If only life could be so easy. In many parts of the world, population centers and water supplies are not located in the same place. Areas from California to China go to great lengths and costs to move water from where it is (relatively) abundant to the population centers and farmland. One of the largest diversion projects in the world, China’s South-North Water Transfer Project just opened its second branch to the Beijing area in December. The project theoretically will bring almost 12 trillion gallons of water from the Yangtze River Valley north to the mega-cities surrounding Beijing. But the project will also bring with it controversy – mainly over the sustainability of this water supply and the pollution issues that already plague China’s dwindling water supplies. Continue reading →