ABSTRACT
Despite official statements that many of the problems concerning water pollution have been resolved, people are sceptical about what they are being told, comparing the official discourse to their own personal experiences. On March 14, 2014 the Ministry of Environmental Protection released a report stating that there were an estimated 280 million residents using unsafe drinking water in China. According to Lin (2014b), the situation is even worse in rural areas than in the cities, as approximately 110 million people in the vast rural areas lack access to clean drinking water. In the eyes of the public, this report, along with the slew of water pollution scandals that have been exposed and subjected to intense media scrutiny, has cast doubts on the government’s ability to guarantee safe drinking water.
