China's history can be traced back to the origin of irrigation. For thousands
of years, the Chinese flooded their land to grow crops, but the flow has now
reduced to a trickle - or a drip.
In Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, cotton fields stretch to the horizon.
Among them are Guo Ying's 7.3 hectares. Surprisingly, aqueducts and water
pipelines are not to be found in her fields.
Guo said she used drip irrigation under plastic film technology. When water
is needed, she turns on a control switch, and water drops permeate into the
roots of crops slowly.
Guo's fields have been equipped with this technology for more than four
years. "It helps me save a lot of water and manpower." She said 100 cubic meters
of water can be saved for each one-fifteenth of a hectare on average, about
one-third of the previous irrigation volume.
Guo works with Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps. Head of the
water-saving irrigation office of the Corps Hu Weidong said the drip irrigation
technology has been widely extended since 2000. Now more than 400,000 hectares
of farmland are equipped with this technology, saving more than 600 million
cubic meters of water a year.
Xinjiang's innovations are an example for the rest of the country as water
becomes a more precious resource. According to the Ministry of Water Resources,
with six percent of the world's total freshwater resources, China ranks sixth in
the world after Brazil, Russia, Canada, the United States and Indonesia.
Per capita, however, its water resources are only a quarter of the world's
average, ranking 121st in 153 countries.
China's farms account for more than two-thirds of the country's total water
consumption volume, mostly for irrigation. However, 55 percent of total
irrigation water is wasted, almost twice that of some developed countries.
If China can reach the standards of developed countries, 60 to 80 billion
cubic meters of water - 12 to 16 percent of the total agricultural water
consumption - can be saved per year.
Water saving, especially in agriculture, is on the agenda of the national
leaders. Premier Wen Jiabao referred to it as one of the key measures to build a
resource-saving society.