Water shortages have come to cause China a yearly loss of over 100 billion yuan, with over half of its 600 cities as are found this year lacking water supply. This is known from the 2000 International Technology and Equipment Exhibition opened in Beijing.
China is a country lack of water resources. Though bestowed with a total reserve of 2,721 billion tons of water, ranking 6th in the world, yet it takes merely a per-capita amount of no more than one fourth of the world average. Things are even much more serious in Beijing being listed among the world top ten cities suffering from a lack of water resources.
Water pollution also raises a big problem when economy is developed. The Chinese government invested over 140 billion yuan in environment protection projects in 1999, a sum unheard of before, exceeding 1 percent of China's GNP.
More funds will also be used to step up research and development of advanced technologies and new equipment for bringing about the rise of a new industry in contribution to ecological economic construction, protection of water resources and guarantee of clear water supply as arduous tasks in the 21st century.
(People's Daily)
