China
Africa
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Do water and innovation “mix?”
Published in William Sarni, Tamin Pechet, Water Tech, 2013
All of this means investment in water tech innovation. A few examples of the drivers and opportunities from the Perkowski article are provided below: Over the next five years, it is estimated that an additional investment of RMB 220 billion ($35 billion) will be needed to upgrade existing purification facilities and bring them into compliance.Water resources utilization will limit the annual consumption of water to 635 billion cubic meters by 2015, further increasing the need for water recycling facilities. China expects to spend $69 billion on industrial wastewater treatment. Because per capita water resources in China are only a quarter of the world's average, and industrial water consumption constitutes a quarter of the country's total water consumption, the recycling of deeply treated industrial waste water is essential.Implementation of the water-related programs called for in the 12th five-year plan has already begun. In 2011, the first year of the plan, total spending on water resources management increased significantly to RMB 345.2 billion ($54.6 billion). In addition to water treatment and recycling, China has already initiated programs to limit the loss of human life and property damage caused by flash floods. At the end of 2011, RMB 3.8 billion ($603 million) was earmarked to subsidize flash-flood forecasting projects in 1,100 counties throughout the country. It is expected that the number of counties will be increased to 1,800 and that $1.8 billion will be spent on flash-flood forecasting programs by 2013.42
Introduction
Published in Xiaoling Lei, Bo Lu, Integrated Water Environment Treatment, 2021
Water environment pollution reduces the water quality of water resources in China and affects the sustainable economic development, and also directly relates to the drinking water safety, endangering the public health and life safety.
Remotely assessing and monitoring coastal and inland water quality in China: Progress, challenges and outlook
Published in Critical Reviews in Environmental Science and Technology, 2020
Yujiu Xiong, Yili Ran, Shaohua Zhao, Huan Zhao, Qixuan Tian
In addition to physical and economic water scarcity, water contamination has exacerbated the shortage of water resources across China (Tao & Xin, 2014; Han, Currell, & Cao, 2016; Wang, Li, Li, Kharrazi, & Bai, 2018). According to statistics released by the Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP), the water quality of one quarter of the seven major river basins in China is unsuitable for direct human contact (classified as IV or worse, see Table A1 for detailed definitions) (Figure 1). Approximately 40% of other types of surface water, i.e. lakes and reservoirs, have exhibited poor water quality (class IV or worse) in the last 15 years (Figure 1), and this deterioration in water quality has been significantly accelerated by nitrogen pollution and eutrophication (Gao et al., 2019). Similarly, 27% of China’s near coastal waters are classified as poor (class IV or worse, see Table A1 for details) (Figure 1). Due to the limited number of monitoring sites (or the limited monitoring ability), the degree of water pollution at the national scale is likely worse than indicated by the assessments based on the above statistics because small rivers or tributaries with serious pollution levels were excluded from these evaluations (Han et al., 2016).
Water resources research to support a sustainable China
Published in International Journal of Water Resources Development, 2018
In view of the alarming water-related problems and the current status of water resources research, this thematic issue has been compiled to reflect interesting current research on water resources in China in the context of climate change and anthropogenic activity and to further boost interest and effort in this field to safeguard sustainable development. The issue includes five papers, whose topics range from flash flood early warning and flood regime modelling to sustainable water resources management in inland plains and the world-famous South-to-North Water Diversion Project. All these topics are important for the sustainable development of China, and the results from these studies can potentially support national policy making. In fact, some of these results have already been applied in practice.
Ammonia nitrogen adsorption by different aquifer media: An experimental trial for nitrogen removal from groundwater
Published in Human and Ecological Risk Assessment: An International Journal, 2020
Duo Li, Yahong Zhou, Qi Long, Rui Li, Changyu Lu
Groundwater is generally the main source of water in China with about 40% used for irrigating farmland and 70% of drinking water in arid regions such as the north and northwest China (Wu et al. 2017; Li, He, et al. 2018; Li, Qian, et al. 2018; Wang et al. 2020; Wu et al. 2019, 2020). Over-exploitation of groundwater can result in many environmental problems (Wu et al. 2015). For example, the water level in the North China Plain is decreasing at a rate of 1 meter per year and the water level depth in many places is over several hundred meters below the groundwater surface (Shao et al. 2013). The groundwater depression cones due to heavy groundwater abstraction in Yinchuan have resulted in groundwater quality deterioration within the depression cone (Su et al. 2020). In addition, groundwater pollution is serious in many agricultural areas such as the North China Plain (Zhou, Li, Chen, et al. 2020; Zhou, Li, Xue, et al. 2020). With the development of the Chinese economy in urban and rural areas, nitrogen pollution, particularly ammonium-nitrogen pollution, is gradually becoming the main source of groundwater pollution (Li, He, et al. 2019). Groundwater nitrogen pollution is usually considered the results of agricultural activities, but domestic waste discharge and mining activities can also be influential (Li, Wu, et al. 2018). The adverse effects of nitrogen in groundwater have been confirmed by numerous studies worldwide (Huang et al. 2015; Zhou et al., 2016; Zhou and Boyd 2014; He and Wu 2019; He et al. 2019). For example, significant nitrogen pollution was reported in Jinghui canal irrigation area of Northwest China, and led to high risk of cancer (Gao et al. 2012; Zhang, Wu, et al. 2018) found that an increase in organic matter in the soil during rainfall and irrigation led to more nitrides infiltrating into the groundwater and built risk to human health. In particular, in the North of China with primarily arid and semiarid climate, water resources are relatively scarce, accounting for only 19% of the national water resources of China, though the area cultivated accounts for 64% of the national, resulting in the groundwater shortage due to increasing nitrogen pollution (Zhang, Wang, et al. 2018). Because many studies have confirmed that the nitrogen contamination of groundwater generally comes from the rapid agricultural development (Ma et al. 2012; Hu and Shu 2015). For example, Zhao et al. (2016) reported that the existence of NO3− and HNO3− in the sewage irrigation water in the edge of the Tengger Desert due to the intensive agricultural activities and the increased use of pesticides and fertilizers. It is reported that nitrogen utilization rate is only 20%–30% of the nitrogen applied through fertilizer with soil absorbing 10%–15% and about 40%–65% of nitrogen entering surface and groundwater. Consequently, the ammonia nitrogen (NH4+-N) concentration will increase, whereas the dissolved oxygen in natural waters will reduce, leading to increased toxicity of the water. Therefore, the characteristics affecting the adsorption of NH4+-N should be investigated to effectively control nitrogen pollution.