慘慘慘: 中國城市地下水九成遭污染

去年蘇州併入某鎮-- 我約十年前去的時候 工業區有廢水處理場. 不過是裝門面的而已

中國水資源告急，城市地下水九成遭污染

GERRY MULLANY 報道 2013年02月21日

European Pressphoto Agency

湖北潛江金華潤化工廠旁一條被污染的河流。

香港——有關中國污染問題——很多人已經稱之為危機——的最近報道聚焦北京及其他中國大城市日益惡化的空氣污染情況，引起了整個世界的關注。
不過，中國還潛藏着一個嚴重程度有可能不下於此的危險，這個危險也引起了越來越多的關註：中國糟糕的供水狀況。周二，一篇報道凸顯了該問題的普遍性，報道援引中國地質調查局官員的話說，中國城市90%的地下水已被污染，其中三分之二的城市的地下水受到了“嚴重污染”。

Danwei是 一個跟蹤中國媒體的網站，該網站指出，周二，福建省《海峽都市報》用了整個頭版來報道該問題，這是又一個中國內地媒體竭力應對環境退化問題的範例。《海峽 都市報》還指出，另一位來自北京一個研究中心的官員說明了問題的複雜性：飲用水源地所受污染，尤其是重金屬污染和持久性有機物污染，很難被傳統水處理工藝 消滅。
中國的水供應問題多種多樣。就如我的同事狄雨霏(Didi Kirsten Tatlow)上周指出的那樣，中國煤化工企業對水的需求非常大，有吸干主要河流的風險，到2015年，中國的黃河可能會損失四分之一的流量。印度及其他國家對中國在亞洲“水利霸權”表示擔心，尤其擔心中國在跨國河流上建設巨型水壩的計劃。印度作家布拉馬·切拉尼(Brahma Chellaney)認為，這些大壩“旨在向中國南方的電網輸送電能”，“環境和社會代價”卻要由下游國家承擔。隨着水資源供應日益短缺，有人認為，這種有可能演變為“水資源戰爭”的衝突將成為未來數十年亞洲外交所面臨的最嚴峻挑戰之一。
當然，中國並非唯一一個試圖在經濟增長與對水資源供應質量日益增長的擔心之間尋求平衡的國家。關於是否允許在美國利用水力壓裂方式開採天然氣的爭論 已經在美國國內造成對峙，對峙的一方是環保主義者，另一方是能源開採公司以及其他一些認為此類技術最終將使國家實現能源獨立的人。
與空氣污染問題一樣，博客作者和其他人在呼籲大家注意中國各地水質惡化問題的時候也已經更加警惕。財新網最近發佈了一張被當地人稱為“橙汁河”的照片，照片上是浙江省的大麴浜河，河水已經因為污染變成了鐵鏽色。同一系列照片中的另一張顯示，因為上游的一個非法作坊通過排污管排放紅色染料，河南洛陽的一條河被染成了紅色，一名女子正在河中取水。
這絕不僅是環保問題。只要珍貴資源出現稀缺，賺錢的機會就不會太遠。由私人資助的門戶網站“中國水危機”(China Water Risk)以探討中國日益嚴峻的水供應問題為己任，從現實的角度反映了中國所面臨的長期危機——以及投資者的機會。
“從世界層面而言，投資者都在通過對專門的水資源基金進行投資來回應水資源短缺的威脅，”網站寫道。中國預計將在未來12年內花費大約1500億美元來應對水資源短缺問題，因此，“人們將更多地關注供水設施、水處理設施及需求管理技術方面的投資機會。”

翻譯：許欣、陳柳 

 

Concerns Grow About 'Severely Polluted' Water in China's Cities

By GERRY MULLANY February 21, 2013

 

HONG KONG - The recent headlines about China's pollution problems - many are now calling it a crisis - have focused on the worsening air pollution in Beijing and other major Chinese cities, drawing worldwide attention to the issue.
But another peril, potentially as dangerous, lurks - one that is also drawing increasing notice: the poor condition of China's water supplies. On Tuesday, a report underscored just how widespread the problem is: an official with the China Geological Survey was quoted as saying that the groundwater of 90 percent of Chinese cities is polluted, with two-thirds of those cities having "severely polluted" water.


Danwei, a Web site that tracks the Chinese media, noted that the Strait Times newspaper in Fujian Province on Tuesday devoted its full front page to the issue, another example of mainland Chinese media being more aggressive in tackling environmental degradation. The newspaper also notes that another official from a Beijing research center describes the intractable nature of the problem: the polluted water is often contaminated with heavy metals whose organic byproducts are difficult to filter out through traditional water treatment systems.
The concerns about China's water supply come in myriad forms. As my colleague Didi Kirsten Tatlow pointed out last week, the thirst that the Chinese coal and chemical industries have for water risks drying up key rivers, with a quarter of the flow in China's Yellow River threatened by 2015. India and other nations are worried about China's "hydro-supremacy" on the continent, particularly plans to build huge dams on rivers that flow across international borders. These dams, the Indian author Brahma Chellaney asserts, "are designed to pump electricity into China's southern electricity grid" as nations downstream bear "the environmental and social costs." Some see such conflicts, with the potential for "water wars," as among the most delicate challenges to Asian diplomacy in coming decades as water supplies get scarcer.
China, of course, is not alone as it tries to balance economic growth with growing concern about water supply quality. The debate about whether to allow gas hydrofracking in the United States has pitted environmentalists against energy extraction companies and others who see such technology as a way to finally wean the nation from dependence on foreign energy supplies.
As with the air pollution problem, bloggers and others have grown more vigilant in calling attention to water degradation throughout China. Caixin Online recently ran a troubling photo of what locals have called "Orange Juice River" -- the Daqubang River in Zhejiang Province that has turned to a rust color because of pollution. Another in the series of pictures shows a woman drawing water from Luoyang River in Henan Province after it had been discolored by red dye from an illegal workshop upstream that had been dumping the substance from sewage pipes.
The issue is not just environmental. Where there is scarcity of precious resources, the opportunity to make money is not far behind. China Water Risk, a privately financed Web portal that examines the nation's growing water supply problems, takes a realistic look at the long-term challenges the Chinese face -- and the opportunities for investors.
"At the global level, investors have responded to the threat of water scarcity by investing in specialist water funds," the site notes. But with China expected to spend roughly $150 billion over the next 12 years to deal with water shortage issues, "increasing attention is being paid to investment opportunities in water supply infrastructure, water treatment facilities and demand management technologies."