Anna Saggio
China’s Position on the Right to Clean Drinking Water (HRC)
More than one billion people in the world live without adequate daily drinking
water. Clean drinking water is necessary to sustain individuals’ health: 90% of the
infectious diseases in developing countries are transmitted from polluted water. Not only
does clean drinking water affect a population’s health, it also jeopardizes the economic
growth and political stability of countries across the globe. Currently, nearly 450 million
people in 29 countries face water shortage problems, a figure that is projected to jump to
nearly 2.5 billion people by the year 2050. Lack of clean drinking water will lead to political
skirmishes, poverty, disease, and a limitation on economic sustainable development across
the world.
Clean water shortages and contaminated water sources threaten China. According
to SEPA, or the State Environmental Protection Agency for China, in 2006 over 60% of
China’s rivers suffered from such pollution that they could not be used as safe sources for
drinking water. With the continuous industrialization of China, rivers and other fresh water
sources are often prey to factories dumping waste into them. As of 2008, approximately
300 million nationwide in China lack access to clean drinking water. One of the major
problems stems from natural geography; although fresh water is abundant in the south
part of China, the northern part often lacks access to clean drinking water. The northern
area of China also suffers from a lower annual rainfall. Indeed, it was reported that nearly
half of total China’s population, which lives in the North, survives on 15% of the nation’s
water source. Proper allocation of water sources is essential to solving the problem of
water scarcity in China and the world. This distribution, however, has to be done in a fair
manner, but also one that allows maximum benefits to the society as a whole (i.e. more
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water to booming industrial centers). One vital step that needs to be taken to ensure clean
drinking water for all is fair agreements between countries for water sources. Water has
caused political chaos in the past, such as in the case in the Cochabamba Water Wars of
2000 in Bolivia. China, for the last few decades, has been working on the South-North
Water Transfer project to redirect water in the Yangtze River to the Hai and Yellow Rivers
to attempt to solve the problem of water scarcity in the North. This project has been
conducted thus far with extreme sensitivities to India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Laos,
Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam because some rivers in the project cross national
boundary lines and political conflict has been avoided. Water redistribution should also be
done responsibly; the Yangtze River has an enormous water supply, as 96% of its water
flows into the Pacific Ocean. China’s South-North Water Transfer project is a good example
of a reallocation of water that avoided enflaming political conflict through agreements with
other countries. For Middle-Eastern and African countries that are extremely arid, need to
settle issues of water by negotiating agreements with water rich countries and expanding
aquifers as soon as possible. The capital of Yemen, Sanaa, is projected to run out of water
by 2025. Situations like this Sanaa’s are perilous for the political stability of the world and
political efforts to create treaties between countries to provide clean drinking water need
to be encouraged.
To provide sufficient water to ensure society’s health and a nation’s economic
development, countries need to encourage improvements in water technologies such as
desalination plants, suggest guidelines for water conservation, and impose guidelines on
industries to prevent mass production of clean water sources. One critical but often
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overlooked way to conserve water world-wide is to change the way the world uses water
for agriculture. Flood and sprinkler techniques that often water crops waste a tremendous
amount of water. More installations of irrigation systems would reduce world-wide waste
of water used in agriculture. Increasing manure usage, as opposed to manufactured
fertilizers, can also improve the soil’s ability to retain water by 150%, saving water.
Planting water-saving crops like fruit trees can also be helpful, as common crops like maize
and wheat rapidly deplete soil of water. Enterprises should also be more strictly regulated
to conserve water, but in a way that does not stifle economic expansion and production. In
Beijing, traditional industries like tanning that require vast amounts of water and lead to
massive pollution are being forced to transfer to cleaner production methods. Regulation
for these industries will help to stem the pollution that causes much of the scarcity of clean
drinking water. For countries that do not suffer from water pollution, but rather simply
water scarcity, desalinization technology should be improved and made to be more
affordable, as this equipment will prove necessary in years to come for countries such as
Israel. Wastewater treatment plants are also an increasingly positive, albeit off-putting,
option for water scarce and water plenty countries alike. It may be more beneficial,
however, for groundwater technologies to either be discouraged or greatly improved. The
increasing reliance on groundwater is not sustainable and in many countries, particularly
Bangladesh, groundwater is becoming contaminated with natural arsenic as countries
search deeper and deeper into the ground for water. A 2007 study found that over 137
million people in more than 70 countries are probably affected by arsenic poisoning from
drinking water. Although there are methods to remove arsenic from water, it is unlikely
that they would be extended to such a large amount of people. Instead of focusing on
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extending aquifers, encouraging water conservation methods might be more appropriate.
In 2005, the average consumption of "public water" in Beijing was twice that of large cities
in developed countries. To solve this problem, Beijing’s government launched a public
campaign to encourage responsible water usage and also increased the price of water to
discourage irresponsible usage. Although other countries may not wish to enact economic
changes, national and international campaigns for responsible usage of water would be
helpful in reducing the wasted water, leaving more clean drinking water for the rest of the
world. Another important step that the U.N. personally could take is to increase water
piping projects in areas, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, that simply do not have the
infrastructure to get clean water to their citizens. Disease, as a result, should drop
dramatically. The U.N. needs to further concentrate efforts on increasing the water supply
worldwide and using the various methods outlined here and others to get clean drinking
water to the world population. Many problems- political, social, and economical- will be
averted or solved because of clean drinking water. Thus, China will continue to support
MDG7 and will encourage the U.N. and its individual nations to put a sincere effort using
some of these methods to increase the number of people in the world that have the right to
clean drinking water.