CCTV9英语新闻：北京市是世界上最严重缺水的大城市之一（在线收听）

Beijing has a huge appetite for water, and at the same time is one of the most water-scarce cities in the world. Water use in the city is about 3.6 billion cubic meters per year. While water resources provide only 2.1 billion per year - a shortage of 1.5 billion cubic meters.

The fast-growing population has made the situation even worse. The capital has over 20 million people and the annual water supply in Beijing is less than 100 cubic meters per person. That’s one-tenth of the international warning line, which is 1,000 cubic meters per person.

And the average world water supply per person is 40 times higher than Beijing’s. That puts the country’s capital in a position of having more severe water scarcity even than some Middle-East countries.