China’s Unquenchable Thirst for Coal

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China’s Unquenchable Thirst for Coal. Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Aug 5, 2013.
http://www.businessweek.com/news ... as-mines-lack-water

Quote:

“Daliuta in Shaanxi province sits on top of the world’s biggest underground coal mine, which requires millions of liters of water a day for extracting, washing and processing the fuel. The town is the epicenter of a looming collision between China’s increasingly scarce supplies of water and its plan to power economic growth with coal. * * * Without enough water, coal can’t be mined

“Coal industries and power stations use as much as 17 percent of China’s water, and almost all of the collieries are in the vast energy basin in the north that is also one of the country’s driest regions.

“Desert State[:] China has about 1,730 cubic meters of fresh water per person, close to the 1,700 cubic meter-level the UN deems 'stressed.' The situation is worse in the north, where half China’s people, most of its coal and only 20 percent of its water are located. Shanxi -- the nation’s biggest coal base, with about 28 percent of production -- has per capita water resources of 347 cubic meters, less than the Middle Eastern nation of Oman. Inner Mongolia and Shaanxi, which together contribute 40 percent of coal output, have less than 1,700 cubic meters per person.

“The best opportunity is in industrial water re-use, and for the mining industry, it is of the utmost urgency,” said Junwei Hafner-Cai, a manager of RobecoSAM’s Sustainable Water fund. 'Water that has been released from the coal mines and from petrochemical plants has resulted in severe pollution on top of the water scarcity.' * * * China, which mines 45 percent of the world’s coal

"Indonesia is the largest overseas supplier of power-station coal to China, which buys as much as 45 percent of the Southeast Asian nation’s exports of the fuel.

“More efficient use would help. Chinese industry uses four to 10 times more water per unit of production than the average in developed countries, Tan wrote in a February report. Only 40 percent of industrial water is recycled, compared with 75 percent to 85 percent in developed countries, the World Bank says. China has had some success. In the late 1990s, so much water was being taken from the Yellow River, the nation’s second-longest waterway, that it dried up before reaching the sea for as much as 226 days consecutively. After quotas controlled by electronic sluice gates were implemented, the amount of water needed to generate 10,000 yuan of GDP fell to 308 cubic meters in 2006, from 1,672 cubic meters in 1990, according to the Yellow River Conservancy Commission.

“Among the biggest losers are farmers, who have to dig deeper and deeper wells to find clean water, or are forced out by local governments who see bigger economic gains from mining.

Note:
(a) summary underneath the title in print: A government drive to boost coal output is taxing water supply
(b) This report was published on the same day in Bloomberg by its staff reporter Kevin Hamlin in Beijing.
(c) "At first glance, Daliuta in northern China appears to have a river running through it. A closer look reveals the stretch of water in the center is a pond, dammed at both ends. Beyond the barriers, the Wulanmulun’s bed is dry."
(i) Daliuta  陕西省榆林市神木县 大柳塔 镇
(ii) Wulanmulun  乌兰木伦 河

* The report later mentions "Zhanggaijie village, 90 minutes from Yulin city in Shaanxi"
榆林市榆阳区金鸡滩乡 掌盖界村
(d) colliery (n): "a coal mine and its connected buildings"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/%20colliery
(e) "SUN Qingwei, director of the climate and energy campaign at Greenpeace in Beijing"
孙 庆伟
(f) "Wells drilled near Haolebaoji near Ordos by Shenhua Group, the world’s biggest coal producer, have caused groundwater levels to drop to a depth of as much as 100 meters"
(i) Haolebaoji  内蒙古自治区鄂尔多斯市乌审旗‎ 浩勒报吉 乡
(ii) 神华集团 (state-owned; Headquarters  Beijing)

(g) "Water-treatment companies Beijing Enterprises Water Group Ltd and China Everbright International Ltd"
(i) Beijing Enterprises Water Group Ltd  北控水务集团有限公司
www.bewg.com.hk/eng/global/home.htm
(ii) China Everbright International Ltd  中国光大国际有限公司
(h) China Water Risk  中國水務危機
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/China_Water_Risk

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