Who says hosting nation of the Olympic Games, says big budget. And who says drought in that country, says big issues for water supply. Except for China? Officially, yes. The authorities in charge for water management in Beijing had claimed that the Games will not suffer from a lack of water. “Water demand during the 2008 Olympics will be guaranteed,” said Wu Jisong, director of the water supply program under the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, in 2006. And for good reasons. The gigantism of these Games is equivalent to those of Athens, which had necessitated the construction of many infrastructures, new subway lines, a tramway and some express roads! Despite the fact that Beijing needs new sport facilities, it is necessary that they are also green! Beijing wants to show the world that it was doing everything possible to get a facelift – and a “green” one. The UNEP report released a few months ago confirmed that Beijing authorities respected the wish of Green Olympics. According to the General Office of the Capital Afforestation Committee, 80 hectares of greens and parks will be planted in Beijing in 2008.
Water is the weak point of the City. Major efforts on a more efficient water management, environmentally friendly venues and education of Beijing citizens – especially in primary schools- for saving water, have been done. Any Olympic site uses the latest technology for the renewal of water. Biological treatments for domestic water have been installed. For each venue, rainwater is collected and treated for reuse in irrigation and cleaning roads. Many foreign companies (Veolia, Suez, Thames Water, Beijing Goldenstate, Autunes, Siemens ,…) have participated in this effort by equipping facilities and the Olympic Media Village.

Big Figures

Here are some figures that I was able to gather here and there. The Olympics are a big stake for Beijing. The city has decided to put the package to impress the world!

Beijing already spent more than 3billions of yuans for the Games preparation.

60 millions of flowers will be planted for the Games.
530000 trees were planted in the north of Beijing to green the city.
During 2008, Beiijing water needs will reach 3.89 billions cubic meters. Authorities said that 4.2 billions would be available. This represented a normal consumption plus 30%.
Rain this winter = 0cm. Snow = 0cm this winter.
Precipitations this year: – 70% from former years.
Aquifard water level in Beijing / Tianjin regions: -50 cm this year.
From Hebei, 300 millions cubic meters of water will be diverted for the back up during the OG.
2.5 million people in the regions around Beijing are suffering from lack of water.

Concerning venues built for the Olympic Games:
The National Stadium (Bird Nest) will collect and treat 80 tons of rainfall per hour, this will collect about 67000 cubic meters of rainwater and snow each year. 500 000 litres of drinking water will be produced per minute.
The National Aquatic Centre (Water Cube) will treat 60000 cubic metres of water per year from swimming pools. 10 500 cubic metres of rainwater can be reclaimed and 76% treated per year. In total, the venue will retreat 140000 cubic metres of water per year for reuse.
The Olympic Village is equipped with a pavement system for rainwater collecting. It can recover up to 3000 cubic metres of water and process for roads cleaning and irrigation purposes.
The venues built for the Games will collect a total of almost one million cubic metres of water. 60% of these waters can be reused.

http://www.planetark.org

http://news.bbc.co.uk

http://wilsoncenter.org

http://www.ajc.com

http://watercrunch.blogspot.com

http://www.unep.org

http://www.unep.org/downloads/BeijingReport.pdf

http://eg.china-embassy.org

http://www.treehugger.com

http://en.beijing2008.cn

http://www.chinapictorial.com.cn

Chinese: 含水层

Pinyin: han2shui3ceng2

From a general point of view, water price in China is seen as inadequate: it does not represent the true value of the available resources, the cost of water supply and wastewater retreatment. Until 2004, the authorities’ state of mind was that despite the severe shortage, water was too cheap to be used sparcely. Only a raised price could motivate consumers to conserve. Facing a more and more critical management of scare resources and spreading pollutions, the reassessment of the price of a water cubic metre was revised upwards since the 2006 reform of water urban sector (up already established in 2004 in some regions).

Given the recent statements of recurrent water waste, during the 11th 5-years Plan, measures have been taken to give consumers a sens of responsability. The government wants to see water prices rise to 50-100% during this period. The establishment of a metering and volumetric count and high hiked tariffs are designed to induce consumers to limite their water consumption. But, compared to standards of occidental water consumption, the chinese one is not this big at all: in Beijing, the average use of water is evaluated to an average of 104,14 liter per capita per day (l/c/p), whereas America’s one can reach 280 l/c/d, France’one: 125 l/c/d, Spain’s one:180 l/c/d, in Cyprus’s one:175 l/c/d. Regulated prices based on service cost (tapping resources, providing running water, constructing pipes and plants, treating sewage) are envisaged. The 11th Plan also targets the biggest consumers who are industry and agriculture: to decrease of 30% of industrial consumption and to rise the efficiency ratio in irrigation from 45% to 50%. Indeed, since 1993, the national resources are tapped to 70% per year for irrigation use, which represent about 520 km3 of water. Inefficiency due poor ditches and antiquated irrigation facilities has a bad effect on a such large consumption.

Low fees for water supply and sanitation

The chinese water prices system distinguishes different categories of users: agriculture -biggest consumer-, industry, tourism facilities, health facilities (hospitals…), trade, domestic consumers… Although the tariff system uses a metric and linear valuation of consumption, it is the industry and trade that are given the highest fees. The tariff scheme can be summed up in 2 types of fees, since 1985: one for water supply , and one for sanitation. Nowadays, 2 RMB per cubic meter is the average price domestic consumers are charged for water supply. Sanition fees barely reach an average of 0,1RMB per ton. But it is planed that price would reach 0,8 or 1 RMB.

These tariffs are left to the charge of local government. Thus, in urban areas, prices are fixed by the responsible offices. This leads to a large disparity from a region to another, or even from one city to another. Only can be observed, as a quasi-evident, that the highest rates are found in the highly urbanized cities, as Chongqing and Beijing. As the tariffs reform has an impact on people opinion, Government wishes for that collected fees would not be more than 1,8% of an household income, as in Beijing now. Campaigns for saving water are now bearing fruits: people have become aware of the importance of the issue. Some citizens even mail the water resources authorities methods for saving water.

Old water facilities

Decreasing consumption is not the only aim the Government wants to achieve to conserve water resources. The reconstruction, efficiency improvment of networks and plants are two of the flagship measures of the reform. An investment of 358 billion RMB was announced in August 2007, benefiting to the urban centres. Also, several loans from the World Bank and the Asian devlopement Bank will be acquired for. The Government wants to see the rate of drinking water supply reach 98%, and treated wastewater to 70% in urban areas by 2010. Rising standards of the quality of drinking water and sanitation are also being considered.

During the 2008 Asian Water Summit, held in January, the marketisation of the water sector, its development and management were discussed. The reform of the water sector in urban areas requires capital investment to reach its goals by 2010. The technical and technological challenge is huge. Most of the water infrastructures receive significant financial support from local governments. The fees charged consumers are not large enough to cover the costs of infrastructures management. The fee for the collection and disposal of wastewater is now too low for the utilities to ensure the daily operation. The 2006 report of the World Bank for ubran water sector in China suggests an increase to 3 RMB of the rate currently levied (about 0.1 Yuan in 2005). The proposed tax increase would reduce the gap between cost of services and fees properly collected.

To reach these goals, the government is gradually opening and reforming the water market. Is this an opportunity for foreign companies to get a foothold in China or consolidate their position in the area? The new policies marketisation are there to ensure its smooth conduct, encourage and attract foreign and private funds in the construction and infrastructure management. The downside will be increased competition between local firms and their foreign competitors. The government will still retain oversight on the system and franchise operations. The death of BOT and others PPP contracts is in no way envisaged. Given the appetite of Chinese, accelerating the skills and technology transfers are in the mind of Chinese authorities in charge of water management in the country. So the next 5-10 years is the key period of the development of China’s water affair.

Cities Raise Water Price China.org.cn – 2004/12/25

China to charge for urban sewage treatment later this year Worldwatch Institut – 2006/08/26

China to raise water prices to encourage conservation, efficiency Gov.cn – 2006/12/08

China’s water use – FAO database 1999

China water projects to get big investment IHT – 2006/08/22

China’s water industry survey Fdi.gov.cn (Ministry of Commerce) – 2007-05-15

China’s water affair report 2005-2006 Research and Markets

Chinese water management system Wikipedia page

water law text MWR

Improving the performances of China’s urban water utilities World Bank – 2007

Report Chongqing water pricing for poor World Bank 2007

Report Water pricing Beijing World Bank July 2007

• China’s water challenges

  http://youtube.com/watch?v=ZzlwH0IynZ0
  Source : www.erenlai.com
  This video is bad quality. It recalls well-konwn warning figures (“20% of world population but only 7% of the world water resouces”) and consequences of a bad water resources management.

• Water pollution in China

  http://youtube.com/watch?v=ulPowcxwxS8
  Source: www.caijing.com.cn
  This video presents a magazine exposing water pollution and the several crisis that occured the few past years (Taihu Lake, …). Commentaries are in mandarin..

• China’s water Challenge (22 :45)

  Source : Steven Griffiths (writter and producer)
  http://youtube.com/watch?v=1EfKHzPksUc part 1 – English Version
  http://youtube.com/watch?v=l8Gh88VkmfI part2 – EV
  http://youtube.com/watch?v=H06zbFVYs8Q part3 – EV
  This video is a classic document talking about water management and water resources (rivers basin, waterways…) and their issues. Commentaries are in english but the mandarine version is available (OVER english one) at:
  http://youtube.com/watch?v=Xwq0Jl7Zjj0
  http://youtube.com/watch?v=4m6nHLUMo8w
  http://youtube.com/watch?v=tKxwuLVrSiM

• Water crisis, Wuxi, China 无锡水祸

  Source: unknown
  http://youtube.com/watch?v=E9YJXm1kqk4
  This video is a short environmentalist message, warning about the crisis the Taihu lake faced on June this year.

• 民視新聞,家庭廢水的污染

  Source : the broadcast TV (unidentified name)
  http://youtube.com/watch?v=8RAeOZKeNTo
  This broadcast briefly explains where wastewater comes from and its effects on the rivers system in Taiwan.

• Thirsty planet/China’s boom creating water woes (3:41)

  Source : msnbc.com
  http://video.msn.com/video.aspx?mkt=en-us&brand=msnbc&vid=1c68701c-2b92-42c0-9a64-5998e67fdd9c
  A short video about Mekong river and its probably run-dry state, due to the 12 chinese dams project. Bad management of the Mekong river flood has lead to a decrease in the fish populations donwstream.

• Choking on growth – Sending water north (7:48)

  Source: new York times
  http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2007/09/28/world/asia/choking_on_growth_2.html#story3
  This video belongs to the second part from a serie of articles examining China’s pollution crisis. It talks about the south to north water divert project and shortly expose hopes and issues.

An other water event will occur at the end of the month, the Water Expo China. The event is organized by the Chinese Hydraulic Engineering Society (CHES), one of the main corporates of water resources and management in China. This exhibition will gather experts water committees as the Office of State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, and governmental bureaus. “The content of this Expo will cover the latest products and technologies in several categories including: City Water Consumption, Daily Water Usage, Sewage Treatment, Anti-flood and Disaster Minimization, Water and Earth Maintenance, and Hydro-Electricity.”

Informations portal for the Water China 2008 Exhibition : http://www.waterchina.merebo.com/
Informations website on the Water Expo China 2007: http://www.jhbh.cn/2007en/default.htm