Northwest faces severe water shortage
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-08-09 21:03

The northwestern provinces and regions of China are expected to face a shortage of 6.5 billion cubic meters of water by 2010, an expert told the forum on population and development in northwest China.

The severe shortage of water resources has turned out to be themost outstanding contradiction between increasing population and insufficient resources in the northwestern parts of China, said MaLi, director of the China Population and Development Research Center.

According to Ma, China's major rivers such as the Yangtze River, Yellow River and Lancang River all originate from Qinghai province in the northwestern China, which benefit about 45 percentof China's total population.

However, due to climatic changes and deterioration of environment, the water sources in the fountainhead areas in the northwestern country have seen decreasing trend.

And some rivers in the regions have even run dry in their lowerreaches, affecting the life and production of over 100 million people in an area of about 250,000 sq km.

The northwestern regions of China, with one third of the county's areas, account for only 5.84 percent of the total water resources. Merely 39.2 percent of the rural population in the regions get access to supply of running water.

Moreover, the uneven distribution of rainfall and poor water storage capability has aggravated the water shortage for farming irrigation, industrial production and for the life of both humans and livestock, Ma added.

Guo Zhiyi, director of the population research institute of Lanzhou University, urged the northwestern regions of China to step up readjustment of industrial structure and transform production modes based on water-saving strategy.

The research report on the population development strategy in northwest China suggests development and extension of water-savingagriculture to enhance the utilization efficiency of the water resources in the regions.

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