China: Great Dragon Rising - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 328

Figure 11-19
I met this woman and her daughter in
Guangzhou. When I asked permission to take the
photograph, the woman proudly pointed to her
child and announced in English: “One child—
girl.” Photo courtesy of B. A. Weightman.

relatively rapid economic growth and population gain
through migration suggest that the development gap be-
tween coastal and inland China will continue to widen.

along with 21,000 tons of oil into the Bohai. In 1997, the
government announced that nearly one-third of the
“Mother River' s” fish species had become extinct. Fish
catches are down 40 percent. Officials blame pollution,
saying that 66 percent of the river' is water is undrinkable,
and noting that hydroelectric projects are degrading the
environment. Water-using development and persistent
drought have combined to reduce the river' s flow to the
extent that during some periods, no water reaches the
delta at all. In 2005, 4.5 billion tons of waste was dumped
into the Huang He.
In China' s coastal waters, metals in fish have risen
dramatically . Oysters have 10 times acceptable
chromium content. In many areas, fish have disappeared
altogether. The more coastal development and migration
occurs, the more marine habitat is lost or destroyed.
Increased urbanization has diverted water needed
for irrigation to non-farm use. Aquifers are being de-
pleted. Now more than 400 Chinese cities are short of
water. For example, the annual drop in the North China
Plain' s water table has increased from an average of five
feet (1.5 m) in 1993 to 9.8 feet (3 m) in 2003. Deep wells
drilled around Beijing now have to reach below the sur-
face more than half a mile (1,000 m) to get fresh water,
adding dramatically to the cost of supply . There have
been riots in the countryside as farmers contest over
water supplies.
An enormous scheme is on the topics for a
South-North water transfer. For example, water from the
Yangzi is being chanelled to the Grand Canal to feed the
water needs of the North China Plain. However, pollution

Environmental Dragons

China has a spate of environmental problems, of which
it is possible to touch on only a few here. In industrial-
ized China proper, the air is black with soot and smoke.
Only about five of China' s hundreds of cities are deemed
to have clean air. People in the iron and steel city of Bao-
tou have brittle bones and decayed teeth due to decades
of hydrogen fluoride being pumped into the air. China
has more deaths linked to pollution than any other
country .
Up to 30 percent of acid rain in Japan is linked to
sulphur dioxide from coal burning in China, where such
emissions are expected to exceed those of the entire
world by 2035. The country is buiding the equivalent of
two coal-burning plants each week. China has now sur-
passed the United States in carbon dioxide emissions.
Nearly half of China' s major river systems are seri-
ously polluted—in part because 80 percent of industrial
waste is dumped untreated into them. Shanghai' is drink-
ing water is contaminated with oil, ammonia, and nitro-
gen among other chemicals. Huge quantities of silt and
chemicals from intensive farming pour into the Y ellow
Sea. This silt is laced with heavy metals from industry .
In 1989, the Huang He dumped 751 tons of such
minerals as cadmium, zinc, arsenic, and chromium,