This month, Science reports that if China continues on its current path of agricultural groundwater consumption in the North China Plain, it will lose its ability to feed 10% of its 1.3 billion person population in the coming decades.
The government is realizing that the 60 Billion Euro Yangtze diversion project to bring water from South to North will not be enough. Now 200 million Euros are being spent on groundwater research to better understand the problems and come up with vialbe solutions with a longer term vision to promote water efficency.
Of all of China's environmental woes, the biggest threat to livelihoods and food security may be looming water shortages. China's freshwater resources amount to 2220 cubic meters per person, just a quarter of the world average. For years, the central government focused on declining river flows and rising pollution, largely ignoring what has now become an acute problem: vanishing groundwater. The outlook is especially dire on the North China Plain, an area encompassing six provines and the Beijing and Tianjin metro areas.
Read more here: http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/summary/sci;328/5985/1462-a?maxtoshow=&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=china&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=0&issue=5985&resourcetype=HWCIT
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