Farmers Pay the Price for Decades of Water Waste in China

AS CHINA’S 15-day lunar new year holiday began, Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, was in the plush Swiss resort of Davos, hobnobbing with other global powerbrokers. Towards the end of the holiday on February 8th, he appeared in a very different setting. Sporting a pair of smart white trainers, he strode through a grain field in the village of Yangbei, Henan province. He squatted down to talk to local farmers to offer them help to see them through a severe drought that now plagues Henan and six other provinces in northern and central China.

After 100 days without precipitation in the region, the government has declared a “Level 1” emergency for the worst drought in 50 years, authorising an extra 300m yuan ($44m) in special drought-relief spending. It will finance everything from cloud-seeding rockets to the digging of new wells and tankers to deliver water. This year’s winter-wheat harvest is at risk. February 8th saw some rain, but only 5-10 millimetres, compared with 200mm farmers say they need in coming months.

The drought comes at a difficult moment. The global downturn has hit China’s exporters hard, and millions of rural migrants have lost their jobs in coastal factories and returned to their villages. Mr Wen pleased local farmers with what he had to say. They have already received help from the government, which last year invested in a new deep well. Like many of her neighbours, Fang Yue-ling, a farmer, was confident such high-profile promises would presage more assistance.

As population and living standards rise, such virtues will not be enough. China’s water woes will only worsen, especially for farmers. When supplies tighten, urban and industrial users usually have priority. Ma Jun, a water specialist in Beijing, says that since the 1950s China has been digging ever deeper wells, and building ever more dams, canals, and water diversion projects. But all this has taken a toll. Because of lower water-tables and depleted aquifers, many rivers can no longer replenish themselves in the dry season. The government’s current emergency measures are necessary in the short term. But he argues that in the long term the focus must shift to conservation, efficiency, and more rational pricing so that city users pay their fair share. He concedes the Red Flag Canal is a “genuine miracle” and that there is a role for other grand projects. But, looking ahead, he argues that, in China’s ability to go on tampering with its natural-water resources, “we have reached our limit”.

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Source: The Economist