Greetings
from China!
Two weeks
ago, I arrived in Shanghai for a semester of study at the University of Dayton
China Institute. Since I arrived, I’ve been kept busy absorbing as much of
Chinese culture as possible, whether that takes the form of eating duck feet
and pig brain or learning to speak the language. In addition to learning about
the culture, I’ve also metaphorically (and literally) worn my blue RS shirt by
observing the water here in China.
I am living
and studying in Suzhou, a city just inland of Shanghai, which was purportedly
dubbed the Venice of the East by Marco Polo. As the moniker suggests, Suzhou is
home to a beautiful network of canals connected to China’s famous Grand Canal,
the longest canal in the world. Bordering Suzhou to the left is the large Lake
Tai, which is about 1/10th the size of Lake Erie, and dotting Suzhou’s land are
many smaller lakes. Suzhou sits in the Yangtze River Delta Plain at the mouth
of the Yangtze River, Asia’s longest river. The Yangtze drains a fifth of the
land area in China, and flows directly into the East China Sea.
The water
challenges in China were apparent as soon as I arrived; one of the first things
I learned was to not drink the tap water. As the tap water can have a number of
bacterial or viral contaminants, you must either drink bottled water or boiled
water. After taking clean tap water for granted all my life, non-potable tap
water required an adjustment.
There are
also many ecological concerns with the water system around Suzhou. Lake Tai and
the Yangtze rivers experience significant industrial pollution and untreated
wastewater is often released into those waterways. Just like the Great Miami,
the Yangtze runs through farmland, so agricultural runoff contributes to the
pollution of the river and ultimately the Pacific. Over the past few decades,
hundreds of dams have been built along the river for flood control and
irrigation. These dams have wreaked havoc on the natural ecosystems and
radically altered many lakes. Ecologically harmful damming projects continue;
one of the most notable is the recently constructed Three Gorges Dam—one of the
largest hydroelectric dams in the world.
My
experiences in China so far have been stimulating and enlightening. Needless to
say, there’s still much to learn about how the Chinese people and government
utilize, and neglect, China’s water resources. I’m excited to see what the next
three months bring.
Jason
Demeter
2018 Cohort
2018 Cohort
