China's Water Pollution Growing To Critical Mass Within 5 Years - Possible Canadian Solution
I just spotted this article by World Technology Watch, and due to the huge implications, I asked for, and received permissionIn from the author to republish it here. Keep in mind China has 20% of the world's people but only 5% of the world's fresh water. Ten years ago China began building a 1,200 mile canal from South China which has most of the country's fresh water to North China which has most of China's huge population. This project was one of the many unrealized projects originally envisioned by Chairman Mao Zedong who passed away in 1976. But now many believe his solution for China's fressh water problem, may actually not only make matters worse, but also double the nations's cancer rate and endanger China's water security.After reading this article, I asked myself if the next war would be fought over water instead of oil? Read for yourself and see what you think...
In 2015 China is slated to begin diverting over 44 billion metric tons of water every year from South to North China in one of the biggest engineering projects in history, and even more complex than the great wall itself. The environmental impact of this project is predicted to be extremely damaging to local agriculture and wildlife, but there are far greater concerns. Why? Because almost all of the water being sent North is heavily polluted from industrial, agricultural, and animal waste, and what will be transferred is waterborne carcinogens like mercury, dioxins, etc. In short all the water being transferred up North will be of level III or IV quality which is not even suitable for irrigation purposes if not properly treated first. FYI... Level I is tap water and Level V is toxic. If used on crops, this transported contaminated water would not only kill the crops within days, but taint the soil so badly that any future seedlings would not take root or be badly deformed and contaminated if they managed to do so.
With a growing population of 1.5 billion thirsty and hungry citizens, China cannot afford to risk poisoning 35% of it's crops that will be irrigated from this huge 2,000 kilometer canal that will also feed into the water supply of 18 major cities with a collective population of over 700 million people. One only needs to look at Chongqing which is nestled between the three great rivers of China to understand the human risk involved. According to the World Health Organization, Chongqing has the second highest cancer rates in China due to the waterborne carcinogens. Even the city's tap water contains dangerous levels of mercury and arsenic. Then consider that over 3 tons of local river fish are consumed every day in Chongqing. These fish, when examined by Tsinghua biology students in 2008 were found to be contaminated with over 300% the safe limit of 4 different carcinogens. The report was so shocking that the university was not allowed to publish nor sidtribute their results. SInce 2008, industrial growth has actually caused the contamination in those three rivers to increase 12%. The situation has grown worse, not better.
So the engineering marvel of the century may be overshadowed by the negative impact it could have if the water is not properly treated at its source before it begins its trancontinemntal journey through 9 provinces. A small Canadian company called Pacific Blue Solutions offers the best hope of minimizing the spread of the contaminated water. They produce the only flocculant in the world that is 100% green and 95% organic. It is a natural powder taken from the Earth and treated with proprietray technology into fine grains that resemble brown sugar. When introduced into even toxic water (Level V water), it absorbs over 95% of all contaminants, even mercury and arsenic, within 10 minutes. Smelly, foul, murky, and even toxic water is transformed into almost swimming pool quality for about $6 per ton of polluted water. This makes the water immediatel safe for irrigation and for $1 per ton more they can make the water 99% pure (Level 1) which is the equivalent of bottled water.
China currently uses other German and Japanese flocculants, and even developed one of their own, but these flocculants all use chemicals and metals, and they remove only about 68% of the contamination. What's used at present removes very little of the mercury, arsenic, and other heavy metals. Further the PBS powder works 40% faster and even removes biological and chemical warfare agents like anthrax, ecoli, botulin, etc. - the others do not. At present China spends a full 1% of its Trillion dollar GDP on water treatment - the most in the world. The bottled water industryin in China is a $2 Billion dollar business that is growing at an average of 14% per year over the last decade of industrial expansion. According to a 2009 report by McKinsey and Associates, China's water situation will become "acutely critical" by the year 2020. Others at the World Health Organization say the crisis will come much sooner.
So as China's demand for clean water continues to grow, and the safe supply dwindles, water security in the booming nation will become a genuine concern and one that could be exploited or even accelerated by an enemy in time of war. Just as the Japanese poisoned the water supply of northeast China when they invaded in the 1930's, to sicken Chinese troops, this great North/South canal is quite vulnerable to sabotage by future enemies. Only effective treatment with the right flocculants provide an effective and cost effective defense for millions of citizens.
Hopefully China's leaders, will address all of the above issues before they turn open the valves in 2015 and allow 80 million gallons of contaminate water to flow North to China's greatest population centers every single day. Solving a problem at its source is always more economical as America learned the hard way with its nuclear and solid waste disposal.
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