Editorials

Use rainwater properly

(China Daily)
Updated: 2011-06-25 07:21

Heavy rain pounded Beijing on Thursday afternoon, leaving many parts of the city waterlogged. Beijing is not the only city unable to withstand a heavy downpour this summer. Rain has submerged cities like Shanghai, Hangzhou, Nanchang, Wuhan and Jinan, too.

Beijing's sewer system failed to drain out the rainwater on Thursday, disrupting normal life. This should prompt city authorities to take measures to improve the sewer system.

The drainage systems in cities seem to be suffering from developmental ills. Why else would they remain the same when skyscrapers, futuristic buildings and labyrinthine overpass networks have been changing cities' landscapes constantly?

In Beijing and other cities, which are full of bitumen-covered roads and cemented ground surface, most of the rainwater runs off into rivers or the sea. This waste of precious freshwater could be prevented if Beijing authorities harvested rainwater by building catchments.

Beijing's population is rising rapidly, and it is becoming increasingly difficult for the authorities to meet people's demand for water. To meet the demand of Beijing and other areas in North China, the central government is spending $62 billion on the South-North Water Transfer Project to divert water from the Yangtze River.

Rainwater harvesting could ease the pressure on the Yangtze water transfer project, and avoid many environmental problems that such large-scale projects often create.

Rainwater is a valuable natural resource, which can be collected in catchments and treated for different use, especially in areas that have few sources of good quality groundwater or surface water but receive abundant rainfall.

Rainwater harvesting will not only prevent city streets from being waterlogged, but also supply freshwater during emergencies and dry spells. It will reduce the pressure on groundwater, too.

By harvesting rainwater, the authorities will create an alternative source of water to meet the demands of cities such as Beijing at a much lower cost than other projects.

Rainwater harvesting is a practice followed in many parts of the world. Singapore, for instance, cannot source its water from rivers or lakes. Yet it always has adequate water to meet the needs of its people. Rainwater is one of the main sources of water for Singapore - to be precise, it gets 47 percent of its freshwater from catchments.

Chinese cities have been facing many problems, most of which is the result of poor planning. Water shortage is one of them. The authorities can now change that and meet the demand for water by searching for alternate solutions like rainwater.

(China Daily 06/25/2011 page5)