In two decades from now China will have to move its capital from Beijing because of the lack of clean water. That's the scary conclusion some environment and planning experts in China and abroad have come to.

They point to a list of shocking statistics to back their predictions. Beijing is one of the driest cities on earth. For every drop of rain that falls, three times as much could evaporate back into the atmosphere in certain areas.

The water table sinks by at least 1 meter every year, with 90 percent of the city's underground water supply has already been contaminated by pollutants.

According to some estimates, there is more water in the Middle East than in northern China.

Water, or the lack of it, is one of the biggest problems facing the capital, and it's time everyone took the issue more seriously.

The government has acknowledged there is a crisis. Vice-Minister of Construction Qiu Baoxing was reported as having said last August: "Our country's water situation is deteriorating overall. We are standing at a crossroads."

Qiu has enormous responsibility he is in charge of a $130-billion investment program for northern China's sewage and water treatment facilities, the success of which will help determine the very future of the capital.

By far the most ambitious part of the government's plans to quench the city's thirst is the South to North Water Diversion Project. By 2010, the multibillion-dollar scheme is expected to provide Beijing 1 billion tons of water a year, pumped from the Yangtze River along a 1,277-kilometer canal.

The government has made a good start, but experts say much more need to be done.

It's time for a public water saving campaign across the capital on the subway and in buses, in schools and universities, in work places and in the media.

Developers should be banned from creating elaborate but hugely wasteful water displays outside apartment blocks and office towers.

The building of new golf courses on the outskirts of the capital should be stopped (laws have been passed to limit the number of golf courses but it seems they are rarely adhered to).

The creation of artificial lakes, for simply aesthetic reasons, should also be stopped. Foreign varieties of grass that line Beijing's roads and carpet its parks should be replaced with native grass that can survive the dry conditions without constant watering. Porous cement should be used to build new streets and pavements.

These suggestions may sound draconian but the time for half measures is over. Beijing has fallen victim to the idea of aesthetics before function, droughts, pollution and heavy industry. If action is not taken now, the city, and its people, will have to pay the price.

(China Daily 03/12/2007 page3)