China Dominates Investment in Protection of Water Supply
The annual global investment in forests, wetlands and other ecosystems that help keep human water supplies clean jumped by a third over four years to more than $8 billion, with China accounting for about 90 percent of that, according to a report released on Wednesday.
China accounted for more than $7.46 billion of spending in 2011 on natural water protection, known as watershed payments, according to Forest Trends’ Ecosystem Marketplace, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental advocacy group. U.S. investment that year was $360.5 million.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development estimates world investment in water infrastructure will reach $1 trillion by 2025. Current spending is around $80 billion, 10 times the total natural infrastructure investment for 2011. China is the world leader in offering compensation forecological restoration and protection, the report said. One Chinese program provided health insurance benefits to 108,000 people upstream from the coastal city of Zhuhai in exchange for adopting land use practices meant to improve drinking water for the region.
– Reuters