The Importance Of Water Scarcity In China

Where there is water, there is life. Water is not only essential for creatures to live on this planet, but also very significant to the economic development of households, communities and nations. Water shortage is worldwide problem. How to utilize water resource sustainably has become one of the foci for the whole society. Northern China faces serious water shortage, where water resources have been overexploited for a long time, rivers became dried, the underground water was over exploited, and the river ecology and environment became deteriorated (Lu et al，2014; Deng & Zhao, 2014). The water scarcity is partly because of the falling supply, but even more because of the rising water demand from different sectors. Since agriculture is the main

When the price of water is low and not reflects its market value, there will be little or no benefit from saving water. It is necessary to recognize product attributes of water resources and reflect its scarcity through the market mechanism, and promote water conservation and protection through the price leverage. The significance of irrigation water pricing lies in that it not only made farmers aware of the economic value of water and its scarcity, but also motivate them to think about transferring to a more productive cropping pattern (Adusumilli et al, 2011). From the experience of the past 10 years in some areas in the north, the pricing mechanism for water conservation has played a significant role in promoting water saving. Many researchers have studied the water price elasticity and its influence on water utility. Previous irrigation water price studies in several countries have revealed that demand for irrigation water is inelastic because the price is too low (Ogg et al, 1989; Schoengold et al, 2007). Meanwhile, simulation analysis showed that when the price of water was raised to a relatively high level, reforming water pricing can induce water savings (Huang et

And even more than one-third of the overdraft was from deep wells. The deep groundwater table drops significantly and has exceeded 2 m per year in some areas (Wang et al, 2005). So it is urgent to take measures to deal with groundwater overdraft and at the same time protect agriculture productivity to secure food supply. Some researchers find that energy plays a significant role in deep groundwater extracting. As energy is an important input in agriculture which is used to extract groundwater for irrigation (Schoengold & Zilberman 2007; Dumler et al, 2009). Since agriculture production requires energy to pump groundwater, so the rising energy prices may affect the groundwater extraction and crop choice decisions that farmers made. Many studies have investigated the relationship between energy price and water demand. India and Mexico are typical countries for groundwater management. Badiani and Jessoe empirically analyze how the electricity subsidies will affect on groundwater extraction and agricultural production in India (Badiani et al,2013). Some researches use interviews and survey data trying to figure out the relationship between energy and groundwater extraction (Birner et al. 2007; Scott & Shah 2004). There is also theoretical model analyzing the effects of rising energy prices on the economics of water in agriculture, and the