China¡¯s Looming Conflict Between Energy and Water
China¡¯s growing thirst for energy is driving increased exploitation of inland resources. At Yale Environment 360, Christina Larson examines the environmental implications of China¡¯s ¡®West-to-East Coal-Power Diversion¡¯ plan, and explains why ¡°energy and water must be planned for together.¡±
The country¡¯s top leaders have made provisions for both increasing overall coal production and easing the coal-transportation bottleneck. The most recent Five-Year Plan, the central government¡¯s primary planning document, calls for significantly increasing coal production, which will be achieved by developing and expanding 14 large ¡°coal-industry bases¡± across western China; these bases will include facilities for coal mining, petrochemical processing, and coal-fired power plants ¡.
Yet, in expanding coal-industry bases in west China, one crucial challenge has so far received far less attention than it deserves: Coal-based industries are massively water-intensive (in fact, coal mining, coal-based power generation, and petrochemical processing together account for more than one-fifth of China¡¯s total water usage). And much of western China is already short on water ¡ª think Gobi desert and camels, as opposed to Pearl River Delta rice paddies. ¡°The west of China is an environmentally fragile area,¡± says Professor Wang Xiujun, who conducts research on climate and precipitation jointly for the Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography and the University of Maryland. ¡°There¡¯s not much water to spare.¡±
See also Economic Observer (via CDT) on problems with the south¡¯s inter-province electricity trade last year, after water and coal shortages in Guizhou forced power rationing in the industrial Pearl River Delta.