's surging economy in a dry, crowded country whose ecology already is strained by the demands of sustaining 1.3 billion inhabitants.

The government has tried in recent years to rein in environmental damage, imposing air- and water-quality standards and restricting logging. But such efforts have had only limited success. More than 100 of China's 660 cities face ``extreme water shortages,'' Qiu said at a news conference.

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Water shortages have been a constant worry for China for centuries. Problems have only worsened in recent decades as the population swelled and largely unregulated factories dumped toxic pollutants into rivers and lakes. Some 90 percent of China's cities and 75 percent of its lakes suffer from some degree of water pollution, Qiu said."

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http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-06/07/content_449451.htm