No water to waste

China dedicated the week from March 22-28 to water when World Water Day was observed on Tuesday, to focus public attention on its critical H2O issues.

Water availability and water quality have become pressing social issues. Many areas - especially in the north where 50 percent of the population lives with only 15 percent of China's water - are running low on water. Southern China has a relative abundance of water, getting more than 2,000 millimeters a year of rainfall. In the north - where 20 million people live in Beijing and 12 million live in Tianjin - the average rainfall is just 200 mm to 400 mm a year.

But not every Chinese knows that water is a scare resource. China supports 20 percent of the world population with only 7 percent of the world's water. The country's water resources are only about 25 percent of the world average per capita.