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Economic Growth and Challenge: China

Water availability and the north-south imbalance

  • 3 things to know
  • Component 3 Section B

Overview

Imbalance between water and farmland in China, causing land subsidence in northern Chinese cities and south-North Water Transfer Project.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

Describe the imbalance between where China's water is and where its farmland is.

Key term

How much fresh water does China have per person?

Key term

Describe the imbalance between water and farmland in China.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    How much fresh water does China have per person?

    Model answer

    China's renewable fresh water was around 2,000 m³ per person in the early 2020s, about a quarter of the world average. Northern China's figure is far lower still.

  2. 2

    Describe the imbalance between water and farmland in China.

    Model answer

    Southern China has around 80% of the country's water but under 40% of its farmland. Northern China holds most of the arable land and only about a fifth of the water.

  3. 3

    How severe is water stress in northern China?

    Model answer

    Per capita water on the North China Plain is only a few hundred cubic metres a year. Beijing and Tianjin are among the most water-stressed large cities in the world.

  4. 4

    Why did the Yellow River stop reaching the sea in the 1990s?

    Model answer

    Abstraction for irrigation and cities upstream took more water than the river carried. The lower Yellow River ran dry for 226 days in 1997.

  5. 5

    Where does northern China get much of its water?

    Model answer

    Groundwater supplies over half the water used on the North China Plain. Deep aquifers under Hebei have been pumped far faster than they recharge.

  6. 6

    What is causing land subsidence in northern Chinese cities?

    Model answer

    Excessive groundwater pumping compacts the clays beneath the North China Plain. Parts of Tianjin and Beijing have sunk by more than two metres since the 1960s.

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