Pollution exacerbates China’s water scarcity and its regional inequality

Inadequate water quality can render water unsuitable for human uses, exacerbating freshwater scarcity. Previous large-scale assessments emphasized freshwater quantity while neglecting quality constraints. This study presents a comprehensive nationwide water scarcity assessment in China that explicitly incorporates quality requirements for human water uses across multiple temporal and geographic scales. Results show inadequate water quality aggravates China’s water scarcity and its uneven distribution. North China often suffers year-round scarcity, while South China, despite sufficient quantities, experiences seasonal scarcity due to inadequate quality. Over half of the population is affected, highlighting an urgent need to improve freshwater quantity and quality management to cope with water scarcity.

Ting Ma, Siao Sun, Guangtao Fu, Jim W. Hall, Yong Ni, Lihuan He, Jiawei Yi, Na Zhao, Yunyuan Du, Tao Pei, Weiming Cheng, Ci Song, Chuanglin Fang, Chenghu Zhou