Chinese walker

Naomi Li: The IPE website looks like a daring project. You map out levels of water pollution in various parts of China, and even name companies whose pollution discharges exceed statutory levels. What made you embark on this project?

Ma Jun: Water pollution is the most serious environmental issue facing China. It has a huge impact on people`s health and economic development. That is why we have begun to build this database. To protect water resources, we need to encourage public participation and strengthen law enforcement. In some places, polluting factories and companies are being protected by local governments and officials. The public need to take part in water monitoring and management if the situation is to improve. The first step to get the involvement of the public is to inform them.

Will China succeed in shifting its water policies onto a more sustainable basis? That really depends on its ability to make decisions on socio-economic and environmental grounds. By contrast, the Three Gorges Dam and the south-north water transfer project are examples of political considerations taking priority over the needs of water users and the environment.

The biggest debates on the south-north scheme have been about its huge expense. It is true that the central government has cleverly devised the financing structure so as to lay more of the burden on those local governments that benefit from the project. But doubts about its economic feasibility encourage the suspicion that it is being shaped by political factors.

Part of the problem is the involvement of too many players, at the national and local level. Within the national government, Water Resources is the principal ministry, but there is a real need to bring all the various bodies together and gain consensus – including the NDRC, SEPA and other relevant ministries such as construction, agriculture and forestry. At present, there`s a pretty diverse range of views. The water resources ministry, whose main goal is the management and development of those resources, sees Three Gorges as a big achievement, whereas SEPA has always been sceptical on environmental grounds.

As things stand, policy making and implementation are often incoherent, and there are overlaps in investment. And, although China does have a framework of laws on water management, they are not always properly enforced. This not only puts water assets in serious danger — it also raises questions about the state`s capacity to tackle the huge challenges it faces.

In the end, China`s allocation of so much scarce water to low-productivity agriculture is not sustainable. If it`s to tackle the grave dangers of water vulnerability, the leadership will have to abandon the myth of self-sufficiency in essential foods.

The author: Dr Seungho Lee is a specialist in water policy at the Institute of Contemporary Chinese Studies, University of Nottingham.

This article appears in “Greening the Dragon: China`s Sustainability Challenge”, a special supplement produced by Green Futures magazine, published in September 2006. www.greenfutures.org.uk

Homepage photo by Magalie L’Abb%26eacute;

Last November`s chemical pollution disaster on the Songhua River in northern China propelled the country`s water problems into the news around the world. By no means the first of its kind, it caught the attention because of its scale – depriving millions of people in and around Harbin of drinkable water for several days – and its extent, threatening to spread toxic contamination downstream into Russia. Even more alarmingly for the Chinese authorities, it also provoked the kind of public anxiety that the country`s stability-conscious leaders know they cannot afford to ignore.

In the wake of this disaster, the head of the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA) was replaced. His successor, Zhou Shengxian, was swift to offer reassurance, promising safety inspections and stricter monitoring of the 21,000 chemical factories located along the country`s rivers and coastline. “The Chinese government”, he told a press conference in January, “has made a very timely and determined decision to stop the conventional approach of development, which could be characterised as %26lsquo;pollution and destruction first, treatment later.`”

South Africa and China are a long way apart and face very different challenges; China, a huge world power with the fastest growing economy in the world; South Africa, a small country with a population the size of an average Chinese province, growing slowly.

In water matters, they appear just as different. China has twice as much water per person and boasts the world`s fourth biggest river although it faces huge water challenges in the dry north of the country. Meanwhile, the water of South Africa`s largest river, the Orange, has only 1% the flow of the Yangtze but has to be shared between four neighbouring countries.

Yet, judging from the number of exchange visits of ministers and officials, China and South Africa believe that they share some common problems. Indeed, after visiting China, former South African minister of water affairs and forestry Ronnie Kasrils wrote an article praising the Three Gorges Dam which was published in China`s People`s Daily.

In it, he considered the message of Emperor Qin`s famous Terra Cotta Army for the Three Gorges Dam project: “You can build a masterful infrastructure but if it does not form part of a broader strategy for the future, it is but a matter of time before it turns to dust … this vast infrastructure project only makes sense in the context of a country`s overarching social and economic development policy.”

He noted the intention of the project to contribute to the transport and energy needs of the country as well as to providing flood protection and water supplies. And while he recognized the social and environmental challenges it presented, he concluded by wishing the project well.

In these comments, the mutual interest of South Africa and China in water become clear. South Africa is interested in how China has integrated water into its development policy. Meanwhile China looks to South Africa for experience on dealing with the social and environmental challenges of water management.

The way that South Africa has dealt with water makes it a valuable case study for China. Because of South Africa`s political transition to democracy in 1994, a major reform of water management was introduced in a “big bang” approach. Many innovations were introduced around the same time, set out in the 1997 National Water Policy and codified in 1998 in the National Water Act.

South Africa`s challenge is not just water scarcity but the fact that its water is poorly distributed. The main economic activities and much of the population are high up in the centre of the country, away from main rivers. Therefore, water for people and industry has to be brought from far away while their waste water pollutes local streams and affects downstream water users.

The need to protect the river environment while meeting growing needs makes South Africa interesting for China because it has already implemented key water management innovations – such as rigorous standards for the treatment of urban waste water – that China is now considering on a larger scale. It also has a long-established Water Research Commission, funded by water users, to ensure a flow of the knowledge needed for such activities.

South Africa has also come to terms with the need to protect the river environment. Its water law makes a unique provision for an “environmental reserve”, water that has to be left in the river to maintain its ecology and cannot be allocated for use. This provision for environmental flows is also something that China is considering as it confronts the challenge of ensuring that its rivers do not dry up or become sewers. South Africa can offer extensive practical experience into the methods used to determine how much water is required to sustain the environment.

South Africa also has experience in the controversial business of transferring water from one river basin to another. It takes water from the Orange River at its source in the highlands of Lesotho to Johannesburg from where, after use, it is discharged northwards, flowing down the Limpopo River into the Indian Ocean instead of into the Atlantic. Indeed, many of South Africa`s rivers are interconnected in order to bring water to where it is needed.

But there are other important lessons.

While South Africa has shunned pressure from Western governments and businesses to privatize its water supply services, it has nonetheless made extensive use of the private sector to finance and build its water infrastructure. So China must be interested in the way that it was able to finance its Lesotho Highlands Water Project (at US$3billion, its equivalent of the Three Gorges project) without using the government`s budget.

Mohale dam in Lesotho, photo by Paul Novosad

This was possible because water users – both domestic and commercial – have to pay for their water and the utilities responsible are expected to charge the full cost of water supply. With this policy in place, local and foreign banks queued up to finance the project, an approach that has been followed in a number of other large and medium-sized water developments.

Funding from capital markets may not presently be important for China with its huge cash surpluses. But where the South African experience is relevant is the impact of making users pay the true cost of their water.

In the 1970s, doomsayers were already warning that South Africa would run out of water within 25 years, by 2000. But in that year, they were still making the same prediction, now saying that South Africa would run out of water by 2025. Consumption has slowed significantly and is continuing to increase only modestly despite rapid urbanisation. In part, this is because water users know that they have to pay the costs of increasing their supplies and, since they could see that costs would rise in the future, they acted to limit consumption.

As a result, the national electricity generator switched to dry cooled power stations, saving a substantial amount of water. Industrial firms such as Mittal Steel have moved to 100% recycling to reduce water consumption and control pollution. Even the size of city plots on which South Africans` houses are built has been reducing rapidly – and smaller gardens have seen reduced water consumption. Now South Africa is considering implementing pollution charges, to further encourage clean production and reduced water use by industry.

Another area in which South Africa faces acute challenges are in the social domain, a consequence of the apartheid policy which kept most black South Africans unskilled and out of the economy until 1994.

An important objective of the new democratic government has been to ensure that social needs for basic water supply and sanitation are met. This is particularly important in a country which, as a result of its divided history, is amongst the most unequal in the world.

Here again, post-1994 South Africa was in the vanguard. After studies had found that people in poor communities were turning to unsafe water sources rather than pay even a dollar a month for clean water, the South African government introduced changed its policy of requiring some payment from all users. Local municipalities are now subsidised to provide a free basic water supply, currently 25 litres – one large bucket-full – per person per day. To support this policy, innovations in pre-paid water metering are being made in some cities which automatically provide the first six kilolitres free, although this is still controversial.

In all of this, an important lesson that has been learnt is that the most effective water management measures are those that send the right signals rather than trying to control all behaviour administratively.

Hartbeespoort Dam, photo by Leo

But another controversial social dimension of water policy is the approach to people affected by water resource development. South Africa`s first minister of water affairs, Professor Kader Asmal, was chairman of the World Commission on Dams, which was widely believed to have opposed the construction of new large dams. However, South Africa is committed to building more dams to provide the storage it needs to deal with its variable rainfall and river flow and is pressing for other African countries to be helped to do the same.

South Africa accepted, however, that there had been problems in the past. Clear policy was established in 1994 that people affected by major infrastructure development should not be worse off afterwards. To ensure this, they should be given cash compensation for lost income, new houses to replace dwellings lost or new farm land where land is lost to project development.

This was of course relatively easy to do in Lesotho, where fewer than 10,000 people were directly affected, while China`s Three Gorges dam has displaced more than a million. But the principles – and the approaches they lead to – remain the same. And indeed it was the visit to the areas along the Yangtze where entire new towns had been built for those displaced that led minister Ronnie Kasrils to express his support for the way the project was being handled.

Looking forward into the future, many areas in South Africa are moving to a situation where all their water resources are fully developed and new water needs can only be met if old activities change the way they use what they have. This situation has already arisen in parts of China.

Similarly, both China and South Africa are vulnerable to the potential impact of climate change on their water resources – the western parts of South Africa are expecting significant reduction in rainfall and river flows over the next few decades.

South Africa has addressed these challenges by introducing flexibility into its National Water Act; as water availability changes, allocations can be changed. A National Water Strategy, reviewed every five years, sets out priorities for management action and water allocation as well as for infrastructure development.

But as important, South Africa has not accepted the international recommendation that responsibility for water management should be devolved to the river basin and local government level. While legislation allows for functions to be delegated to regional water agencies, the government retains control over water as a vital national asset – and its legislation requires is to maintain a national water resource strategy to ensure that water contributes optimally to sustainable social and economic development.

In that last provision lies another shared lesson. Water is a strategic resource for a modern society, an indivisible national asset that must be used wisely if the society is to prosper.

The author: Mike Muller, a civil engineer by training, was Director General of Water Affairs and Forestry from 1997 to 2005. He is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at the Graduate School of Public and Development Management of Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg.

Homepage photo of Blyde River Canyon, by Cynthia Cavalcanti

The need for a response to China`s water shortage is not contested. China is one of the most water-poor countries in the world, languishing at number 122 in the world-water league table below other populous nations, including the US and Russia.

Supply in the northern regions is especially tight. Just one quarter of China`s total annual rainfall falls on the barren landscape that stretches from Beijing to Gansu province, and water tables have dropped sharply in recent years as farmers bore further into the earth`s crust to extract water for their crops. A projected 25% growth in the national population over the next 30 years will not make life any easier. Meanwhile, some areas in the south suffer from the opposite problem – an excess of water – as a result of seasonal flooding.

Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, a dust-bath on the fringes of the enormous Loess Plateau, is on the front-line of China`s water struggles and is already classified as water-short by international standards. Migration from the region is the solution, according to provincial governors, who believe that having fewer people will ease the crisis. Even so, supply is predicted to drop by almost half by 2030 as consumption rates increase.

In the long-term, Ningxia is also one of the proposed beneficiaries of the south-to-north transfer, which aims to correct regional supply imbalances through the construction of three canals – eastern, central and western – stretching over 3,000 kilometres to create a basin-to-basin transfer from the southern Yangtze to the northern Yellow River.

Sceptics have questioned the wisdom of the scheme. Work is due to involve the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people, engineering work on a colossal scale and fundamental changes to the hydrological and ecological functioning of the two river systems. The price-tag, estimated to reach as much as US$ 59 billion by the project`s completion in 2050, is also gargantuan. But is it money well spent?

Agriculture, which stands to benefit most from the water transfer, is the major problem. Grain and other crops guzzle an enormous 70% share of China`s total water availability, but contribute just 15% in return to China`s GDP earnings. Based on current land-use patterns, therefore, the cost of providing water through any component of the south-north transfer scheme would make its use for irrigation uneconomic, even if grain prices trebled.

Once less tangible costs associated with the transfer schemes are taken into account – the disruption of hydrological and ecological processes, loss of wildlife and landscapes – the lack of economic justification becomes even clearer. Even higher economic returns from industrial and urban users on some routes do not balance the books.

Low levels of efficiency in water use raise yet further question-marks over the need for massive new infrastructure.

Better irrigation systems, for example, could achieve significant reductions in overall use. Efforts to renew creaky infrastructure, especially pipes, could also cut wastage, which could run as high as 50%, according to unofficial estimates.

Investment in waste-water plants that allow water to be recycled provides yet another alternative. Water taken from the River Thames in England, for example, is used at least three times before it enters the sea some 200 km from its source. Despite its high level of re-use, the Thames remains of relatively high environmental quality due to careful recycling.

Better pricing, too, would play its part. In the former Soviet bloc countries of central Europe, domestic water use fell by almost 50% following relatively straight-forward price increases. Despite a new water law in 2002 that commits the government to price reform, water in China remains hugely under-priced, meaning that there is no incentive to be more sparing.

Whereas the transfer scheme provides up to 44.8 billion m3 of additional water to the Yellow River each year, management fixes (with the necessary political will) and gradual restructuring of the Chinese economy could more than double this amount.

Key recommendations of Dr. Warren`s report:

1. Reduce leakage from urban distribution systems;

2. Improve the collection and treatment of waste water so that it can be re-used downstream;

3. Discourage irrigated agriculture in arid regions;Improve irrigation methods and practice;

4. Improve irrigation methods and practice;

5. Encourage grain exports from regions of the country where crops are at least partly rain fed

The above extract was adapted from a WWF-commissioned report, “The proposed South-North Water Transfer Scheme in China: Need, Justification and Cost”, which was written in 2001. WWF China wishes to make it clear that the views expressed are only those of the author, Dr. S.C. Warren.

Homepage photo by Sam Haldane

The job of the Stern Review: The Economics of Climate Change, released in London on 30 October 2006, was to assess the economics of moving to a low-carbon global economy, the potential of different adaptation approaches and the specific lessons for the UK. Although it was commissioned by the British government – back in July 2005 – Nicholas Stern`s report takes a necessary international perspective. Indeed, the former chief economist for the World Bank and members of his team visited numerous countries and institutions in the course of their inquiry.

One of their stops was China, the emerging global giant which could hardly have been overlooked in such a study. (A short version of the review`s executive summary has already been published in Chinese.) China was cited among the countries and regions already taking action and which have “the most ambitious policies that will reduce greenhouse gas emissions”. But more ambitious action is now required, globally.

In its executive summary, the review stated that, on current trends, average global temperatures will rise by 2 to 3%26ordm; C within the next 50 years or so. If greenhouse-gas emissions continue to grow, this global warming will have many severe impacts. “Melting glaciers will initially increase flood risk,” the report said, “and then strongly reduce water supplies, eventually threatening one-sixth of the world`s population, predominantly in the Indian sub-continent, parts of China and the Andes in South America.” One-sixth of the global population, today, is over one billion people.

Discussing — in a section on the impacts of climate change on growth and development — how climate change will affect people around the world, the document warned: “Climate change will have serious consequences for people who depend heavily on glacier meltwater to maintain supplies during the dry season.” That would affect some 250 million people in China, given that 23% of the country`s population “lives in the western region that depends principally on glacier meltwater. Virtually all glaciers are showing substantial melting in China, where spring stream-flows have advanced by nearly one month since records began.”

“Initially, water flows may increase in the spring as the glacier melts more rapidly. This may increase the risk of damaging glacial lake outburst floods, especially in the Himalayas, and also lead to shortages later in the year. In the long run, dry-season water will disappear permanently once the glacier has completely melted.” Glacial lake outburst floods are described as catastrophic discharges of large volumes of water following the breach of the natural dams that contain glacial lakes – and China`s neighbour Nepal is considered particularly vulnerable.

On the key issue of food, the report stated that production will be particularly sensitive to climate change; in large part, crop yields depend on prevailing climate conditions – temperature and rainfall. In tropical regions, Stern says, “even small amounts of warming will lead to declines in yield. In higher latitudes, crop yields may increase initially for moderate increases in temperature, but then fall. Higher temperatures will lead to substantial declines in cereal production around the world.” In some parts of China, “low levels of warming in mid to high latitudes may improve the conditions for crop growth by extending the growing season and/or opening up new areas for agriculture. Further warming will have increasingly negative impacts %26hellip; as damaging temperature thresholds are reached more often and water shortages limit growth.”

The economic and social consequences may well prove catastrophic: agriculture takes up 40% of the planet`s land area, accounts for 24% of world economic output, and employs 22% of the global population. And Stern adds, 75% of the poorest people in the world rely on agriculture for their livelihood.

Additionally, sea-level rise as a result of global warming will “increase coastal flooding, raise costs of coastal protection, lead to loss of wetlands and coastal erosion, and increase saltwater intrusion into surface and groundwater.” Rising sea levels, which began in the last century, will “increase the amount of land lost and people displaced due to permanent inundation”. Coastal areas are not only densely populated – 200 million people reside in coastal floodplains worldwide — but they also support important ecosystems on which local communities depend. And they often also are home to critical infrastructure projects, including oil refineries, nuclear power stations and port and industrial facilities.

Many of the world`s major cities, including Shanghai, are at risk of flooding from coastal surges. In addition to these coastal areas` populations, some two million square kilometres of land and $1 trillion in assets exist less than one metre above current sea level. Those most vulnerable live in south and east Asia, along the African coast and on small islands. Estimates of the number of global environmental refugees by 2050 extend as high as 200 million.

Development – and poverty reduction – is threatened by climate change. Climate models predict a range of (chiefly) negative impacts on developing countries, from a decline in agricultural output and food security to a loss of vital river flows. While climatic patterns vary significantly across a country as large as China, its average surface air temperature has risen by between 0.5 and 0.8%26ordm; C over the 20th century; the increases have been more noted in northern China and the Tibetan plateau than in the south.

“Temperature rise will lead to temperate zones in China moving north,” the review states, “as well as an extension of arid regions. Cities such as Shanghai are expected to experience an increase in the frequency and severity of heat waves causing significant discomfort to fast-growing urban populations.”

In addition to existing water shortages in China, water scarcity is expected to grow more critical, particularly in such northern provinces as Ningxia, Gansu, Shanxi and Jilin – exacerbated by economic and population growth. In the next 50 to 100 years, though, an increase in average rainfall in southern provinces – including Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangxi – is expected to lead to more flooding, which will bite into the country`s GDP. Agricultural output and productivity across different regions will vary as a result of climate change, depending on water availability. Overall, a net decrease is anticipated in seven northern and north-western provinces deemed particularly vulnerable (accounting for roughly 25% of total arable land and 14% of China`s total agricultural output by value).

Projecting the growth of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions linked to climate change, the report says that most future rise will come from today`s developing countries and their energy-intensive industries. By 2030, China alone is expected to account for more than one third of the increase. The generation of power and heat (used mostly by domestic and commercial buildings and by industry) has been the fastest-growing source of emissions worldwide, growing by 2.2% per year between 1990 and 2002. By the end of this decade, China`s emissions are likely to overtake those of the United States, driven partly by its heavy use of coal.

Additionally, says the report: “Population growth rates will be higher among the developing countries, which are also likely in aggregate to have more rapid emissions growth per head. This means that emissions in the developing world will grow significantly faster than in the developed world, requiring a still sharper focus on emissions abatement in the larger economies like China, India and Brazil.”

Stern found that, in the case of climate change, some types of pollution which usually decline with rising income levels do not occur. “At a global level, there has been little evidence of large voluntary reductions in emissions as a result of consumers` desire to reduce emissions as they become richer” – although “this may change as people`s understanding of climate-change risks improves.” Furthermore, with the relocation of manufacturing to developing countries, the shift within richer nations has less impact on total emissions. And, as incomes rise, the demand for air and car transport as well as some other carbon-intensive goods and services will keep growing.

Globally, says the report, “in the absence of policy interventions, the long-run positive relationship between income growth and emissions per head is likely to persist. Breaking the link requires significant changes in preferences, relative prices of carbon-intensive goods and services and/or breaks in technological trends.” Stern sees such change as possible “with appropriate policies”. Without them, though, “incremental improvements in efficiency alone will not overwhelm the income effect. For example, a review of projections for China carried out for the Stern Review suggests that energy demand is very like to increase substantially in %26lsquo;business as usual` scenarios, despite major reductions in energy intensity.”

Stern also determined that increasing the levels of carbon finance — the resources provided to purchase GHG emission reductions – for developing countries, to support effective GHG-cutting policies and programmes, would speed up the transition to a low-carbon economy. The review noted that developing countries already are “taking significant action to decouple their economic growth” from GHG growth. For example, “China has adopted very ambitious domestic goals to reduce energy used for each unit of GDP by 20% from 2006-2010 and to promote the use of renewable energy.”

NEXT: What about “dirty” coal?

“What planet do you live on?” Clearly a rhetorical question. The literal answer, of course, for all of us – the clued-up and the clueless alike – is Planet Earth. It`s the only planet we`ve got, and if we exhaust its resources there will be no rescue vessel leaving for some pristine, deep-space Eden. Earth is our self-contained spaceship, sustaining us in a hostile universe.

As the visionary designer R. Buckminster Fuller wrote in his 1963 book Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, regarding fossil fuels: “[W]e can make all of humanity successful through science`s world-engulfing industrial evolution provided that we are not so foolish as to continue to exhaust in a split second of astronomical history the orderly energy savings of billions of years` energy conservation aboard our Spaceship Earth. These energy savings have been put into our Spaceship`s life-regeneration-guaranteeing bank account for use only in self-starter functions.”

Three years later (and 40 years ago now), the philosopher-economist Kenneth E. Boulding noted — in his essay The Economics of the Coming Spaceship Earth — the seemingly limitless resources of a reckless, exploitative “cowboy economy”. He added: “The closed economy of the future might similarly be called the %26lsquo;spaceman` economy, in which the earth has become a single spaceship, without unlimited reservoirs of anything, either for extraction or for pollution, and in which, therefore, man must find his place in a cyclical ecological system.”

The ideas of Fuller, Boulding and others are critically relevant today, as climate change accelerates. One initiative designed to promote life in a 21st century cyclical ecological system is One Planet Living. The vision of OPL — a joint initiative of the environmental group WWF and BioRegional, a British organisation dedicated to developing practical solutions for socially, economically and environmentally sustainable living – is a world in which everyone can live happily and healthily within their fair share of the earth`s resources. Addressing consumption, supply and values, its 10 holistic principles are: zero carbon, zero waste, sustainable transport, local and sustainable materials, local and sustainable food, sustainable water, natural habitats and wildlife, culture and heritage, equity and fair trade, and health and happiness.

Sumeet Manchanda, the international programme manager for OPL communities, notes that, “as a species, humanity`s ecological footprint has gone over the sustainable limit.” WWF`s biennial Living Planet Index, an indicator of the state of the world`s biodiversity, has been declining. From 1970 to 2003, the index fell by about 30%. WWF`s Living Planet Report 2006 confirms that the planet`s ecosystems are being degraded at an unprecedented rate in human history.

As is often remarked these days, if everyone in the world lived as western Europeans do, three planets would be required to support the earth`s population (and five if the United States is the measure). OPL argues that humans need to reduce their impact, their ecological footprint, to a “sustainable and globally equitable level”. To move in that direction, then – to help make the vision a reality — the organisation aims to build a global network of OPL communities, representing every continent. By 2010, OPL plans to establish the first of such communities in Portugal, the UK, North America, Australia, South Africa and – of course – China. Feasibility and site studies are under way in several places with large ecological footprints.

Xiaohong Chen — who grew up in northeastern China`s Liaoning province — is the One Planet Living country manager in China. A structural engineer in Nanjing`s building industry for eight years, she moved to the UK seven years ago and worked for a property and investment company. Chen joined BioRegional – a partner in developing the UK`s innovative BedZED eco-community — in 2005. As Bioregional and WWF move toward building an OPL flagship community in China, Chen`s role is to talk with potential developer partners, and she has done so in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.

Details on OPL projects in China have not been finalised, and some non-disclosure agreements are in place. But among the four projects on the drawing board is a development for about 20,000 people at Panyu, a district of Guangzhou – possibly with an open-air opera facility. And in Shanghai, a 700-home design is being worked on, with construction to begin in the next couple of years. Another Shanghai project, as well as one in Beijing, is under discussion.

(Globally, the furthest-along OPL site is the pioneering Portuguese project, the Mata de Sesimbra eco-tourism development, meant to be the world`s first integrated sustainable building, tourism, nature conservation and reforestation programme. The 8,000-unit project, which is approaching the start of construction and could eventually house 30,000 people, is on a 5,200-hectare site south of Lisbon. A key goal is forestry redevelopment, with a return of 4,600 hectares of degraded land to native woods.)

“I think everybody knows China has very high-speed economic growth and China consumes the highest percentage of natural resources in the world,” says Chen. “When it comes to the average person, it doesn`t look like a lot, but as a whole China is using more and more resources. Now it`s come to a crisis. China needs more resources to keep up economic growth.”

“At the moment,” she adds, “China has a problem with water for northern cities and has already found out that there`s not enough energy for the big cities, electricity and other resources. It`s more urgent for the Chinese government to find a sustainable way to develop a new city. Before you develop, often you`ve found out there`s nothing left. So it`s very important to develop in a sustainable way.”

Says Chen: “The biggest environmental problems facing China are energy and water. Chinese people have a higher living standard now and are starting to consume more energy. We have a shortage of electricity and the water is not clean enough. We have a lot of water, but it`s not drinkable.”

Pollution, Chen notes, presents a serious health problem in many areas of China. “The government has policies to encourage industries to produce in an efficient way, especially in the building construction industry,” she says, “and there are new regulations saying new buildings have to be 50% more energy efficient than in the past. The problem is that, in reality, I haven`t seen anything very good in practice. There are government and university research-study projects, but they are not in the industry-mainstream practice. So we want to bring this idea into the mainstream.”

“All the developers – private, state-owned — can do it, and it doesn`t cost them more,” Chen adds. “They still get the benefit, and the people who live there get benefit, too. We want to show people that it is possible to live in a zero-carbon community and at the same time enjoy a high quality of life.”

In promoting sustainable development, OPL also advances the concept of ecological footprinting – a measure and management tool for estimating the gap between humanity`s resource demands and the planet`s biological capacity. As a planet, the earth is in ecological overshoot. From 1961 to 2000, China`s footprint has grown considerably; in net terms over those four decades, the country has moved from using about 0.8 times its domestic biocapacity to twice that amount, according to the Global Footprint Network.

“Average Chinese people are using one planet,” Chen points out. “It sounds like we`re sustainable. But if you look into the cities, the people living there are using more than average European people. For example, Shanghai is consuming more than three planets by itself, and this figure is still increasing. Shanghai is higher than European levels. Most of the population living in the countryside hardly consume any energy. So when it comes to the average, we are using one planet. But more and more people are going to live in cities.”

And as China becomes more urban, the problem increases. Cities are booming, Chen says, but growth is difficult to plan and difficult to accommodate. People in cities commute, creating greater problems in transport and other areas. Developers – with profits in mind — are copying that model, Chen says, but “the best thing is to take good experience from others, but not to copy them.”

“Our aim,” she explains, “is to use our experience to help local people to develop a zero-carbon community, and using local knowledge and local resources as much as we can.” That way, impractical and inefficient practices can be avoided. For example, Chen says: “A lot of private developments don`t put the environment issue into their projects, and also their land use in the past has not been very well organised. They have taken agricultural land to expand, to become city land. They should think more about how to use the land efficiently and keep the ecological value of the land, not destroy the existing value. And use wasteland to build their new buildings.”

Also, adds Chen, “we need to think about how to reduce carbon dioxide.” Building housing, shops and workplaces in areas where people can travel on foot or by bicycle, rather than by car, is one way. “Another issue is how to change people`s attitudes about well-being – not to have a car to show off that you`re rich. What is a good life? What is a comfortable life, a happy life? Chinese people, once they have money, first go and buy a house and a car. In the past, we`ve used bicycles a lot. This is a good aspect of our culture and people should not lose it.”

Chen is pleased that China will be hosting the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, which she views as an incentive toward improving Beijing`s air quality. “We want to show good things to the outside world,” she says. “I think the Olympics will help China, in a way, to develop a green beauty, and green technology.”

In her days as a structural engineer, Chen says, Chinese developers met building standards but were not thinking very much about insulation, or how to use natural resources, or how to develop their own energy sources. “We didn`t have this kind of element in our design.” But Chen herself thought about the environmental aspects, she says, and how things could be done differently. She dreamed back then, she said, of future buildings with “an intelligent green beauty”.

Now, as OPL`s manager for China, Chen has her chance. Having last worked in the country in 1990, she is keen to be involved with developers who share her vision, and OPL`s. “I feel this is a fantastic opportunity – it`s my dream,” she says. “I`m really looking forward to seeing a real sustainable community being built in China — and we`ll show it off to the whole world.”

Maryann Bird is a London-based journalist with a special interest in environmental and human-rights issues. A writer and editor, she was previously a staff member at Time magazine (Europe), The Independent, the International Herald Tribune and The New York Times.

Also about one planet living on chinadialogue: Watching a living planet

At one time, China`s economists proudly proclaimed the country to be the “factory of the world.” But unfortunately, this manufacturing has been characterised by a high consumption of energy and resources, large emissions of pollutants and low added value. And while China has exported many goods to foreign – and mostly developed – countries, we have kept the pollution for ourselves.

China needs to produce 100 million pairs of trousers in order to purchase one Boeing aeroplane. The country manufactures seven billion pairs of shoes a year, more than the world can wear at one time. And the price China pays for this manufacturing, in terms of increased pollution, is an extortionate one.

Among the environmental costs of our economic growth, the most serious and apparent are those caused by pollution. The release of pollutants with inadequate or no treatment, combined with a weak environmental protection framework means that the nation`s emissions continue to increase. A survey of 10 cities and provinces, including Beijing, Shanghai and Hebei, found that between 1986 and 2000, 5.5 billion tonnes of untreated sewage was discharged – a net growth of 2.27 billion tonnes. At the same time, the dumping of urban domestic waste grew by 28.96 million tonnes.

In rural areas the use of tractors means that farmers no longer raise draft animals, and the loss of an important source of organic fertiliser. As a result, the use of chemical fertilisers has risen. Moreover, the improper use of fertilisers means that efficiency is low. China uses an average of 434.3 kilograms of fertiliser per hectare, almost twice the international safety standard of 225 kilograms. But only about 40% of that is actually used by crops, the rest remains in the soil or groundwater. In 2000, an average of 13.4 kilograms of pesticide was used per hectare. Of this land, 70% was treated with organic phosphorus, 70% with highly toxic pesticide and 70% with insecticide. Sixty to 70% of this is left as residue in the soil. Pollution in the form of plastics used to package fertilisers and pesticides is also a serious problem. Half a million tonnes of these plastics lie in China`s fields: almost 40% of the total packaging.

On top of this, 100 million tonnes of straw – 17% of China`s total – is burnt off annually; the resulting smoke presents a danger to road and air traffic. The pollution caused by the production of livestock and poultry is equal to twice the solid waste output of the nation`s industry; in some areas such as Henan, Hunan and Jiangxi, it even reaches four times that level.

The consequences of pollution can also be seen in China`s rivers, lakes and coastal waters. Half the length of China`s seven major river systems, including the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and the middle reaches of the Pearl River, is severely polluted. Eighty-six percent of urban waterways fail to meet minimum standards for water pollution. Environmental analysis of a 2,000 kilometre stretch of the Huai River found that 78.7% of the water failed to meet minimum standards for drinking water; 79.7% was unsuitable for use in fish farming; and 32% did not even meet standards for use in irrigation. In 2001, China`s coastal waters experienced 77 red tides over 15,000 square kilometres, 49 more occurrences than in 2000 and covering an extra 5,000 square kilometres. This was directly responsible for economic losses of one billion yuan (US$128 million).

Red tide photo by thesix

The economic losses caused by pollution are rising, and if they are not controlled they will hold back China`s growth. Direct economic losses due to pollution between 1990 and 1998 amounted to 100 billion yuan (US$12.8 billion) annually – 1.4% of total GDP and 29.4% of government income. And this does not even account for the social and political risks that pollution causes.

What can be done?

China’s central government is greatly concerned by these problems. Premier Wen Jiabao has stressed the importance of the “Three Changes”. Firstly, to move from a mode of growth that stresses the economy to one which balances the economy and the environment. Secondly, to move from a situation in which environmental protection holds the economy back, to one where they develop in tandem; from a passive and remedial model of environmental protection to a proactive, protective method. Thirdly, to move from the use of policy and administrative methods to protect the environment to the combined use of legal, economic and technical methods, alongside political intervention when necessary, to adapt to new circumstances and accelerate innovation. Specifically, to resolve China`s environmental problems we should proceed as follows:

First, China must adopt the concept of %26lsquo;Green GDP` in evaluating the performance of government officials. We should develop environmental planning, model projects and a circular economy, and include green GDP in performance evaluations of government officials. And maintain these in the long term. Many of China`s problems are questions of interests, and for officials this means their record of achievements. In the past, this meant only economic successes, and the environment took a back seat. But now, solving environmental problems must start with the evaluation of officials. In some environmentally sensitive regions the environment should be put first, and supported by state compensation.

Second, the country must increase funding for nature reserves and establish compensation systems in river basins. We should be funding national-level nature reserves from the national budget and protecting nature reserves rather than developing them, thereby spurring local economies. Provincial-level nature reserves can be funded in a similar manner, with operating expenses covered by local governments, in order properly realise the nation`s 2,194 nature reserves, which now only exist on paper. Economic losses suffered due to environmental protection should be compensated for by the state – a responsibility which richer areas should shoulder.

Third, we must improve environmental protection law and management systems. China should establish environmental protection legislation and effective protection mechanisms that will robustly intervene in those economic activities that cause pollution or harm the environment. We must strengthen the State Environmental Protection Agency (SEPA)`s ability to enforce the law and increase its strategic position within the development of the private economy. It is recommended that SEPA be renamed the Ministry of the Environment.

Fourth, we should carry out environmental education and encourage the public to participate in protecting the environment. Improving the environment and harmony between man and nature means fostering an environmental culture, building an ecological civilisation and raising awareness of environmental protection. China`s citizens must move from passive to active participation, using the legal instruments the state provides to protect their environmental interests and uniting against behaviour that damages the environment. The role of environmental NGOs should be strengthened. The media should also increase their coverage of environmental incidents.

Fifth, environmental protection should be developed as an industry. Developed countries realised this when they curtailed the strategy of “pollute first, clean up later”. Market mechanisms can promote private involvement in environmental management, meaning profits can be made from both creating and preventing pollution, and polluters will opt for the latter. The state needs to set clear targets for environmental protection and management, and assign funding. Lastly, these finances should be linked to actual results, not distributed to various authorities to spend on their own environmental protection projects.

Jiang Gaoming is a chief researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences` Institute of Botany and a doctoral candidate tutor, vice secretary-general of UNESCO`s China-MAB Committee and director of the China Environmental Culture Promotion Association. He is recognized for his introduction of the concepts of “urban vegetation” and “using natural forces to restore China`s ecosystems.”

Jixi Gao is chief specialist and head of the Institute of Ecology at the China Academy of Environmental Sciences. He has long been involved in the evaluation of functional ecologies, environmental assessments of regional development strategies and research into environmental pollution testing.

China has seen rapid economic growth since the start of the reform era in 1979. Annual GDP growth averaged 9.6% between 1979 and 2004. In 2004, GDP growth reached 10.1%, an achievement that attracted global attention. Over this period the population has grown sharply; huge quantities of resources have been consumed; environmental pollution has worsened; ecosystems have been wrecked; and vast areas of land have been lost. This has given rise to all manner of environmental problems. The economy has grown, but the environment has suffered. Over the past 27 years, China has adhered to an economic model characterised by high levels of pollution, emissions and power consumption, combined with low levels of efficiency. It has repeated the “pollute first, clean up later” model that Western nations adhered to during their early stages of capital accumulation.

The Tang-dynasty poet Du Fu once wrote: “Though a country be sundered, hills and rivers endure,” yet we can only reflect that while our country endures, our hills and rivers have been devastated. Environmental degradation harms public health, affects social stability and holds back China`s sustainable economic growth. It is a major problem, one which threatens not only the development but also the survival of the Chinese people.

Decreases in cultivated land

Remote-sensing surveys show that China`s cultivated land area plummeted between 1988 and 2000, from 1,307,400 square kilometres in 1991 to 1,282,400 square kilometres in 2000 – from 1.8 mu (0.0012 square kilometres) per head to 1.5 mu (0.0010 square kilometres) per head. Construction accounted for 56.6% of the decrease, 21% of land was forested, 16% was flooded and 4% became grassland.

During the 1990s, the number of cities in China`s east increased from 315 to 521. Each year, an average of 767.42 square kilometres is built on, with this figure growing at an average of 5.76% every year. The land around Beijing has borne the brunt of this, with the city expanding by about 20 square kilometres per year. Besides urban construction, the effects of industry and mining account are also significant. Statistics from the provinces of Jilin, Jiangsu, Fujian, Henan, Hubei and Hunan show that land given over to mining development increased 1.96 times between 1986 and 2000, and the land area that was damaged increased by 4.71 times.

Over this period some cultivated land was added: 24.2% of it by reclaiming woodland, 66% from grasslands and 1.9% from bodies of water. But this was all obtained at the expense of natural ecosystems. Over the last 40 years, land reclamation has lead to the loss of 11,900 square kilometres of coastal shallows, with industry taking more than 10000 square kilometres of coastal wetlands. Half of China`s coastal shallows are now completely destroyed. And despite this, the trend of overall loss of cultivated land has not been reversed.

Where the loss of cultivated land is due to a change in usage, the soil itself at least remains, though sealed below concrete and asphalt. However, soil that is swept away by wind and water is lost forever. In 1999, 3.56 million square kilometres of land were affected by erosion due to wind, water and freeze-thaw cycles. Of this land, 82.53% lies in China`s west. The country has 1.74 million square kilometres of desert spread across 30 provinces, over 90% of which is in the west. An astonishing 1.6 billion tonnes of soil is swept into the Yellow River every year, approximately 400 million tonnes of which is deposited on the riverbed downstream, causing it to rise between eight and 10 centimetres annually. During the past 40 years, the riverbed in the lower reaches of the Yellow River has risen by two metres, and on average it stands three to five metres higher than the land that it flows through. In places it is as much as 10 metres higher. The Yangtze River basin also loses 2.4 billion tonnes of soil per year.

With the loss of soil, valuable nutrients are lost. In the Yellow River basin alone, about 40 million tonnes of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium are lost annually – more than the total consumption of China`s fertiliser industry in 2003 (39.9 million tonnes). A conservative estimate, factoring in soil lost to water erosion in the Yangtze River basin and wind erosion in arid and semi-arid regions, puts annual loss at five times that figure. The lost nutrition is replaced artificially, atmospherically and with ore, resulting in serious environmental pollution. China`s government should take urgent and effective measures to prevent the further loss of soil.

Photo by vailpost

The threat to China`s forests

According to State Forestry Administration figures, forestry coverage in China rose from 12.98% in 1986 to 16.55% in 1999, a growth of 33%. But we need to be clear about what went into those figures. Many areas adjusted the canopy density rate used to define a “forest” downwards from 0.3 to 0.2. Bushes and shrubs were also added to the figures. It is possible that the amount of forest did not actually increase – only the figures did. In China no old-growth forest remains, and forests over a century old are extremely rare. Even if the above figures are accurate, China`s huge population means that the per capita average is extremely low – only 21.3% of the global average. In terms of volume, China has only 12.5% of the global per capita average of 72 cubic metres.

It should be noted that although central government`s investment in forestry has been gradually increasing, forest management policy`s disregard for the environment has led to a potential threat from weak and unsustainable single-species forests. Between the 1950s and 1990s, the forested area affected by disease and pests increased six-fold. This increase was greatest in the 1990s, 196% of the increase during the 1980s. If China`s vast subtropical mountainous areas were sealed off and human interference reduced, their broadleaf evergreen forests would recover. But tragically, paper manufacturers have felled natural forests in order to plant the invasive eucalyptus tree. Intervention by the authorities has been too weak to prevent this destruction, and some local forestry authorities have even profited from collusion with interest groups.

China`s water crisis

China consumed a total of 556.7 billion cubic metres of water in 2001, 13.2 billion cubic metres more than in 1998. Most of this increase came not from replenishable surface water, but from groundwater obtained by drilling – water that should be left for future generations. Water usage rates for major river basins such as the Huai River, Liao River and Yellow River have reached 60%; the rate in the Hai River is 90% and for the Hei River the rate is 110%. The internationally-recognised warning level is between 30% and 40%.

An inefficient use of water resources and a lack of water conservation awareness mean that even this massive overuse does not meet our so-called “needs.” A total of 60% of China`s 669 cities face water scarcity, and of these, 110 face serious water shortages. Around 60 areas suffer from lowered groundwater levels, with a zone measuring 30,000 to 50,000 square kilometres in the North China Plain being the world`s largest. Over-extraction of groundwater not only happens in China`s arid north, but also in the water-rich south. Subsidence affects 46 cities in 16 provinces, including Shanghai, Tianjin, Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanxi. In south China`s Suzhou, 180 square kilometres of land has subsided over 60 centimetres since 1949. In Wuxi, 59.5 square kilometres has subsided by the same amount, and 43 square kilometres in Changzhou.

The relatively water-rich Sanjiang Plain, in northeast China, has also seen a large-scale extraction of water and soil degradation, has led to the loss of wetlands. In the past decade, the northern part of the plain lost 105 square kilometres of wetland. The Songnen Plain and Liao River delta have lost 1,820 square kilometres and 230 square kilometres hectares respectively.

But China’s water crisis is not a purely underground phenomena, it also manifests itself in the loss of glaciers on high plateaus. Glaciers are China`s “solid reservoirs” and an important source of water for arid regions. Global warming caused glaciers north of the Sichuan-Tibet highway in Nyingtri (Lingzhi) to shrink by 100 metres between 1986 and 1998. This retreat will directly impact the progress of the western branch of China`s South to North Water Transfer project.

The destruction of China’s ecosystems

There are ten main types of land ecosystem in the world, and China has nine: tropical rainforest, evergreen broadleaf forests, deciduous broadleaf forests, conifer forest, mangrove forest, grasslands, alpine meadows, desert and tundra. The only ecosystem it lacks is the African savannah, though regions such as the Hunsandake, Keerqin, Mu-us and Hunlun Buir have the same structure and function. China is therefore the only country in the world which may feature all of the world’s ecosystems.

But unfortunately, every one of these ecosystems is suffering. Aside from China`s well-documented loss of forests and expanding deserts, alpine meadows, temperate grasslands and mangrove forests are also being seriously degraded. The Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau is one of the worlds largest, highest and most unique ecosystems. But long-standing over-grazing and misuse has caused serious degradation of its alpine meadows, mainly demonstrated by the drop in hay production from 300 kilograms per mu (667 square metres) in the 1960s, to 100 kilograms today. This destruction is also attested to in the region`s increasing mole-rat infestation: from eight to 10 mole rats per hectare in the past, to more than 30 today.

Ninety percent of China’s usable grasslands display varying degrees of damage, and this area is expanding by 20,000 square kilometres per year. Of this lost grassland, 55% is being used for cultivation, and 30% has simply become unusable. The majority of grasslands in the west of China are over-used; in Xinjiang the rate of overuse is 121%, in Ningxia is 72% and in Inner Mongolia is 66%.

Mangrove forests are globally recognised as one of the world`s most productive and diverse ecosystems. China’s mangrove forests are mostly located to the south of the Fujian coast and at one time covered 2,500 square kilometres. In the 1950s, they covered 500 square kilometres. Now they only cover 150 square kilometres. Since 1949, exploitation, felling and inefficient usage of coastal mangrove forests has brought unprecedented destruction, especially in the past 20 years.

The UN’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES) lists 740 endangered species. Of these, 189 are in China, around a quarter of the total. Between 4,000 and 5,000 of China`s plant species are endangered or approaching endangerment, from 15 to 20% of the country`s total number of plant species. Environmental changes and the fragmentation of habitats are causing this loss of biodiversity. For instance, in the natural forests of Nenjiang county in northeast China`s Heilongjiang province, endangered species were distributed across 240 different locations, with an average size of 0.8 square kilometres. By 2000 this had fragmented to 343 different locations with an average size of 0.68 square kilometres.

NEXT: How can China strengthen environmental protection?

Jiang Gaoming is a chief researcher at the Chinese Academy of Sciences` Institute of Botany and a doctoral candidate tutor, vice secretary-general of UNESCO`s China-MAB Committee and director of the China Environmental Culture Promotion Association. He is recognized for his introduction of the concepts of “urban vegetation” and “using natural forces to restore China`s ecosystems.”

Jixi Gao is chief specialist and head of the Institute of Ecology at the ChinaAcademy of Environmental Sciences. He has long been involved in the evaluation of functional ecologies, environmental assessments of regional development strategies and research into environmental pollution testing.

Pollution along the middle and upper reaches of north China`s Yellow River has steadily worsened in recent years. Power-hungry and polluting industrial zones have sprung up along the river; factory chimneys tower over what used to be villages. Thick smoke fills the sky and contaminated water flows into the Yellow River. Industrial sludge is dumped on the grasslands. Many of the locals live in the midst of this, and often suffer disease as a result.

Statistics show that waste discharge into the Yellow River has doubled over the last two decades; more than 10 tributaries have become little more than sewers. Forty percent of the Yellow River itself has lost its capacity for life.

According to targets set in China`s 11th Five Year Plan, emissions of major pollutants in 2010 will be 10% below 2005 levels. This means that from 2006, annual emissions reductions of 2% are necessary.

But can the Yellow River be saved? Or will it go the way of China`s Huai River?

“Living here takes a decade off our lives,” sighs our taxi driver, looking into the black smog ahead. We are in the town of Gongwusu, where Ningxia province meets Inner Mongolia. The driver often takes motorway 108 or 109 to destinations on either side of the border. “Everywhere the sky is full of black fumes, like storm clouds. You can`t see the sun; even in the daytime you need to put your headlights on.”

In recent years, factories producing limestone, coke and taconite have set up shop here. And the resulting waste has changed the locals` lives.

Yuan Guangshen, a local village head, looks over the ruins of his village. Says Yuan: “They built an industrial zone here, and the villagers all left.” The village housed most of the agricultural operations in the area and its grain and vegetables fed surrounding factories and mines. The Ordos grasslands lie not far to the east, and over the Yellow River to the west is the vast Alashan desert.

Since 2001, almost 20,000 mu (around 13 square kilometres) of village land was appropriated for the industrial zone. As it grew, chimneys sprouted, belching black fumes that covered the village. The most obvious effect was on the local produce. Black spots and rot appeared on aubergines and tomatoes. Sales plummeted, but Yuan says: “We didn`t get any compensation at the time. Only recently, when we reached a deal with the local government.” The villagers have since moved away, but without the land they farmed for generations, they have no work.

In the past this village, sandwiched between desert and grassland, had no major health problems. But since 2003, cancer and other diseases have killed many. “It`s not so bad on a windy day,” says Yuan. “Otherwise the stench really irritates your nose.” He shakes his head at the nearby factories. “Now we`ve all got respiratory illnesses.” And this is only one of the many industrial zones crammed into the region. Since 2000, the three local governments in the region have been competing to attract heavy industry.

One of these industrial zones is built on pastureland famous in the past for the quality of its cashmere, made from its native Alpas goats. One of the Mongolian herders tells us: “Since 2004, each household has had a dozen or more goats die every year. Even the cashmere is blackened.” Two hundred sheep graze in the shadow of 20 fuming chimneys. A kilometre-long black line runs towards us beside the motorway. “That used to be a riverbed. Then last year the limestone factory started dumping their waste here,” he says. Only two kilometres to the east is a fenced-off nature reserve. This herder is one of the few to remain here. Most have given up their flocks to try and make a living in the town. “In future, there might not be any of us left,” he sighs.

A small town 10 kilometres southwest of Gongwusu grew up around a chemical factory now sold to a Guangdong businessman, who also installed a power plant. The factory effluent filters out through a series of ponds into a creek which flows into the Yellow River. Solid waste is dumped by truck into a deep hollow not far from the river. The factory has its own rail line; the carriages waiting to be loaded are clearly marked: “Danger! Poison!” Further to the southwest lies another industrial zone, with chimneys spewing black smoke that rolls towards the Yellow River. You do not get many clear days there either. A worker in a local orchard tells me: “Whole batches of trees die off every year.” Sixty of the trees he is responsible for have died in four years. The factory`s steaming, muddy effluent is fed straight into the Yellow River, which the orchard draws on for water to irrigate its trees.

In the second half of 2006, China`s State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) responded to petitions from the area and ordered the local authorities to force improvements in a number of factories. They shut a number of small coking and sodium silicate operations. But a local environmental official admits: “A lot of the factories we closed here just opened up somewhere else.” There is little scope for optimism on the Yellow River.

Yu Chen is a reporter for the Guangdong-based daily newspaper, Southern Metropolitan News.

Homepage photo by Hal