How to fairly distribute limited water resources and guarantee the effective conservation of such resources has become a pressing issue when it comes to the construction of reservoirs.

Thirty-one National People's Congress (NPC) deputies from Hebei Province submitted a motion to the current NPC session at the weekend urging neighboring Shanxi Province to take into consideration the lower reaches of a river flowing through the two provinces when it plans a new reservoir.

Shanxi is said to have built more than 100 reservoirs of different sizes along the upper reaches of Zhanghe River within its border. This has prevented most water from flowing down to the lower reaches in Hebei Province. A planned new reservoir, if constructed, would make the situation ever worse.

More than 80 percent of the river's water has been exploited, according to the motion. The over-exploitation will undoubtedly damage the river's ecological balance, and water scarcity will unfortunately render the reservoirs in the lower reaches useless.

Such a dispute over the distribution of water resources is one of many and more will arise in other regions as the lack of water becomes increasingly a problem for the development of local economies and affects the livelihood of residents.

Of the more than 600 cities in this country, more than 400 are facing water shortages. That may explain why many localities rush to build dams on rivers flowing through their territories. That could be, for the time being, a way to guarantee water supply for both residential and industrial use.

But what if the water in these rivers is used up, as evidenced by the many that have dried up because of over-exploitation.

It is high time we shifted our focus from building reservoirs to carefully planning water saving schemes so that efficiency in use will be raised. Some cities have already started to build rainwater collection facilities and many are building or have already built sewage treatment plants. More localities need to be pushed to extend efforts on water saving and pollution control.

We hope that this motion will not only lead Shanxi province to reconsider its plan to build another reservoir, but also as a reminder to many other localities that long-term water saving schemes should always be a top priority on their agendas.

(China Daily March 17, 2008)