Does China deserve a 'fair go'? What has the IOC achieved?

Environment

China's State Environmental Protection Authority (SEPA) is responsible for implementing environmental legislation, but is under-funded and under-staffed with a dismal performance record. Recently promoted from a directorate to a Ministry, SEPA lacks the Politburo support necessary to be effective.

SEPA's miniscule 400-strong workforce is responsible for nationwide monitoring. The majority are based in, and paid by, local governments where keeping their jobs and protecting their future careers requires compliance with official directions. Legislation may be formulated in Beijing, but enforcement is the exclusive right of local government.

Widely publicised commitments to clean air include the banning of cars to reduce emissions, replacing the normal substandard fuel with higher quality fuel (by shutting down 100 of Beijing's gas stations), and the enforced closure of hundreds of polluting factories in and around Beijing municipality. The Great Green Wall however, has proven useless in mitigating air pollution.

Water

Visitors to Beijing will not drink tap water. The rapidly diminishing water supply is evident by the dry riverbeds, many areas of subsidence and dusty abandoned fields and dry farm wells around Beijing. China's Academy of Sciences confirmed "ground water resources in the North China Plain will be depleted by 2030".

There are increasing reports that "Beijing's water shortages and increasing sandstorms have been the centre of a behind doors debate of shifting the capital south".

Beijing's more than 30 golf courses each consume more than 30,000m3 of underground water a day with more under construction and planned along with water leisure parks.

Unsustainable drawdown has lowered Beijing's watertable to depths too expensive to access by many farmers. To conserve water for Olympic landscaping, farmers are denied drawdown for irrigation. Thousand of Beijing farmers are ordered to grow crops that use less water, but with little compensation for the crippling loss of income.

The dry Chaobai River is being recharged with 40 million m3 a year of water diverted from the Wenyu River via a 13km conduit to provide the water for the Shunyi Rowing and Canoeing Venue. The Wenyu is highly polluted and fed from the Huairou and Miyun reservoirs, both are now experiencing serious low levels. Independent calculations suggest that the 40M m3/year is unsustainable. Recent reports suggest the shortfall is drawn from the Huairou aquifer.

Hebei Province

Beijing's grand vision of the South to North Water Diversion Project supplying much needed water for the Olympics is disintegrating. Delays range from lack of pre works ground testing that created serious problems with the geology and local circumstances, to funding, pollution, water shortages, subsidence and demonstrations. Completion is now set for 2010.

The 300km emergency Shijiazhuang-Beijing canal will divert 300M m3/year of water from Hebei Province's Gangnan, Huangbizhuang, Yukuai and Xidayang reservoirs even though they are at historic low levels. Officials refuse to confirm if the 300M m3/year is the volume of water diverted from Hebei or received in Beijing. If the latter, the diversion could be closer to 500M m3/year.

The project imposes severe hardship on farmers, destroying homes, outbuildings and cutting access. Fields and crops are ruined and crucial aquifers pumped dry to construct the canal. By the beginning of April an estimated 500,000 residents face drinking water shortages. Affected farmers are unable to irrigate; aquaculture dams have been drained and quite rightly ask "if Beijing needs all the water more than the farmers?"

One courageous official stated, "using drinking water from Hebei and other poor provinces to provide for luxuries in Beijing is wrong. Beijing will ensure the city has enough clean water in August, but it will only be temporary. In the longer term, the water crisis will worsen."