China has some of the most extreme water shortages in the world.
As discharges of both domestic and industrial effluents have increased, clean water has become increasingly scarce. The impact of China's dual problem of water scarcity and water pollution exacts a costly toll on productivity. Although Chinese decisionmakers are increasingly concerned about the damages associated with water pollution, years of neglect and a lack of funding for research have resulted in limited data on water pollution and even fewer epidemiologic studies on the links between water pollution and human health effects. Considering per capita water resources, China has the second lowest per capita water resources in the world, less than one third the world average.