Water scarcity spurs China's reuse development

摘要

A severe lack of water in China's northern region hasrnnecessitated the need to explore alternative resources,rnsuch as the reuse of wastewater for non-potablernpurposes, Bill McCann looks at some of the reuse schemesrnunderway at both local and national levels.rnA lthough blessed with a high level of total water resources, China's massive 1.3 billion population puts the country much further down the global list when it conies to per capita availability. In its dry northern region many of the towns and cities in the major river basins are in conditions of chronic water shortage. According to national data for 2008, average availability in the Liaohe,Yellow River, Huaihe and Haihe basins for example amounted to just 711,510,443 and 164mV person/year respectively.