Monday was World Water Day, an annual event to draw attention to the importance of water, our planet's most precious and endangered resource.

According to research conducted by the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), about 1.4 billion people -- nearly one-fourth of the global population -- will face water stress by the year 2025. Nearly 1 billion human beings will not have enough irrigation water to maintain the per capita grain production at the 1990 level. There will be 348 million people who do not have adequate water for industrial usage.

The situation in China is equally grim. The total annual water availability in this country is 2.8 trillion cubic meters. The per capita water availability was 2,076 cubic meters in 2003, and if the country's population reaches 1.6 billion by 2030, that figure could drop to between 1,700 and 1,800 cubic meters -- closing in on the global water stress benchmark of 1,700 cubic meters.

Water scarcity in China is partly caused by the natural conditions here. Rainfall levels differ remarkably between regions, and the prevalence of droughts, floods and other natural disasters also has a negative impact.

At the same time, the booming development of China, especially the accelerated economic growth and drive towards urbanization, has inevitably worsened water scarcity.

Industrial water consumption maintained a year-on-year growth of 7.1 percent between 1993 and 1999 while the water consumption of urban dwellers grew by 4.3 percent annually during the same period.

The nation was shocked when the Yellow River saw 226 days of decreased levels in 1997, a record high.

The situation has improved since the late 1990s thanks to a series of measures taken by the government to control the application of water, like raising the price, imposing harsh punishment on those who pollute water bodies, and promoting water recycling in industries and water-saving irrigation technologies in rural areas.

But the need for water will not cease as China develops, and the possibility still remains for shortages to become an obstacle to further economic and social progress.

That possibility alone should prevent us from sitting back and viewing the problem from a distance.

This is the reason why the State has repeatedly stressed the need to maintain a balance between resource conservation and economic development.

Wang Shucheng, the Minister of Water Resources, stated in a recent article that measures will be taken to establish "a water-saving society" in China.

By making use of such market-orientated tools as controlling the price of water, the government will guide the industry and citizens to make more efficient use of this precious resource.

Individuals will also be motivated to take part in the effort.

As the scientists in water resource preservation with IWMI wrote in a report about global water resources in 2025, the cure to the shortage not only demands financial and political support, but also time.

That is to say, the sooner stricter conservation measures are taken, the better our chances of averting a crisis.

(China Daily March 23, 2004)