Environmental Issues in China Today by Hidefumi Imura

Author:Hidefumi Imura
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Springer Japan, Tokyo

4.2.4 Beijing’s Two Reservoirs

Beijing has two sources for its water supply: the Guanting Reservoir and the Miyun Reservoir. The Guanting Reservoir in Hebei Province’s Zhangjiakou has for a long time been an important source of surface water for Beijing, supplying a billion tons of water annually. Pollution became a serious problem further upstream, however, rendering the reservoir unfit as a source of drinking water since 1998. As a result, Beijing now relies primarily on groundwater and the Miyun Reservoir for its drinking water. Because the Miyun Reservoir also lacks sufficient water, groundwater is being used excessively.

The pollution in the Guanting Reservoir is from nonpoint sources—distributed over a large area. It comes from domestic wastewater associated with a growing population in the surrounding area, from fertilizers and pesticides from agricultural land, and discharge from piggeries and other livestock operations. In this respect the pollution resembles a situation similar to many lakes in Japan, including Lake Biwa and Lake Suwa. The challenge of solving Beijing’s problems can be deduced from examples in the Japanese experience. First, it is clear that Beijing cannot solve the problem alone. Any effort to combat pollution will require the cooperation of Hebei and Shanxi provinces.

The following projects are being undertaken under the leadership of the central government: (1) the promotion and expansion of water-efficient irrigation in agriculture, (2) the construction of sewage treatment plants and the improvement or closure of dozens of polluting paper mills and leather factories, (3) the return of farmland upstream of the Guanting Reservoir back to forest or grassland in order to prevent rain-driven soil erosion, and (4) the promotion of environmentally sound agriculture in harmony with the ecosystem and the use of this agriculture as a touristic resource. Through these efforts the government aims to achieve Grade III or if possible Grade II water quality standards in the Guanting Reservoir.

The government’s target is to maintain water volume in the Guanting Reservoir at 300 million tons during normal years and 60 million tons even in drought years. It was for this reason that in September 2003, 30 million tons of water was diverted by canal from the Cetian Reservoir in Shanxi Province to the Guanting Reservoir. This was the first time Beijing ever diverted water from another province or municipality. The Cetian Reservoir is located 50 km southeast of Datong in Shanxi Province, and with a storage capacity of 580 million tons, it is the province’s second largest dam and is located 196 km from the Guanting Reservoir. Because of the lack of adequate water volume in the Guanting Reservoir, there is also a drop of water volume in the rivers downstream.

At a glance, one can see a river without water when one visits the Yongding River southwest of Beijing, by the Lugou Bridge (also known as the Marco Polo Bridge), which also was a cause of outbreaks during the Japan–China war. It was visited in the thirteenth century by Marco Polo, who praised it as the most beautiful bridge in the world. Anyone who goes to the site today, however, can see that the river has completely dried up.

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