While industrial production can aff

While industrial production can affect water quality, industrial
production can also be negatively impacted by poor water
quality. Water is critical to many industrial processes, such as
heating and cooling, generating steam, and cleaning, and as a
constituent part of some products, such as beverages. Most
industrial uses require water of a certain quality; some have
higher quality requirements than others. Water pollution canaffect industries in several ways. Poor quality water may force
an industrial facility to relocate, find a new source of water, or
halt production, or it may decrease the quality of the product.
Each of these impacts has costs associated with it. No
estimates exist on worldwide costs of poor water quality
to industry, but some studies have been done in China. In
1992, China’s industrial sector lost approximately US $1.7
billion as a result of water pollution (SIWI 2005). A study
on the Tongliang County Silk-making Plant found that
decreased quality of silk due to water pollution reduced
the plant’s production value by 3.1 percent in one year
(Yongguan et al. 2001), and a study in the municipality of
Chongquing estimated the cost of water shortages due to
pollution to be US$ 21 million.