Hai Tide: Tapping Green Water in Northern China

Abstract

"The Hai Basin in China is currently experiencing serious physical water shortages and pollution. Ninety percent of the surface water resources are used; most branches of the river do not reach the sea. The availability of water resources is only 285 m3 per head, while groundwater abstraction, pumped at 26 billion m3/year , exceeds recharge by 7.2 billion m3 /yr. Beyond that, surface water is overused by 2.4 billion m3/yr. This overexploitation, totalling 9.6 billion m3/yr, has resulted in serious environmental degradation."