Latest comments posted about Sharing water and cutting pollution on ChinaDialogue en-gb http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/209-Sharing-water-and-cutting-pollution http://staging.chinadialogue.net/images/cdlogo.gif http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/show/single/en/209-Sharing-water-and-cutting-pollution Feng Yongfeng's describes central government policy as being: “the amount of water that should be used is based on the scale of the drainage area” I wonder what "scale" they mean. Surely not hectares; surely more like "what the drainage area can absorb through industrial , agricultural and domestic use". If that is the case, then the policy amounts just to "there should be as much water consumed as is desired by the people and factories". Feng Yongfeng concentrates on the question of _distribution_ of water, not the question of the overall quantity. Distribution, of course, leads to conflict, so this focus seems right. But if the distribution questions were settled, would the water-use be sustainable. And if the total number of litres available for hmanity - or for China - is sustainable, can it be effectively re-cycled? Is there a water expert here who can tell us what the efficiency of water-treatment typically is? For every 100 litres of clean water that goes into Beijing, how many litres of clean water come out of the treatement plants? And where does the "waste" actually go - eevaporation, groundwater, etc. Does it eventually find its way back into the water cycle? Is water quite different in this way from oil? Is it true that very few of our processes involving water actually destroy the H2O - rather we mix it with sometimes unsavoury other stuff. If the level of consumption is sustainable, distribution issues can be solved by the sorts of compensation schemes describes. tony Tue, 25 Jul 2006 16:06:25 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/209#comment-172 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/209#comment-172 The viewpoint in this article is very interesting. But the key point is that the government should pay attention to this issue, or it will just be empty talk. Thu, 20 Jul 2006 20:51:13 -0400 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/209#comment-170 http://www.chinadialogue.net/article/summary/209#comment-170