Tag Archive for: Choke Point: China

To feed water-hungry mining industries, similar plans are in the works to supply drought-ridden regions of Australia and China.

Water-rich region, though, is getting dryer.

Clearly wary about the consequences of its rapid economic development on the environment, China has set a path over the next five years to reduce consumption of the two most important resources that power its economy— coal and water. The country plans to rein in water use and introduces new energy intensity reduction targets in pursuit of more sustainable economic growth, according to the draft proposal of the 12th Five-Year Plan, the master economic blueprint that will chart China’s development through 2015.

Authorities anticipate approval for new western line to tap energy reserves. Sparks and the blue flare of arc welders, like hot stars in the night sky, illuminate the interior of a massive water tunnel that crosses underneath the Yellow River.