缺水威胁中国经济增长 Shortages threaten to hamper growth

Water has become a critical issue for China, as the world’s second-largest economy copes with falling water tables and increasingly severe shortages.

水资源已成为中国的一个至关重要的问题，这个全球第二大经济体正在应对地下水位不断下降和缺水日益严重的局面。

The country has 20 per cent of the world’s population but only 7 per cent of its fresh water supply. It is one of the most water-poor economies in the world.

中国拥有全球20%的人口，但淡水供应仅占全球的7%。中国是全球水资源最为匮乏的国家之一。

The problem has become more apparent as China grows. In the latest water squeeze, the city of Kunming – a provincial capital of 5m in the south – is to ration urban consumption for the next eight months.

随着中国的增长，这一问题已变得更为明显。在水资源短缺的最新事例中，未来8个月，南部地区的云南省省会、拥有500万人口的昆明市将对城市用水进行限量供应。

Car washing, public baths and gardens will all see their supplies limited, and city residents will be encouraged to conserve.

洗车业、公共洗浴场所和花园的用水都将受到限制，同时将鼓励城市居民节约用水。

Kunming’s woes are a small drop in the pond relative to the wider problem.

相对于更广泛的问题，昆明的困境不过是冰山一角。

“The shortage of fresh water will be the main constraint on economic growth,” says Limin Wang, WWF’s China programme leader for the HSBC Climate Partnership.

世界自然基金会(WWF)中国分会总监、汇丰与气候伙伴同行(HSBC Climate Partnership)项目负责人王利民表示：“淡水资源短缺将成为制约经济增长的主要因素。”

President Hu Jintao has drawn attention to the issue, saying in a recent speech that water shortages have had an impact on “China’s economic security, ecological security and national security”.

国家主席胡锦涛注意到了这一问题，他在最近的一次讲话中表示，水资源短缺已影响到了“中国的经济安全、生态安全和国家安全”。

In addition to the floods and droughts that have made headlines this year, water tables in the arid north have been falling because of overuse, a trend that is difficult to reverse.

除了今年媒体关注的洪水和干旱问题，由于过度开采，干旱的北方地区的地下水位一直在下降，这一趋势很难逆转。

The government has been trying to combat the problem with a string of policies that will boost spending on water infrastructure, tighten pollution standards and lower consumption.

中国政府一直试图通过一系列政策解决这一问题，这些政策将加大水利基础设施投入、严格污染标准并减少消耗。

This year, the symbolic “number one” policy document of the year was about rural water infrastructure, and the state council’s directives have been coming thick and fast.

今年，具有象征意义的“一号”文件就与农村水利基础设施有关，国务院一直在密集下发此类文件。

Beijing has budgeted a colossal Rmb4,000bn for water projects over the next 10 years, including for rural irrigation, flood control, water supply and conservation.

中国政府已拨出高达4万亿元人民币的预算，用于未来10年的水资源项目，包括农村灌溉、防洪、水资源供应和节水。

But most of this year’s polices are simply bigger versions of the same measures that have been tried before, and have left analysts wondering when – not if – China’s water crisis will reach the point at which it begins to hobble the economy.

但是，今年大多数政策不过是以往曾尝试过的政策的扩大版，这让分析人士猜测，中国的水资源危机何时（而非“是否”）将达到开始制约中国经济的程度。

Politics is partly to blame, because no single ministry can directly control the numerous water systems.

这在一定程度上要归咎于政治，因为没有哪一个单独的部委能够直接控制众多的水资源系统。

In Chinese, the water-related ministries are known as the “nine dragons,” after the nine groups that are involved – including the ministry of water resources, the ministry of environmental protection, and the ministry of agriculture.

在中文里，与水资源相关的部委被称为“九龙”，包括水利部、环境保护部和农业部等9个部门。

Agriculture consumes most of China’s water, as crop irrigation has spread to help meet growing demand for food. “[China’s] social and ecological development has been seriously affected by water,” says Jiang Liping of the World Bank. “Water is really short, which has a big impact on food security.”

农业消耗了中国大部分的水资源，因为为了帮助满足日益上升的食品需求，农作物灌溉面积已扩大。“水资源严重影响了（中国的）社会和生态发展，”世界银行(World Bank)的蒋礼平表示，“水资源确实短缺，这对食品安全有着重大影响。”

Rising food prices and China’s increasing reliance on imports of soya beans and corn have pushed food security further up the political agenda, providing further impetus for water reform.

不断上涨的食品价格以及中国对进口大豆和玉米日益严重的依赖，将食品安全提到了政治议程上更高的位置，这为水资源改革提供了更多的推动力。

Industries such as coal washing, textile dyeing or pulp mills are also water-intensive, and industrial use counts for about one-fifth of demand.

洗煤、纺织染色、纸浆等行业也属于水资源密集型产业，工业用水约占水资源需求的五分之一。

If the government has its way, water scarcity will play a role in reorienting the economy, as water-consuming manufacturers of textiles or paper are slowly forced to make their production more efficient.

如果政府按照自己的意愿行事，那么水资源短缺将对经济转型起到一定作用，因为耗水型纺织厂或造纸厂正慢慢被迫提高生产效率。

Water pricing will be crucial to making those changes happen.

水资源定价将在完成这些改革方面起到关键作用。

“China’s water tariff in big cities has risen 67.8 per cent, to 2.68 yuan per cubic metres from 2002 to this June,” explains Zhong Lijin, water specialist at the World Resources Institute in Beijing.

“从2002年到今年6月，中国大城市的水费上涨67.8%，达到每立方米2.68元人民币，”世界资源研究所(WRI)驻北京水资源专家钟丽锦解释道。

“But the current tariff is still very low, considering pollution treatment costs. The ratio between the water tariff and disposables income is lower than that of other countries.”

“但考虑到污染治理成本，目前的水价仍很低。水费占居民可支配收入的比率低于其它国家。”

One bright spot is that many of China’s industrial and agricultural practices are inefficient relative to global peers, so there is enormous scope for improvements in efficiency.

一个积极因素在于，与全球同业相比，中国很多工农业技术实践仍较为低效，所以效率还有很大的提升空间。

Beijing has recognised this by announcing a Herculean-sounding goal: halving water consumption per unit of gross domestic product from 2008 levels by 2020.

中国政府认识到了这一点，宣布了一个听上去有些艰巨的目标：到2020年，将把单位国内生产总值(GDP)的用水量从2008年的水平上减半。

The journey so far has not been easy. On the banks of beautiful Lake Tai, a persistent cyanobacteria algae bloom bears testament to the difficulties of managing China’s water sector.

迄今为止，这条路走的并不轻松。在美丽的太湖沿岸，持续疯长的蓝藻证明了管理中国水资源行业的难度。

Despite years of work and millions of dollars spent trying to clean up the lake, it still has a toxic algae bloom every year.

尽管经过多年的努力，并斥资数百万美元用于太湖整治，但太湖每年仍有大量蓝藻繁殖。

People involved in the clean-up efforts say the situation is improving. But like other water-management projects in China, progress is slow.

参与太湖整治工作的人士表示，情况正在好转。但与中国其它水治理项目一样，进展并不快。