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A Tale of Two Water Supplies in China: Finding Practical Solutions to Urban and Rural Water Supply Problems
journal contribution
posted on 2019-03-13, 18:36 authored by Er Bei, Xiaomei Wu, Yu Qiu, Chao Chen, Xiaojian ZhangConspectusAccess to safe drinking water is among the 17 United Nations sustainable
development goals. As the largest developing country, China has confronted
large challenges to providing safe and sufficient drinking water to
its population of 1.4 billion under the conditions of limited water
sources and ubiquitous water contamination.This Account outlines
these challenges as well as the practical
solutions implemented by Chinese water professionals. We first provide
a general introduction of the water supply in China. Next, we describe
the main challenges of water source shortages and source water contamination.
The practical solutions developed by Chinese water professionals are
the core part of this Account, to which we have devoted ourselves
to and contributed in some issues and cases.The water supply
in China is a binary system that reflects the
gap between urban and rural communities. Both urban and rural water
supplies have been subject to water source shortages and contamination.
Water shortages are mainly solved by long-distance water transportation
projects. Urban water utilities generally pay attention to organic
matter, ammonia, algae, and chemical spills in source water while
also focusing on micro-organisms and disinfection byproducts in tap
water. Micro-organisms are a widespread concern for rural water supplies,
whereas arsenic, fluoride, and ammonia are an endemic concern in some
rural communities. Investment in updating of treatment processes significantly
benefits urban water supplies, and advanced treatment of ozonation
and biologically activated carbon processes are now commonly used
to ensure that strict drinking water quality standards are met. However,
this is not the case for rural water supplies, where expensive advanced
treatment is not affordable. Thus, improving rural water supplies
requires approaches such as searching for sources with better water
quality, using automated ultrafiltration instruments, or connecting
to urban water supply distribution systems. For rural areas with high
concentrations of arsenic or fluoride in source water, specific adsorbents
are a practical way to help farmers.Similar challenges will
be encountered elsewhere in the world;
therefore, the practical solutions applied in China will be useful
to other countries in different stages of development.
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water contamination.This Account outlineswater transportation projectsRural Water Supply Problems ConspectusAccessUrban water utilitiesdrinking water quality standardsdrinking watersource watercases.The water supplywater supplieswater supply distribution systemsChinese water professionals17 United Nationswater source shortagessource water contamination
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