This
article is almost a year old
More
than half of Chinese rivers have “disappeared” since 1990s
About
28,000 rivers have disappeared from China’s state maps, an absence
seized upon by environmentalists as evidence of the irreversible
natural cost of developmental excesses.
DGR,
29
March 2013
More
than half of the rivers previously thought to exist in China now
appear to be missing, according to the 800,000 surveyors who compiled
the first national water census, leaving Beijing fumbling to explain
the cause.
Only
22,909 rivers, covering an area of 100 square kilometres were located
by surveyors, compared with the more than 50,000 present in the
1990s, a three-year study by the Ministry of Water Resources and the
National Bureau of Statistics found.
Officials
blame the apparent loss on climate change, arguing that it has caused
waterways to vanish, and on mistakes by earlier cartographers. But
environmental experts say that the disappearance of the rivers is a
real and a direct manifestation of headlong, ill-conceived
development, where projects are often imposed or approved without
public consultation.
The
United Nations considers China one of the 13 countries most affected
by water scarcity, as industrial toxins have poisoned historic water
sources and were blamed last year for causing the Yangtze to turn an
alarming shade of red. This month the carcasses of about 16,000 dead
pigs dumped in the river have been pulled from its waters, and 1,000
dead ducks were found dumped this week in the Nanhe River in the
southwestern Sichuan province.
Ma
Jun, a water expert at the Institute of Public and Environmental
Affairs, said that the missing rivers were a cause for “great
attention” and underscored the urgent need for a more sustainable
mode of development.
“There
might be some disparity [in the number of rivers] due to different
research methods. However, the disappearance of rivers is the
reality. It is really happening in China because of the
over-exploitation of river resources,” Mr Ma said. “One of the
major reasons is the over-exploitation of the underground water
reserves, while environmental destruction is another reason, because
desertification of forests has caused a rain shortage in the mountain
areas.”
Large
hydroelectric projects such as the Three Gorges Dam, which diverted
trillions of gallons of water to drier regions, were likely to have
played a role, Mr Ma said.
The
census charted a decline in water quality, citing the “severe
over-exploitation” of underground water reserves by 60 of its
biggest cities.
The
report came as Li Keqiang, the new premier, gave a speech in which he
pledged greater transparency on pollution, which Beijing fears is a
potential catalyst for social unrest.
“We
must take the steps in advance, rather than hurry to handle these
issues when they have caused a disturbance in society,” Mr Li was
quoted by state media as saying.
The
missing rivers provoked wistful recollections among Chinese internet
users, most of whom will have witnessed dizzying urbanisation.
“The
rivers I used to play around have disappeared, the only ones left are
polluted, we can’t eat the fish in them, they are all bitter,” a
person using the name Pippi Shuanger wrote on Weibo, the Chinese
version of Twitter.
Despite
water shortages, the threat of floods is a problem for much of the
Chinese mainland, with two thirds of the population living in
flood-prone areas. Flash floods caused by heavy rain claimed the
lives of 77 people in Beijing last July.
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