Rainfall decreased dramatically in Beijing during this year's
rainy season, causing a drought more severe than last year, leading
to a foregone conclusion that it would be the fifth successive year
of drought. A researching group of water source conservation and
administration has made an on-the-spot investigation recently in
the capital’s suburb areas of Tongzhou, Huairou, Shunyi and
Miyun.
According to a top official from the Beijing Water Resources
Bureau, average rainfall from the beginning of the year to August
15 was 241 mm in the city, 16.7 percent less than the same period
last year which stood at 290 mm, and 45.8 percent less than the
average of previous years standing at 445 mm. What is special about
this year's rainfall is that the precipitation decreased
dramatically after the high-water season came, with precipitation
from July 1 to August 15 being only 66 mm, 49 percent less than the
same period last year which was 130 mm, 74 percent less than the
average of previous years which was 251 mm.
Weather forecasts for the meteorological department say there
will be no heavy rainfall in a wide range in Beijing in September.
As a result, the drought situation will suffer further
aggravation.
In respect to the critical water shortage in Beijing, the
municipal water resources department worked out a water supply
emergency plan in August last year. Purpose of the plan was to
guarantee water supply safety in urban areas; to basically
guarantee the environmental water usage in downtown areas while
making sure there will be no large-scoped water pollution; to
guarantee the Miyun Reservoir, which is said to be "water of life"
for Beijingers, not to see dead shortage; to guarantee water supply
safety for both humans and livestock in suburban areas through
centralized management of the whole city's water resources.
In order to protect water resources from possible outside
polluting activities, the Miyun Reservoir has been sealed off. The
Project of Underground Water Reservation for Emergency Use, based
on northeast Beijing’s Huairou County where the Huaihe and Yanqi
rivers flow, will start formal operation from September, which can
provide 40 million tons of water to Beijing.
As a key water control project of Beijing, the Baihebao
Reservoir, sitting in Yanqing and boasting a superior geological
position, diverts 100 million cubic meters of water annually to the
Miyun, Guanting and Shisanling reservoirs, taking responsibility
for regulating and diverting water for living and production use in
parts of the city.
To ensure the water source is not to be polluted, the project of
reforesting the paddy fields has been carried out along the Baihe
River in Yanqing this year in an area of 240 hectares. A sewage
treatment plant with a daily processing capacity of 30,000 tons has
been built, into which a large sum of money has been poured. In
addition, some 20 enterprises discharging serious pollution have
been closed.
Related insiders have said that as one of the world's biggest
metropolises, with a permanent population of over 13 million,
Beijing's groundwater resources is almost exhausted after many
years of exploitation. They warned that continuing the exploitation
of groundwater will bring about a problem of surface subsidence. In
the coming tens of years, the reservoirs in the surroundings of
Beijing are unlikely to satisfy daily water demand for the city. In
the future, we will have no choice but to depend on diverted water
from other provinces.
As being serviced by the South-North Water Diversion Project,
Beijing bears responsibility for the project in respect of water
source protection, administration and utilization. It will also
give corresponding support to water source areas to boost common
development as well as to help supply sanitary water in the
long-term. All in all, water resource undertaking is of strategic
significance to the sustainable development of the capital city of
Beijing.
(China.org.cn by Zhang Tingting, August 28, 2003)