Mon, Mar 30, 2009
Qiuqiong HuangDiscussion Summary:
In China, the water available for agriculture has decreased from 85% to 62% since 1978.
Almost all the surface water in North China has been utilized, which pushed farmers toward ground water. Today, groundwater is the main source of water for most grains.
Is there a water crisis in China? There is a lack of data to answer this question; most analysts only have anecdotal or partial information. Quiqiong's research on villages in North China discovered that 49% of villages experienced some groundwater depletion, but only 11% experienced serious depletion.
Water reforms by China's central government are generally ignored at the local level. The best reform would be to raise the price of water, which would push farmers towards higher value crops like wheat and maize.