Northern China has long-standing water scarcity problems. In September 2008, after four-plus years of construction on a $2 billion 191-mile waterway, the city of Beijing began receiving water from the less populated southern regions of China. While the North-South pipeline will briefly ease the region’s water shortages, the Chinese government’s official news agency recently said the capital’s water supply could again reach a crisis point as early as 2010 due to population growth and rising domestic water consumption. Probe International, a Canadian environmental group, estimated that with Beijing’s water reservoirs down to one- tenth of their capacity, two-thirds of Beijing’s.
