I feel anxiety while reading news that the Colorado River is drying up. The life of some 40 million people would change as the river is the most important water supply in the West of the United States.
The climate change and severe drought are the reasons behind. And besides, I read from the Denver Post, that “The West was taking more water than the river had to give and eventually this started to drain the biggest two reservoirs in the country, Lake Mead and Lake Powell. While the upper-basin states (Colorado, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming) use less water each year than they’re allotted, the lower-basin states – Arizona, California and Nevada – are still drawing more water than they’re supposed to.”
Though the underground water in the American West can still provide stable water supply for local people, they will have higher electric rates, more expensive groceries, cuts to the agricultural industry and less tourism, among other things.
If such a thing happens in China, it will be more disastrous, as China’s population is much bigger which means the ecosystem is much weaker.
That is why China in the past decade tried hard to do water conservation. Things improved a lot due to the efforts. The underground water level keeps on rising now.
So I would like to introduce some of the methods China has taken and are proved to be effective. Though some of them still need more time to see the final results, and different reasons are behind the water shortage of different places, I still hope there could be something useful in China’s practices that can be taken by other countries.
I choose the Hebei province as an example. Hebei is the province circling Beijing. The province is quite large, sitting in the mid-north part of the Eastern China. People say that the shape of China map is like a cock. Then Hebei is the neck of the cock.
The average annual rain fall is around 500 mm, which is not very little. But the population is big - 74.7 million. The 20 million Beijingers also need water supply from Hebei. And the province has its agriculture and industries that consuming water.
Hebei has not big river like the Yellow River or Yangtze River. Nine smaller rivers and the Bai Yang Dian Lake compose the above ground water system. The water resources per capita in the province equals only one seventh of the national level. So the underground water was overtapped during the past several decades which led to obvious drop of underground water level. In Julu county, the underground water level dropped 60 meters from 1975 to 2014.
There were more and more seasonal dry-up of the small rivers. Yong Ding River runs from Hebei through Beiing. I personally witness the water in the river gradually drying up since 1990s and restarted to flow in 2020. Some scientists warned since early 2000s that the Bai Yang Dian Lake will dry up if the overtapping continues, and the whole ecosystem in mid-north China will drastically change. So the government decided to do something to stop the worsening trend.
The most important measure that has been taken is saving water. As some 75 percent of water was used to irrigate farm lands, Hebei started to install water-saving irrigations system since 2010s, such as dripping systems. Wheat and corn are the main crops in Hebei. So farmers were encouraged to plant drought-resistant crops, such as sorghum.
Another important measure is transferring water from the Yellow River to Hebei. It is part of China’s South to North Water Diversion Project. By the end of 2021, the project has transferred 13 billion cubic meters of water to Hebei. I am not sure whether there is side effects of this project. But it partly solved the problem of northern provinces that lack of water.
Some local people still remember that they had to dig well to the depth of 500 meters to get water ten years ago. Now water came out from springs and all rivers ever dried up are full of water.
This is the water story of Hebei. Saving water and bring water from other regions are the main practices. They are effective.
Thank you for your suggestions. As a lifelong resident of the westernmost United States, I have personally envisioned a solar-powered desalination and transport project that would bring sea water from the Pacific Ocean, across the rich agricultural lands of California, to the potentially productive desert lands of Nevada. Well, and then also a geostationary solar-reflecting satellite that would beam energy to a receiving station that would power it all. But for as long as war and defense is the highest priority nationally and internationally, it's unlikely that any such life-enriching projects will take place.
I was in contact with people that studied climate change at the end of XX century. Bored by their political ignorance - I was at this time reading Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin and Mao - I dedicated my leisure hours to clean woods and seed trees. How can transform my italian harded hands in something useful for the earth - and most of all, slightly rewarded?