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| dried up well, Yunnan Province |
drought conditions. However, China is about to eclipse California, the world's eighth largest economy, once again. The country's ministry of water found that 55% of China's rivers that existed in the 1990's have dried up. That's right--disappeared. More than 400 cities are short of water supplies with 110 facing serious scarcity. Most of the water supply is in the country's south. Northern cities have had to dig deeper wells, but the underground supply is running out. Beijing residents in one neighborhood (Haidan district) are taking matters into their own hands and digging wells in the street next to their homes. Most surface water is polluted by development and industry. It is nearly redundant to mention that China is the world's most populous country with one-fifth of the globe's human population. Its economy will soon eclipse the United States' as the world's biggest. China only has 7% of the worlds freshwater reserves.
Unlike developing countries facing water shortages, China has the means to do something about it. One way to mitigate the consequences of drought is too reduce the use of domestic water supplies or to achieve the same end outsource water-intensive agriculture. China has been acquiring land across Africa for the last two decades. It is doing the same in South America. Historically, water has been the cause of wars; Sumerians fought over it in the Fertile Crescent. Now, China is poised to commandeer the upper Mekong basin for its use, and upsetting India, Myanmar and poor Bangladesh. Only one of those countries is a nuclear power. 47% of the world's non-polar fresh water is supplied by rivers shared by two or more states simultaneously. Nevermind religion, water is a necessity of life and countries will do what they can to obtain enough supply