Two pressing issues now facing China are the need for water resource conservation, and finding means for prevention and treatment of water pollution, Wang said at a conference held in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Three Means to Solve the Problem

The purpose of water management is to find the best ways to distribute and sustain use of water resources, meet market demand and support China's social development, Wang said.

Therefore, a nationwide survey of water resources is necessary and programs on water use and management should be worked out in a down-to-earth manner, he said.

A spirit of cooperation and solidarity must be followed in managing water resources, Wang said, because water problems often involve interests of different groups, departments and economic spheres.

China's Water Shortage Could Shake World Food Security

An unexpectedly abrupt decline in the supply of water for China's farmers poses a rising threat to world food security. China depends on irrigated land to produce 70 percent of the grain for its huge population of 1.2 billion people, but it is drawing more and more of that water to supply the needs of its fast-growing cities and industries. As rivers run dry and aquifers are depleted, the emerging water shortages could sharply raise the country's demand for grain imports, pushing the world's total import needs beyond exportable supplies.

Any major threat to China's food self-sufficiency, if not addressed by strong new measures, would likely push up world grain prices, creating social and political instabilities in Third World cities-as previous WORLD WATCH articles have pointed out. New information on the deteriorating water situation has confirmed the imminence of this possibility. The challenge now facing the Chinese government is how to meet the soaring water needs of its swelling urban and industrial sectors without undermining both its own agriculture and the world's food security.

(People?s Daily November 28, 2001)