The prices of water will rise over the next five years as the
nation seeks to douse the unrestrained and wasteful use by industry
and farming before a water supply crisis is coming.
Government water
officials said Tuesday the price increases will take place
gradually over the next five years to encourage water-saving
efforts.
"A considerable
fluctuation in water prices is coming because they are too
low to cover the cost of government-funded water supply projects,"
said Zhang Jiyao, vice-minister of water resources.
Experts say the
announcement means the days of unlimited water use by industries,
including the chemical, iron and steel sectors, is over.
A year ago, 1,000
tons of water taken from the Yellow River cost the same as
a bottle of mineral water, a price structure that has led
to unrestrained water use, particularly in farming irrigation.
Such irrigation
accounts for more than 70 percent of China's total water use
today, official statistics show.
To build a water-saving
society and economy in China, different prices of water will
be set for different users and trades based on the source
of the water, its quality and amount, said Chen Lei, director
of the ministry's Department of Planning and Programming.
Some major water-saving
measures, including planned water use, water rationing and
charges for excess consumption are to be put into effect as
part of the 10th Five-Year Plan (2001-05).
China faces the
world's worst scarcity of water and, as a result, a series
of consequent issues including floods, droughts and pollution,
Chen disclosed Tuesday in his report.
The new market-oriented
pricing mechanism released by Water Resources Minister Wang
Shucheng will dictate that new water prices must take into
consideration the cost of water delivery, infrastructure and
environmental protection.
The nation has
recently suffered through a series of water disasters, starting
with devastating floods in East and South China in 1998 and
1999 and continuing with the worst drought in a century last
year.
The flooding of
major rivers claimed some 4,000 lives of people in 1998-99
and wreaked havoc on regional economies. The drought then
caused heavy crop damage, with some 300 million kilograms
in grains lost.
Amid these crises,
the central government spent a record 407 billion yuan (US$
49.2 billion) on construction of more than 1,800 water-control
projects during the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996-2000) period.
Even more will
be spent in the 10th Five-Year Plan. During the period, water
infrastructure spending is expected to account for 6 percent
of China's total investment in capital construction, up from
3.8 percent in past periods, planning experts said.
(China Daily 02/21/2001)
|