Introduction

Millions of Chinese people are drinking water unfit for human consumption. Many people have not drunk tap water in years, preferring instead to load up on bottled water, worried whether their water is safe to drink. As stated by Gleick (2009),

China’s water resources are over allocated, inefficiently used, and grossly polluted by human and industrial wastes to the point that vast stretches of rivers are dead and dying, lakes are cesspools of waste, groundwater aquifers are over-pumped and unsustainably consumed, uncounted species of aquatic life have been driven to extinction, and direct adverse impacts on human and ecosystem health are widespread and growing. […] The major watersheds of the country all suffer severe pollution.

p. 79 According to China Water Risk (https://www.chinawaterrisk.org" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">chinawaterrisk.org), the availability of water in China has not only been taken for granted but is greatly overestimated, and problems of its scarcity are largely overlooked. China Water Risk reports that while being home to roughly 20 per cent of the world’s population, China only has 7 per cent of the world’s freshwater reserves. Water is required for agriculture, the generation of thermal power, washing of ores, and the production and manufacturing of metals, semiconductors, food, beverages, paper, chemicals, plastics, and much more. In particular the demand for agricultural products has increased tremendously, and at 61 per cent agriculture is the largest user of water. Moreover, 38 per cent of agricultural and 51 per cent of industrial output, amounting to CNY 46 trillion, is produced in water-scarce regions.