Unabated climate change has led China to plan avant-garde new water infrastructure projects with the aim of mitigating the impacts of climate change by transferring water across the country, reports Reuters.
The country’s authorities released plans at the end of May to construct a national “water network” of new canals, reservoirs and storage facilities to increase irrigation and minimize the risk of floods and droughts, although experts warn that more river diversions could be costly.
The Minister of Water Resources, Li Guoying, said the project would "unblock the major arteries" of the river system by 2035 and improve the country’s ability to even out water supply distribution.
However, worldwide experts believe that this plan is not only exorbitant and disruptive for the environment but could make the southern states more vulnerable to supply disruptions and require additional infrastructure.
Mark Wang, a geographer at Melbourne University who studies the impact of China's water infrastructure told Reuters: "What they have been doing so far is using engineering solutions to try to physically supply water and fix their water problem. If China can reduce water use and increase efficiency, it doesn't need mega-diversion projects.”
China faces significant challenges in terms of per capita water resources, which fall well below the global average, while the distribution across the country remains highly unequal. To address this issue, China has traditionally relied on extensive infrastructure projects to transport water from the flood-prone southern regions to the arid northern areas. Additionally, the country has actively sought engineering solutions to tackle its persistent long-term water supply problems.
Some measures to curb demand are in place. Local governments have been pushed to reduce water consumption, improve wastewater recycling and tackle pollution.
Furthermore, Wang emphasized that China has undertaken over 100 diversion projects in the past five years, demonstrating its commitment to addressing water-related challenges.
According to analysts, the total investment in fixed water assets surpassed 1.1 trillion yuan ($154 billion) last year, marking a significant 44% increase compared to 2021. In the first quarter of 2023, it further rose by 15.6% to reach 407 billion yuan. Officials have expressed their intention to allocate even more funding towards these endeavors.
Genevieve Donnellon-May, a researcher at the Oxford Global Society specializing in China's water issues, noted that the expenses associated with constructing these massive projects are expected to continue rising.
While this year's drought is anticipated to be less severe compared to the previous year, which witnessed extensive parching of the Yangtze basin due to prolonged high temperatures, state forecasters caution that central and southwestern China might still face hardships.
Certain regions in the southwest have already implemented precautionary measures, as seen in Sichuan province's Liangshan County, where a water company has advised residents to limit their showers to a maximum of four times per month.
As part of the new strategy, a key component involves the expansion of the South-North Water Diversion Project (SNWDP), an ambitious engineering endeavor aimed at redirecting surplus water from the Yangtze River to the water-scarce Yellow River basin in the north.
According to the government, this project has played a crucial role in optimizing China's water resources, having already diverted over 60 billion cubic meters of water. However, the project's one-way water flow nature became apparent during last year's droughts when it proved incapable of providing assistance.
Experts are concerned that by relying on similar large-scale projects, China may merely be shifting water shortages instead of resolving them. The SNWDP and the Three Gorges Dam, both megaprojects, have triggered a "chain reaction" of unforeseen consequences that require substantial investments in new infrastructure to rectify, warned Wang from Melbourne University.
For instance, the water transfer from the Danjiangkou reservoir to the north has resulted in depleted water downstream along the Han River, prompting authorities to propose a new 60 billion yuan project to connect Danjiangkou with the Three Gorges reservoir.
The Three Gorges Dam, responsible for storing up to 40 billion cubic meters of Yangtze water for power generation and flood management, has been implicated in the record low water levels observed in Poyang Lake. Authorities are considering plans for a new sluice gate to address the issue, although critics argue that it could harm local habitats.
China has also raised concerns with its proposal to divert water from Tibet to northwest China, which has alarmed neighboring countries like India that rely on rivers such as the Brahmaputra and the Mekong.
Wang suggested that alternative approaches focusing on wastewater recycling, desalination, or reducing water demand might prove more effective. With approximately 60% of China's water consumption attributed to agriculture, efficiencies could be gained by switching crops or employing alternative irrigation methods.
"For some engineering solutions - if they are feasible, if the local environmental impact is not huge, I am not totally against them," Wang said. "But the scale and the scope and the impact is huge… if you put the same effort into the demand side and can achieve a better result, that's the point."
