China faces environmental challenges, across the board.
“Whether it’s air quality, or water quality or availability, or land degradation, China’s facing a very serious set of problems,” said Elizabeth Economy of the Council on Foreign Relations.
She testified Thursday before the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.
“But, I think, if you were to ask anybody in China what the most serious environmental challenge that they face is, they would focus on the issue of water,” she added. “About one third of the water that flows through China’s seven major river systems and their tributaries is not even suitable for agriculture or industry. [About] 300 million people drink contaminated water on a daily basis. [Of that number] 190 million of those, and these are Chinese statistics, 190 million of those drink water so contaminated that it is making them sick.”