Abstract
China is confronted with an unprecedented water crisis regarding its quantity and quality. In this study, we quantified the dynamics of China’s embodied water use and chemical oxygen demand (COD) discharge from 2010 to 2015. The analysis was conducted with the latest available water use data across sectors in primary, secondary and tertiary industries and input–output models. The results showed that (1) China’s water crisis was alleviated under urbanisation. Urban consumption occupied the largest percentages (over 30%) of embodied water use and COD discharge, but embodied water intensities in urban consumption were far lower than those in rural consumption. (2) The ‘new normal’ phase witnessed the optimisation of China’s water use structures. Embodied water use in light-manufacturing and tertiary sectors increased while those in heavy-manufacturing sectors (except chemicals and transport equipment) dropped. (3) Transformation of China’s international market brought positive effects on its domestic water use. China’s water use (116–80 billion tonnes (Bts)) and COD discharge (3.95–2.22 million tonnes (Mts)) embodied in export tremendously decreased while its total export values (11–25 trillion CNY) soared. Furthermore, embodied water use and COD discharge in relatively low-end sectors, such as textile, started to transfer from international to domestic markets when a part of China’s production activities had been relocated to other developing countries.
Highlights
Water crisis has been announced as the 4th global risk with regard to its impact on the society (World Economic Forum, 2019)
Its direct water use accounted for approximately 70% (369 Bts/534 Bts in 2010 and 385/540 Bts in 2015) of China’s total amounts, but embodied water use in this sector only took up about 20% (110/534 Bts in 2010 and 103/540 Bts in 2015) of the total, which underlined the irreplaceable role that agriculture played as a dominant producer sector in the virtual water supply chain
Embodied water use and chemical oxygen demand (COD) discharge in construction skyrocketed during 2010–2015 as developing infrastructure construction and real estate enabled a boost to the national economy (Giang and Pheng 2011)
Summary
Water crisis has been announced as the 4th global risk with regard to its impact on the society (World Economic Forum, 2019). The world’s per capita freshwater capacity has dropped 26% within 25 years (1992–2017) (Ripple et al 2017), whereas the water demand was projected to increase by 55% from 2015 to 2050 (IRENA 2015). In 2015, diseases caused by water pollution and unsafe water sources have claimed responsibility for approximately 1.8 million deaths globally (Landrigan et al 2018). China’s remarkable achievements in its accelerating economy sacrifice aquatic environments, attributing to serious resource depletion and water pollution (Guan et al 2014, Zhang et al 2019). By 2018, 27.6% of its surface water sites had not met Grade III quality standards, the threshold of water quality that enables human beings to swim in (MEEC 2018)
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