Shanghai is located in the Yangtze Basin along the Yangtze River, the longest river in China. Over the past several decades, increasing human activity along the river has placed great pressure on local ecosystems. There are now 40,000 dams in the Yangtze Basin, 90 percent of which were built in 1960s to 1970s. The larger ones, including the Three Gorges Dam, were constructed after the new millennium. These dams have destroyed some habitats and have killed off numerous types of wildlife. Agriculture has led to an overuse of water surface and industries have polluted the river.

This and many other environmental issues affecting China were discussed at length during the recent "A World Without Water" event organized by Green Initiatives, a Shanghai-based environmental nonprofit organization. Concerned expats and experts attended the event, held at Roca Gallery, to share common interests and learn more about the water crisis affecting China.

According to Edward Baker from the climate change office at the British Consulate General in Shanghai, poor water management and climate change have intensified the world's water crisis. "One driver is the growing global demand. The population in the world is growing. Although the overall growing trend is slowing down, the growth of the middle class is going up. While it is a good thing that more people are enjoying a better quality of life, our resources are finite," Baker said.

The World Economic Forum recently ranked water crisis as the top global risk in terms of impact in its 10th annual global risk report - even more serious than infectious diseases and weapons of massive destruction. But in China, the problem is more specific. China has limited water resources and poor water management, but at the same time, the pollution is more severe than elsewhere in the world.

Water stress

China currently is considered only at "medium" water stress due to the fact that water stress varies greatly in different regions of the country. The north, for example, has high water stress, with 25 percent of China's total available water resources but 47 percent of the country's arable land and 86 percent of its coal resources.

According to Tien Shiao, responsible for sustainable relations at Swedish multinational retail-clothing company H&M, China's water stress will increase in the future. Shiao previously worked for five years at an environmental think tank researching water risk and has come to believe that climate change will intensify the water stress in northern China.

"The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) projects an increased water demand by 2030. The largest increases will be in manufacturing, electricity and domestic water sectors," Shiao said.

Water pollution is another factor that aggravates China's water crisis. In China, 63 percent of water is used just for agriculture. The second largest usage of water is industry, at 24 percent. However, 14 percent of China's surface water is contaminated and has been graded as unsafe for drinking and unusable for agriculture or industry because of the high levels of pollution. Additionally, 15 percent of the groundwater in China is polluted and cannot be used for agriculture, industry or drinking.

South China, however, has lower water stress. Abundant water resources have fed the people living in that region and supported their activities and industries for many millennia. But these natural resources are now threatened by climate change and growing industrial activity.

Dire situation

China's eastern shore is not exempt from water stress despite its proximity to the sea and the Yangtze Basin. "Shanghai is part of the Taihu Basin. In 2007, there was a blue-green algae outbreak in Taihu Lake. The reason was that polluted water containing phosphorus was being dumped into Taihu Lake by local factories, which caused blue-green algae to bloom at an unnatural rate," Ren Wenwei, head of the Shanghai hub of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), said.

Central and local governments eventually spent billions of yuan to clean the algae, but the results were unsatisfactory. The Taihu area is still contaminated with blue-green algae, indicating that government action alone will not save Taihu Lake. Environmental experts believe that only a unified front involving local residents and eco-friendly industries can force offending factories to reduce their emissions and industrial wastewater. For the Yangtze Basin, the situation is equally dire.

The consensus among attendees at the Green Initiatives event is that policies and regulations alone are not enough to solve China's water crisis. WWF created a water stewardship to unite local stakeholders to improve the basin's governance while developing the local economy. According to this stewardship, the government can issue policies and provide subsidies to encourage corporations and individuals to engage in the preservation of China's environment.

With companies providing the funding and technology, and local communities monitoring nature and preserving resources, experts are optimistic that the environmental and water crises can be slowed down if not stopped.

"We are working with farmers in the areas with drinking water. We help them to do organic farming by reducing the usage of fertilizers and pesticides. However, this is still challenging because there is still a long way to go before the market accepts organic farming," Ren added.

A river at the Hulun Buir Grassland in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. Although China's water stress is at medium level, it is expected to increase in the future. Photo: CFP