Water supply and quality are fundamental issues in
China. A few years ago, the debate about who will feed
China emphasised scarcity of farmland and the food crisis
(Brown, 1995). Yet the most critical resource in China is
not land or food, but water (as Brown later (2001) came to
recognise). Not only are per capita water resources limited
(Niu and Harris, 1996) and the spatial distribution of water
resources extremely uneven, there is also significant waste
of water. This waste is related to inefficient irrigation
practices, leaking water pipes, and water pollution.
Growing municipal and industrial waste discharges,
coupled with limited wastewater treatment capacity, are
the principal drivers of water pollution. About two-thirds
of the total waste discharge into rivers, lakes and the sea
derives from industry, and about 80% of that is untreated.