Abstract
With a population of over twenty-one million people, Beijing is one of the largest cities in the world. The centralization of such a large population has drastically impacted the availability of resources, especially water. Water insecurity is exacerbated by increasing demand, water pollution, urban flooding, climate change, over-exploited groundwater and minimal surface water access. As Beijing inches closer to day zero, the implication of running out of water on human rights, population health and socio-economic development has raised justified alarm. The Central Chinese and Beijing municipal governments have done substantive work in the past decade to reduce water insecurity through projects such as the south-north water transfer project, utilizing wastewater and water pricing. Although these are important measures, they are not adequate to address the need for equitable distribution of water or growing demand. To ensure both conditions, a more holistic water management approach needs to be taken to avoid Beijing’s day zero. Going forward, Beijing needs to expand on existing working policies by adopting integrated water resource management. Coordination and collaboration must exist between stakeholders to unify efforts to ensure a water secure future for Beijing.
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Hayward, C., Mohamud, M., Swatuk, L. (2022). A Pathway for Beijing: Avoiding ‘Day Zero’. In: Swatuk, L., Cash, C. (eds) The Political Economy of Urban Water Security under Climate Change . International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-08108-8_6
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