The Economist - USA (2022-05-14)

The Economist May 14th 2022 China 41

S

parea littlepityfora Chinesebeg­

garcalledMrJiang.Lastmonthhewas

blamedfora smallcovid­19outbreakin

thecityofHaining.Themedialabelled

him“patientzero”.Theauthoritiesnoted

his“super­strengthinfectiousness”.

Samplesfromthepublictoiletsand

emptyshopswhereMrJiangsleptcame

backpositiveforthevirus.Hetested

positive,too.Theauthoritiesareprose­

cutinghimforallegedlynotco­operating

withcontact­tracers.

Thepandemichasmadelifeeven

harderforthemillionsofpeoplewho

sleeponthestreetsofChina’scities.

Mostcomefromthecountrysidein

searchofwork.Lackinga localhukou, or

household­registrationpermit,they

cannotobtainbenefits.Officialssee

themaseyesores.Governmentshelters

areobligedto“persuade”themtoleave.

Nowtheyareseenasvectorsofcovid.

AnyonewhocatchescovidinChina

facessocialstigma,asa singleinfection

canleadtoa lockdown.Butit isworsefor

thehomeless.Thereisnoevidencethat

MrJiangcausedtheoutbreakinHaining,

yetpeople calledhimthe“poisonking”.

ResearchersatSunYat­senUniversity,in

Guangzhou,foundthateffortstodrive

thehomelessoutofthatcityintensified

duringcovidsurges.Peoplesleepingon

thestreetssaidthepolicewould douse

theirrestingspotswithwater.“Everyone

wasfearfulofusbecausetheythought

wewerespreadingthevirus,”saidone.

Thepandemichasaffectedthehome­

lessinotherways,too.Manymaketheir

livinglookingthroughrubbishforrecy­

clablestosell.Butlocalgovernments,

believingrefusespreadscovid,have

crackeddown.Oddjobs,suchasun­

loadingtrucks,becomescarcerwhen

covidcontrolsaretightened.During

surgestherearealsofewerpeopleonthe

streetwhomightsparesomechange.

Covidrestrictionshavedecreasedthe

helpwhichisavailable.Anngoin

locked­downShanghaihadtocloseits

drop­incentre,whichofferedfood,

showersandlegaladvice.A charityin

Beijing,whichisbattlinganoutbreak,

hadtostopgivingoutporridge.

Therearenoofficialdata,butthe

pressureseemstohavepushedsomeof

thehomelessoutofcities.A workerata

rescuecentreinBeijingsaysthenumber

ofpeopleusingitsfacilitieshasdropped

sharply.Cityofficialsandcovid­cautious

Chinesewillseenoproblemwiththat.

Covid-19andthehomeless

Victims, notvectors

B EIJING

Thepandemichasmadelifeevenharderforthosewhosleeponthestreets

TheGrandCanal

Taming the waters

W

henkublaikhantiredofspending
winters at his pleasure­dome in Xan­
adu,  the  Mongol  overlord  of  China,  who
ruled  during  the  13th  century,  built  a  new
capital  in  what  is  now  Beijing.  In  order  to
feed  the  city,  he  launched  a  decade­long
hydrological  project,  extending  the  Grand
Canal,  which  already  snaked  through
much of eastern China. The oldest sections
of the waterway had been constructed cen­
turies  before.  Kublai  Khan  was  hardly  the
first ruler to demand that China’s waters do
his bidding.
Nor was he the last. “To rule a country,
first  rule  its  waters,”  says  Xi  Jinping,  Chi­
na’s  current  overlord.  In  a  country  where
floods  have  wiped  out  cities  and  toppled
dynasties, this isn’t a bad credo. The canal,
in particular, has drawn Mr Xi’s attention.
Much of its northern reaches were discon­
nected or had run dry by the time the Com­
munist  Party  took  power  in  1949.  Mr  Xi
called for the waterway to be “reborn”. And
indeed  it  has  been:  in  April  water  flowed
along the canal’s entire length for the first
time in a century, according to the party.
This  is  largely  a  result  of  the  South­to­
North  Water  Diversion  Project,  which,  as
the name suggests, aims to pump southern
water  to  northern  provinces.  In  operation
for nearly a decade, it is one of the most ex­
pensive engineering projects in the world
and  the  largest­ever  transfer  of  water  be­
tween  river  basins.  It  involves  two  main
channels: one in the east, along the Grand
Canal, and another that runs through cen­
tral  China  (see  map).  These  bring  water
from the Yangzi river and its tributaries to
the north. A third channel, farther west, is
in the planning stage. 
The  north,  where  around  40%  of  the
population lives, desperately needs water.
Beijing  is  not  far  from  the  desert;  camel
caravans  plodded  its  streets  not  too  long
ago.  The  city  can  go  for  months  without
rain. Thirsty factories and farms add to the
strain. The unsets the threshold for water
scarcity  at  an  annual  1,000  cubic  metres
per  person.  Most  northern  provinces  fall
below that. Some don’t even reach 200 cu­
bic metres per person in a dry year. Trans­
fers  from  the  south  have  “averted  a  water
crisis”,  says  Ma  Jun,  an  environmentalist.
Around  75%  of  Beijing’s  tap  water  arrives
after a two­week journey north. 
With  more  southern  water  sloshing
around, water sources in the north are re­
covering.  Fishermen  have  returned  to  the

banks of the Grand Canal in Beijing, catch­

ing  silver  carp  that  were  not  there  a  few

years ago. Groundwater levels have stabil­

ised  after  falling  for  decades.  Sitting  in  a

slightly  damper,  greener  Beijing,  China’s

governing  elite  is  happy.  The  decision  to

move  the  water  was  “completely  correct”,

Mr Xi said last year. 

But look south and the picture is grim­

mer.  The  project  displaced  hundreds  of

thousands  of  people—and  there  are  more

evictions planned. Rivers in the south have

beendepleted.Pollutionwasalwaysa pro­

blem,butnowthereislesswatertodilute

andwashawaycontaminants.Toxicalgal

blooms,moreoften foundinponds,are

formingontheHanriver,themainsource

ofBeijing’swater. Another megaproject,

which aims to replenish the Han, will

breakgroundthisyear.Thatprojectwillal­

sotakewaterfromtheYangzi,furtherdi­

minishingitsflow.

China’sengineeredfixestowaterscar­

cityare“morelikea band­aid”,saysBritt

Crow­MilleroftheUniversity ofMassa­

chusetts­Amherst. “They’re not actually

goingtosolvetheproblem.”Itwouldbe

betterif Chinausedwatermoreefficiently,

shesays.Tostart,thegovernmentcould

make  it  more  expensive.  Industrial  users

pay more than they used to, but still much

less than the scarcity of the resource war­

rants,  says  Mr  Ma.  Farmers  pay  even  less

and  often  waste  water.  The  price  for  do­

mestic  use  in  Beijing  has  risen  to  5  yuan

($0.74) a cubic metre, from 4 yuan a decade

ago. That is still only a third of the average

price  in  American  cities,  where  water  is

more  plentiful.  Mr  Ma  hopes  that  when

residents  of  the  capital  turn  on  thetaps,

they realise the real cost is much higher.n

B EIJING
The longest canal in the world is full
again. Is that a good thing?

CHINA

Beijing

Tianjin

H Yangzi

an

Hua

Yellow Wei i

Western route

(planned)

Central

route

Eastern route

(along the

Grand Canal)

South-North Water

500 km Diversion Project