Kunstschnee gegen Trinkwasser

[Stani]

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BEIJING, July 19 (Xinhuanet) -- Heavy duty trucks carrying building materials shuttle along a bumpy dirt road leading to the foot of a hill by the Dawangwu Village of Donggaocun Town, Pinggu District of Beijing, raising dust now and then.

This is a scene at the construction site of a ski resort.

An official with the Donggaocun Town said the resort, covering more than 120 hectares, has been listed as one of the 21 major projects for 2005 by Pinggu District on the northeastern outskirts. The 8.464 million US dollar resort is due to go into operation by the end of this year.

Local villagers say that more than 120 hectares of their former cropland was requisitioned and more than 10,000 fruit trees were felled to make way for it.

By the end of 2004, Beijing had 13 ski resort projects in operation, covering 9.51 million square meters, said Wang Fude, deputy head of the Tourism Development Research Institute of the Beijing International Studies University, who has long been devoted to studying ski resort projects in Beijing.

"The problem is that Beijing's resorts emerge by themselves andperish by themselves, lacking feasibility studies and government management," said Wang. Some of the projects, including the Donggaocun resort in Pinggu District, were built without government approval.

Based on his studies of local ski resorts and the annual per capita water consumption in Beijing, Wang said Beijing's 13 ski resorts consume 3.8 million cubic meters of water annually, equal to the amount used by 42,000 Beijing residents each year.

As Beijing reported less snow fall over recent years, all localski resorts used groundwater to make artificial snow, Wang said. The random construction of ski resorts has aggravated water shortage in an already arid Beijing.

Recently, the level of Beijing's groundwater has dropped by 0.5 meters annually and an excessive volume of six billion cubic meters of groundwater has been used in Beijing.

Beijing is one of the Chinese cities which faces a grave water shortage, with per capita water resources standing at 300 cubic meters, 15 percent of the national average and four percent of the world's average.

Most of Beijing's ski run projects are located in outskirtan Beijing's Miyun, Huairou and Yanqing counties, the sources of Beijing's water.

Ski resorts not only aggravate water shortage in Beijing, but also sharpen the contradiction between supply and demand of land and electricity as well as other natural resources, imposing a negative impact on local ecological environments.

"Excessive exploitation of groundwater will have a devastating aftermath, affecting our offspring," warned Wang, suggesting that Beijing's ski resorts be shut down gradually. "Beijingers can have no ski runs, but cannot have no drinking water," Wang said.

Wang's view was echoed by many other experts.

Li Dihua, at the Environment and Ecology Department of Beijing University, said that groundwater is a strategic resource of the national capital and that Beijing should prohibit the exploitation of groundwater for making artificial snow.

Li said that the relevant departments should guide people to enjoy skiing activities in the northeast China, which typically has snowy winters.

Wang Weijia,an official with the Beijing Municipal Tourism Administration, said Beijing should not deny all ski resorts just because of water shortage, adding the key to the issue is to restrict the number and encourage water-saving measures.

Lu Jian, chairman and CEO of Nanshan Ski Run, said that the development and use of recycled water can help save Beijing's rare water resources and is good for skiing operations.

Currently, the price for per ton of recycled water is one yuan and the price for per ton of groundwater is 2.3 yuan (about 0.27 US dollars). "In view of costs, we can save more than 100,000 yuan annually in ski resorts when we use recycled water," said Lu.

Responding to the call for shutting down and relocating skiing to other places, Lu said, "This is unrealistic and unwise."

He said most skiing projects in Beijing are in debt and "who should be held responsible for the economic loss caused by relocation and shutdown, the government or the enterprises themselves? " Enditem