World's Largest Water Diversion Plan Won't Quench China's Thirst
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Re: World's Largest Water Diversion Plan Won't Quench China's Thirst
#2Water security is an issue everywhere. Here in Australia, we have the Murray river. It is a major lifeline to Adelaide. However upstream farmers have been identified as stealing water, and their parent states aren't doing anything about it. I'm sure there's many farming practices that could be improved to reduce water consumption, but with lax policing, it's not happening.
Re: World's Largest Water Diversion Plan Won't Quench China's Thirst
#3From what I've read in the past, it's not the crop is very water intensive, but rather the technique used to irrigate are water intensive. Take in comparison, "flood irrigation" vs techniques developed to irrigate in desert condition using "drip irrigation".
Re: World's Largest Water Diversion Plan Won't Quench China's Thirst
#4Beautifull documentairy Sud eau nord déplacer [0] on Nan Shui Bei Diao – North South Water Transfer [1]
[0] https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/34d44e48-0092-4d5e-abdf-d501b524... & http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3755604/
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South%E2%80%93North_Water_Tran...
Re: World's Largest Water Diversion Plan Won't Quench China's Thirst
#5Beautifull documentairy Sud eau nord déplacer [0] on Nan Shui Bei Diao – North South Water Transfer [1] [0] https://www.idfa.nl/en/film/34d44e48-0092-4d5e-abdf-d501b524... & http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3755604/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South%E2%80%93North_Water_Tran...
My family is from near the Danjiangkou reservoir. My family's ancestral land were flooded in the 1960s to create the reservoir. http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/04/26/ghosts-by-the-water-line...
Re: World's Largest Water Diversion Plan Won't Quench China's Thirst
#6Water security is an issue everywhere. Here in Australia, we have the Murray river. It is a major lifeline to Adelaide. However upstream farmers have been identified as stealing water, and their parent states aren't doing anything about it. I'm sure there's many farming practices that could be improved to reduce water consumption, but with lax policing, it's not happening.
I'm in NSW and I can guarantee you that if the upstream farms were more efficient with their water they would use the same amount, but grow more...
It's a bit like the mining industry, government doesn't want to even risk damaging the top 2 industries this country has.
Re: World's Largest Water Diversion Plan Won't Quench China's Thirst
#7This is quite a feat. It's tunneled under rivers, passes through cities and travels nearly a thousand miles north.
I do wonder tough, about contamination given floods can easily breach the levies and in the cities runoff is pretty polluted. And wonder if any gets syphoned off --unless they have the very long fencing guarded 24x7.
Re: World's Largest Water Diversion Plan Won't Quench China's Thirst
#8Water security is an issue everywhere. Here in Australia, we have the Murray river. It is a major lifeline to Adelaide. However upstream farmers have been identified as stealing water, and their parent states aren't doing anything about it. I'm sure there's many farming practices that could be improved to reduce water consumption, but with lax policing, it's not happening.
I'm in NSW and I can guarantee you that if the upstream farms were more efficient with their water they would use the same amount, but grow more... It's a bit like the mining industry, government doesn't want to even risk damaging the top 2 industries this country has.
The problem in NSW is some farmers taking more water than they are legally allowed to, to the detriment of all other users of the river system, and then the law not being enforced. In the 4 Corners report that exposed the (mal)practice, there were reports of rivers flowing backwards due to the amount of water is being sucked out of them.
It's not a state vs. state thing, as even the local NSW communities are screaming about it. It's a small corrupt group vs. the nation, and it stinks.
Re: World's Largest Water Diversion Plan Won't Quench China's Thirst
#9> Still, in many cases there’s little incentive for farmers to save water. Agriculture uses 62 percent of China’s water, but crops have a relatively low marginal value. So the government bans the sale of agricultural water to industry, which pays 10 times the price, to ensure food supply.
This discount on water is effectively a cash subsidy for agriculture that increases with the amount of water wasted instead of useful goods sold.
Seems like every country everywhere has the same issue: they don't want to sell water at the price it is actually worth, so it gets wasted and people complain about water security issues. (Then if it's a city residential area, they introduce rules like "no watering your lawn" in the hope that it will reduce waste, instead of canceling the 90% off all-year-round water sale.)
Re: World's Largest Water Diversion Plan Won't Quench China's Thirst
#10> Still, in many cases there’s little incentive for farmers to save water. Agriculture uses 62 percent of China’s water, but crops have a relatively low marginal value. So the government bans the sale of agricultural water to industry, which pays 10 times the price, to ensure food supply. This discount on water is effectively a cash subsidy for agriculture that increases with the amount of water wasted instead of use…
Your inclusion of a city residential area is problematic. Selling water at the price it is actually worth would increase the price of necessities for humans.
Differential billing by amount consumed is already a thing. Use restrictions are a stop-gap measure to conserve water when you wouldn't trigger the higher price due to high consumption.
Our water security solution should not stop us from growing food. Increasing the price of water used for drinking, washing, and bathing is the outcome we want here.