hat desalination consumes more energy and bears a much higher price tag. However, the unit water cost of desalination is actually cheaper than that of the South-to-North Water Diversion project. Many coastal cities, including Tianjin, Qingdao, and Dalian, have integrated desalination into their middle-to-long term blueprints as an alternative water resource.
Carbon footprint of desalinization depends on the type of energy source used to power the distillation or reverse osmosis process. Lower carbon footprint could be achieved with wind, solar PV, and nuclear power.
PJZ: Cities in northern China should consider looking beyond water diversion. Long transportation of water has a lot of risk in terms of water quality, the unknown ecological impact but we would need more analysis to compare the options.
CWR: What do you see as the trend in China around any reforms in water governance and potentially institutional capacity around managing water allocations among various regions and uses?
PJZ: I am not an expert in this area, but the direction should be toward stakeholder participation, with all end users, suppliers, officials, civil society involved in any decisions.
CWT: Our research to date has focused on the water/greenhouse gas implications of power generation technologies. We have not tackled issues relating to water governance. However, given China’s rapid urbanization, our future interests will be centered around water/energy issues in the urban context. In many emerging middle-sized cities, a considerable amount of electricity is used to purify and transport potable water, and to treat wastewater at wastewater treatment plants. Better energy and water management will be crucial to meet this increasing demand