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DAM-L South China Morning Post "Northern cities sinking as water table (fwd)

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Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2001 10:20:31 -0700 (PDT)
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Subject: South China Morning Post "Northern cities sinking as water table 

falls"
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South China Morning Post
Saturday  August 11  2001
Northern cities sinking as water table falls

MICHAEL MA

Overuse of groundwater has caused the water-table level in northern China to
drop substantially over the past five years, posing a serious threat to the
region's water supply, according to government sources.

According to the latest report on China's groundwater, the water table under
the vast northern plain that feeds the Yellow, Hai and Huai rivers dropped
between 1996 and last year due to exploitation of resources and decreasing
rainfall.

The report revealed that the water table in Beijing's northern and eastern
suburbs dropped by as much as three metres last year. In Hebei province, in
the centre of the north China plain, the average level of its deep aquifer
declined 2.91 metres and in drought-stricken cities including Handan and
Xingtai, the water table fell more than six metres.

The water table has declined so rapidly in these areas that they have
resorted to funnelling water from aquifers in neighbouring areas.

'The underground water funnels in Hebei province and Beijing and Tianjin
city have joined with those in northern Henan and western Shandong to create
a 'super funnel' covering an area of 40,000-square-kilometres,' the report
said.

Issued in the name of the Ministry of Land and Resources, the report was
actually drafted by the Ministry's Geological Environment Monitoring
Institute. With data reported by monitoring stations in various provinces
and cities around China, the institute drafts water-table reports for
China's decision-makers.

He Qingcheng, director of the institute's groundwater monitoring team, urged
government leaders and the public to pay attention to the expansion of
groundwater funnels in the region.

Mr He said the rapid decline in the non-replenishable deep aquifer water
meant the area was quickly losing its last supply source. He said the deep
aquifer should only be used in extremely dry years as an emergency measure.

Mr He said the declining water table had forced local people to abandon
established wells and drill deeper wells at a higher cost.

A more severe impact, he said, was the drop in groundwater quality.
According to the report, the groundwater in most of north China's cities is
polluted. The dwindling groundwater meant the concentration of minerals and
harmful chemicals was increased, Mr He said.

He said sometimes local governments were reluctant to release sensitive data
on individual places for fear it would cause confusion.

Zhang Kewen, an engineer in charge of groundwater monitoring in Hebei
province, said in some areas exploitation had resulted in extra amounts of
fluoride in the water.

The eastern part of Beijing, which has many high-rise office blocks, is
subsiding due to groundwater exploitation. Mr He said the sinkage in the
neighbouring city of Tianjin was even more serious.

-end

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