China to spend $600b on water projects

Beijing plans to spend more than US$600 billion over the next 10 years, improving water use efficiency and rebuilding obsolete water conservancy projects as the increase in natural disasters threatens food security, the South China Morning Post reported. In its annual agriculture paper, the government said investment in water conservancy has been "far from adequate." The paper proposed a cap on annual water consumption at 670 billion cubic meters and requires local governments to set aside 10% of annual revenue from land sales for use in rural water projects. Droughts in southern China last year left millions of people without clean water while crop yields suffered, bringing into question Beijing’s capability to secure future food supplies.