Urbanization and water use situation in Beijing, China - an evidence from water production and supply sector

Beijing has a rapidly growing economy, but like other big cities in the world, Beijing also receives adverse effects from the economic developments. One among those negative effects is serious water shortage problem. Increasing demand for water along with growth of population, rapid urbanization and changing towards a western lifestyle poses great challenges to the water supply capacity of the city. Water production and supply sector plays a vital roll in urban development of Beijing. However, given the fact that current capacity of water production still can not meet the demand, it is expected that government's investment policy in improving water services and treatment facilities and promoting less water use industries are urgently needed. Through the water resources economic input-output analysis framework, this paper suggests some industrial sectors consuming high water input from the water production and supply sector such as non-metal mineral production and construction sectors. On contrary, it also unveils that high tech industries namely electronic and computer production sectors consume relatively less water input. In order to overcome the current water stress, changes within economic structure itself is another alternative to save the capital city from drying out of water in the long run.