Much has been made of 2008 being the
year of the “green Olympics.” In fact, for the past few years, China in general
and Beijing in particular have touted a variety of projects designed to mitigate
the environmental impact not only of the games—and the estimated 3 million
foreign and domestic visitors—but of a country and its people who are in the
process of shedding some ancient ideas and practices for a new set of modern
ideals and concerns.
On the eve of the opening ceremonies,
I found myself feeling optimistic – and likely suffering from a severe case of
Olympic fever – when I began to entertain the thought that perhaps something
good could come from China’s role as Olympic host. Could quick and massive
change be spurred by the need for good PR? Could the dozens of different
projects designed to be environmentally friendly fix existing environmental
problems while forestalling future disasters?
Because, let’s be honest, when the
subject is environmental disasters, there’s no better example than China’s water
supply.
A quick search of “China” and “water”
doused me with a much needed reality check.
As the opening
ceremonies of the Olympic Games draw near,
rural villages surrounding the city are drying up. In order to generate
enough supply to meet demand, the Beijing authorities pushed through several
infratructure projects—canals, pipes, pumps, you name it—in order to channel as
much water as possible into the city.
How much water?
To start, Beijing tapped almost 80 billion gallons of water from four reservoirs
in the nearby Hebei Province (an area already severly impacted by a decade-long
drought). In Xidayang (a farming village outside the city), a new pipeline takes
water to Beijing, bypassing the village entirely and prompting its residents to
turn their bone-dry canal into a garbage dump.
Where is all
this water going?
Well, some of
it’s headed to the rowing and canoeing venue along the Chaoebie river (dry for
over nine years), which was filled with 450 million gallons of water from the
Wenyu River 8 miles away, at a cost of about $57. By the way, that price also
gets you a fantastic fountain with a 450-foot-tall water jet. Which, I’m sure,
comforts thirsty farmers struggling to survive in the desiccated
countryside.
Only time will
tell whether Beijing’s urban infrastructure improvements will bleed out into the
surrounding countryside—and maybe improve the lives of rural residents—or spur
exponential growth in the city itself until it becomes so big it engulfs its
neighbors.
And as I sit
here and think about China’s water resource management, I’m haunted by a
friend’s description of a trip down the Yangtze river prior to the completion of
the Three Gorges Damn. She described the eerie silence as the boat she traveled
in traveled floated along a river hugged on either side by small villages and
large cities that were all completely silent: its residents evacuated because
once the taiming of the mighty river is complete, most of the houses and
buildings will be underwater. As
ther river continued along its stately route, ghost towns, one after the other,
dotted the shore.