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Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom 46 Of all the world’s great metropolises, Beijing has the worst water problem. Beijing is said to need annually 1 billion cubic meters of water more than it has. The government undertook an emergency water supply program for the Olympics. It transferred 600 million cubic meters from the Yellow River to Lake Baiyangding in Hebei Province. Then, 1 billion cubic meters was transferred from the four reservoirs of Hebei to Beijing. In fact, the water shortage in the neighboring provinces of Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Henan is more worrisome than Beijing’s shortfall.The transfer of 1.6 billion cubic meters from Hebei to Beijing surely risks creating great difficulties or worse for that province. Beijing’s natural water supply conditions are in fact not so bad. Average annual rainfall in Beijing is 625 millimeters - slightly more than for Paris, Berlin, Moscow or Warsaw. The population density of those capitals is about the same or even somewhat more than Beijing’s and nobody says that they face water shortages. A UNESCO study sets a criterion to determine whether the natural environment of an urban zone is arid or not. It is based on the volume of surface flow of the local water courses. If it is more than 150 millimeters, the natural ecological system can bear the strain of human activity. In Beijing, the flow is 243 millimeters, so conditions are relatively good. But only 39 per cent of the annual rainfall is counted in that flow, while in Germany 80 per cent is counted in calculating local water resources. If the German calculation method were used, the water flow in Beijing would be 500 millimeters. This shows that the Chinese capital’s natural water “shortage” is more a question of definition than reality. In fact, one of the main reasons Beijing was chosen as the capital is that its water supply was good. Beijing faces the Yanshan mountain chain and a plain, and numerous rivers cross the capital. One traditional history says of Beijing: “There are rivers and lakes everywhere, springs spouting pure water and humid soil.” Many place names in the city are water-related. Beijing is surrounded by lakes, rivers and streams. If not for the rivers, China’s emperors would not have chosen Beijing for their capital. The Yongding is the main river crossing Beijing. The Guanting Reservoir, with a capacity of 4.16 billion cubic meters, is on it. The Chaobai River is another of the capital’s major water courses, with the Miyun Reservoir, whose capacity is 4.375 billion cubic meters. The two reservoirs could supply more than 2 billion cubic meters annually, satisfying most of Beijing’s needs. Yet the Yonding River has been shrinking since the 1960s.The Guanting Reservoir used to get 1.41 billion cubic meters annually, compared to .3 billion cubic meters now. If one also considers water pollution, Guanting’s water can no longer serve as the capital’s source of drinking water. The Miyun Reservoir’s annual inflow has declined from 1,49 billion cubic meters to .6 to .8 billion.In 2003, Beijing used 3.58 cubic meters, of which only .85 billion cubic meters came from surface waters and the rest from underground water sources. The calculation is simple: the Yongding and Chaobai Rivers have lost 2 billion cubic meters in annual water flow. The Nanshuibeidiao (“bringing southern waters to the north”) Project is planned to transfer 1.7 billion cubic meters of water to Beijing - not enough to cover the annual shortfall of the two main rivers. Why have those two rivers lost so much water? It is because they have been overused. The government’s construction of the Guanting Reservoir on the Yongding was no
Beijing Olympics 2008: Winning Press Freedom 47 problem. But the government later built 541 other reservoirs along the river! Five large reservoirs were also built along the Chaobai. Foreign experts calculate that diversion from a water course should be no more than 15 per cent of its total volume. Some Chinese experts calculate 40 per cent. Exploitation of the Yongding and Chaobai Rivers has far exceeded 100 per cent of annual volumes. Instead of supplying Beijing, they have been diverted to supplying upstream reservoirs, so creating a serious water shortage for Beijing. The more numerous the reservoirs are, the greater are losses through evaporation. If each of the 542 upstream reservoirs is responsible for just a .3 per cent increased evaporation loss of the Yongding’s total water flow, that alone explains 80 per cent of its reduction in volume. The water shortages in Beijing’s neighboring provinces of Tianjin and Hebei are also attributable to that overuse of water resources. So why really did the Chinese government urgently transfer 1.6 billion cubic meters of water to Beijing? Was it to guarantee that Beijing would have enough water to drink during the Games? Just a small fraction of Beijing’s water is for drinking. And foreign athletes in Beijing will not be drinking faucet water. They will probably bring their own water, as, for instance, the German women’s soccer football team. The Chinese government’s real reason for the urgent transfer of so much water to Beijing is to hold “green” Olympics. As noted earlier, the River Yongding has shrunk every year. The river bed inside the capital’s city limits has been dry for more than 30 years. Water from neighboring regions will be used to clean the polluted river bed. Then, using dikes made of oak bark, ponds will be created to give the Games a “greener” ambience. A number other streams, like the Juma, and various of the capital’s lakes need to have their waters replaced to give them a clean aspect. Because of the worrisome lowering of underground water, giant funnels have formed. To be sure that stream beds like the Yongding are filled during the Games, enormous quantities of water will be needed since a great deal of it is likely to seep underground. Beijing has also built a large number of new basins and fountains. The best-known basin, needing the greatest amount of water, is in front of the National Opera. The amount of water needed for those basins is considerable. Beijing also needs water to clean its dusty streets, soiled in this year’s sandstorms. The Chinese capital’s water shortage is mainly due to inconsiderate use of available supplies. If such policies continue, Beijing’s water situation is likely to deteriorate, and it might inevitably become necessary to move the capital. Then, all of China’s investments for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games would have gone for naught. What is the Beijing that China wants to show the world as athletes gather there from all over in August 2008? They should be allowed to see the true face of Beijing and of China. Because of massive overuse of water resources, the River Yongding was dried up, the River Chaobai was shrunk, Beijing’s water was polluted. Allowing people to see such realities is not a dishonor. The Chinese government could then change its policies and start restoring Beijing’s ecology – reviving its rivers, cleaning up the water pollution and dealing with the environment on scientific lines. If the Chinese government had started to restore the rivers in the 1980s, then more than 20 years of effort would have avoided the current annual shortage of a billion cubic meters of water. Better late than never.
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