英闻天下——455 Over-exploitation of Groundwater

 　　Over-use of groundwater may cause landslides¹. However, in costal areas it also brings seawater intrusion. Let's take a look at the problem with our reporter Zhang Wan².

 

　　In a village in the costal area of Dalian, Liaoning Province, many villagers complain that their drinking water has become bitter and astringent³. A man surnamed Kong is one of them. His home is in the village, about 5,000 meters away from the seaside. He says he has been drinking groundwater from a deep well, which was drilled in the 1970s. It was good in the past, but now tastes bad.

 

　　Kong says there are more villagers suffering from mineral concretions in recent years. And he himself suffers from gallstone, kidney stone and urinary problems.

 

　　In another nearby village in the area, local farmers say they have given up using well water because irrigating⁴ the land with it damages the vegetables they grow.

 

　　"Look at these cucumbers, eggplants and hot peppers. They are all dead after being irrigated⁵ with well water."

 

　　Many local farmers say the damaging situation is caused by seawater intrusion. Wang Tao, deputy director of the local water resources bureau says seawater intrusion is the movement of saline water into freshwater aquifers⁶, which leads to the contamination of drinking water sources.

 

　　Wang Tao adds Dalian is a city severely⁷ suffering from a drinking water shortage. Over-use of groundwater has caused seawater intrusion.

 

　　"Over-use of ground water in costal areas will lower the groundwater level to below sea level, thus bringing seawater into the fresh water sources."

 

　　Based on statistics by the local water resources authority, the total area suffering from seawater intrusion in Dalian is as high as 650 square kilometers.

 

　　According to the water resources administration, the annual exploitation amount of groundwater in Dalian should be less than 200 million tons. However, the number has been at more than 300 million tons for many years in order to meet the demands of local agricultural and industrial development. Illegal exploitation of groundwater was not included into the data.

 

　　In Dalian illegal ads about well drilling are everywhere. When dialing a number on these ads, an illegal well driller will tell you this.

 

　　"Sure we do well drilling. But we can only do it pm Sunday night, or Saturday night. We can have it done quickly over night. But only on weekends because the water resources authorities are off work."

 

　　Currently, most customers for these illegal well drillers are construction sites, which have huge water consumption needs. It costs them only about 10,000 yuan to drill a well, which saves them several times less the cost of legal water.

 

　　Bi Dehua, department head of the local water resources bureau says they know illegal well drilling is flourishing in Dalian, but it's hard to crack down on it.

 

　　"We are not that capable of cracking down on these illegal well drillers because we have a limited number of staff in the bureau. Think about this: how large Dalian is, and we only have several dozens of employees in the administration so it's hard to manage the whole area well."

 

　　Local authorities in Dalian say they are making plans to decrease the exploitation of groundwater so that seawater intrusion can be controlled.

 

　　For CRI, I am Zhang Wan.

1 landslides   

山崩( landslide的名词复数 )； （山坡、悬崖等的）崩塌； 滑坡； （竞选中）一方选票占压倒性多数

参考例句：

• Landslides have cut off many villages in remote areas. 滑坡使边远地区的许多村庄与外界隔绝。
• The storm caused landslides and flooding in Savona. 风暴致使萨沃纳发生塌方和洪灾。

2 wan   

(wide area network)广域网

参考例句：

• The shared connection can be an Ethernet,wireless LAN,or wireless WAN connection.提供共享的网络连接可以是以太网、无线局域网或无线广域网。

3 astringent   

adj.止血的，收缩的，涩的；n.收缩剂，止血剂

参考例句：

• It has an astringent effect.这个有止血的作用。
• Green persimmons are strongly astringent.绿柿子非常涩。

4 irrigating   

灌溉( irrigate的现在分词 )； 冲洗（伤口）

参考例句：

• Derrick and I have been laying out the system of irrigating ditches. 德里克跟我在一起修建那个灌溉网。
• He had been in command at the irrigating ditch the day before. 上一天，在灌溉渠边，是他担任指挥的。

5 irrigated   

[医]冲洗的

参考例句：

• They irrigated their crops with water from this river. 他们用这条小河里的水浇庄稼。
• A crop can be sown, weeded, irrigated, and fertilized uniformly. 一种作物可以均匀一致地进行播种，除草，灌溉和施肥。

6 aquifers   

n.地下蓄水层，砂石含水层( aquifer的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• And in Africa, the aquifers barely recharge at all. 非洲的地下水开采以后几乎得不到补充。 来自时文部分
• Aquifers have water contents over 30%. 含水层的水含过30％。 来自辞典例句

7 severely   

adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地

参考例句：

• He was severely criticized and removed from his post.他受到了严厉的批评并且被撤了职。
• He is severely put down for his careless work.他因工作上的粗心大意而受到了严厉的批评。