The study explores the relationship between the past economic development strategies and current water shortage in the Gansu Province, Northwestern China by examining the evidence from two cities, i.e., Jinchang(金昌） and Zhangye(张掖), which adopted different economic development strategies since 1949. The study presents the statistics together with the interview wesults during a fieldwork conducted in September 2008. The results of this study revealed that the large-scale development led by a proactive developmental state in the environmentally fragile areas in the fundamental reason of water stress and related environmental issues in the region.
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