China’s Water Woes: what are the solutions?
The quality of China’s water resources is rapidly deteriorating due to pollution and irrational
utilization, associated with economic growth. To understand the magnitude of the problem and
the measures being taken, JPMorgan’s Hands-on China series recently hosted Dr Richard
Hardiman, water expert at the EU Commission in Beijing, who delivered the following
presentation to clients. Dr. Hardiman offers an overview of China’s looming water crisis and
discusses recent policy developments.
Introduction
China possesses only 6.2% of global freshwater resources to supply 21% of the world’s
population. Water pollution has become a new menace, particularly in Northern China, due to:
over-exploitation of surface and ground water resources; little or no treatment of industrial and
municipal waste water and increasing demand upon water resources from agriculture, industry
and municipalities.