{"id":32924,"date":"2015-05-20T16:41:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-20T16:41:00","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2020-11-11T14:03:28","modified_gmt":"2020-11-11T14:03:28","slug":"7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/","title":{"rendered":"UK relies on ‘virtual’ water from drought-prone areas of China, says report"},"content":{"rendered":"

Although the UK gets plentiful rainfall, around two-thirds of the water it indirectly consumes comes embedded in imported food, clothes and industrial goods<\/a>, according to estimates.<\/p>\n

The new WWF study<\/a> says 80% of all UK imports by value face at least a moderate level of water risk, while 40% come from countries that have ‘hot spots’ of severe water scarcity or pollution.<\/p>\n

The reputational and regulatory water risks for businesses operating in China are particularly high, argues the  report<\/a>. These arise from new laws aimed at cleaning up China’s water supply, increasing scrutiny of  water issues in the country, both domestically and internationally, and lack of coordinated planning within river basins.
\n
\nTextiles in China singled out
\n<\/b>
\nWWF has singled out the textile sector as particularly vulnerable to these risks, although a range of industries, including beverages, food and pharmaceuticals, are also implicated in wasteful or polluting use of water.<\/p>\n

China is the main supplier of clothing to the UK, along with India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.<\/p>\n

Companies that rely heavily on clothing from the Yellow River area of Shandong province and the Yangtze river basin – both centres for clothing production – face increasing challenges because of water scarcity or pollution.<\/p>\n

The toxic pollution caused by supply chains used by top clothing brands<\/a> has been well documented. Chinese NGO campaigns have galvanised brands such as H&M and Gap to root out the worst polluters among their suppliers, but others such as luxury brands such as Dolce & Gabbana continue to dig their heels<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In China WWF has been working<\/a> in the Taihu basin, part of the Yangtze river system, with industry and NGOs since 2012 to improve water quality at an industrial park. The local Jiangsu government has now agreed to expand this approach, says the WWF team who wrote the report.
\n
\nClosing loopholes
\n<\/b>
\nChina’s tough new water regulations should also make companies sit up and re-examine their supply chains more closely.  The government’s much-anticipated “Ten point water plan<\/a>” to combat water pollution unveiled last month also singled out textiles, along with dyeing and finishing, pulp and paper industries.<\/p>\n

On top of the impending wastewater tariff hikes, factories will also have to treat wastewater to higher standards or face high fines under the amended environmental law.  Polluters could also go to jail for offences and smaller factories with thin profit margins will likely be forced to close or merge with others.<\/p>\n

Experts point to the fact that the plan is ‘stricter than expected<\/a>’ and has the potential to transform China’<\/i>seconomy and help build its long sought “ecological civilisation<\/a>.”<\/p>\n

Whether authorities can enforce the new regulations is another question.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Around 80% of UK imports come from areas suffering water crises, such as China, the US, and Spain says a new study from WWF<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":581,"featured_media":57975,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[760],"tags":[543,607],"hashtags":[],"country":[],"class_list":["post-32924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pollution","tag-extreme-weather","tag-water-scarcity"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nUK relies on 'virtual' water from drought-prone areas of China, says report | Dialogue Earth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Around 80% of UK imports come from areas suffering water crises, such as China, the US, and Spain says a new study from WWF\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"UK relies on 'virtual' water from drought-prone areas of China, says report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Around 80% of UK imports come from areas suffering water crises, such as China, the US, and Spain says a new study from WWF\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Dialogue Earth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-05-20T16:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-11T14:03:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/gp04cx9_meitu_1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"418\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beth Walker\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Beth Walker\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/697038c567af68386b9b2acf2eb79870\"},\"headline\":\"UK relies on ‘virtual’ water from drought-prone areas of China, says report\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-20T16:41:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-11T14:03:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/\"},\"wordCount\":466,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/gp04cx9_meitu_1.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Extreme weather\",\"Water scarcity\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Pollution\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/\",\"name\":\"UK relies on 'virtual' water from drought-prone areas of China, says report | Dialogue Earth\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/gp04cx9_meitu_1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-20T16:41:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-11T14:03:28+00:00\",\"description\":\"Around 80% of UK imports come from areas suffering water crises, such as China, the US, and Spain says a new study from WWF\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/gp04cx9_meitu_1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/gp04cx9_meitu_1.jpg\",\"width\":600,\"height\":418},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"UK relies on ‘virtual’ water from drought-prone areas of China, says report\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Dialogue Earth\",\"description\":\"Global climate and environment news\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization\",\"name\":\"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png\",\"width\":256,\"height\":256,\"caption\":\"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/DialogueEarth_\",\"\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DialogueEarth.English\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dialogue.earth\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/dialogueearth\/\"],\"publishingPrinciples\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/about\/\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/697038c567af68386b9b2acf2eb79870\",\"name\":\"Beth Walker\",\"description\":\"Beth Walker is chinadialogue\u2019s culture editor. She is also editor of thethirdpole.net. She has researched and written about Asia\u2019s international rivers for many years, and has lived and worked in Yunnan province. She studied Chinese at Oxford University and Development Management at the London School of Economics. You can follow her on Twitter at @beth_wa\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/bethwalker\/\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/bethwalker\/\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"UK relies on 'virtual' water from drought-prone areas of China, says report | Dialogue Earth","description":"Around 80% of UK imports come from areas suffering water crises, such as China, the US, and Spain says a new study from WWF","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"UK relies on 'virtual' water from drought-prone areas of China, says report","og_description":"Around 80% of UK imports come from areas suffering water crises, such as China, the US, and Spain says a new study from WWF","og_url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/","og_site_name":"Dialogue Earth","article_published_time":"2015-05-20T16:41:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-11-11T14:03:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":600,"height":418,"url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/gp04cx9_meitu_1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Beth Walker","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/"},"author":{"name":"Beth Walker","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/697038c567af68386b9b2acf2eb79870"},"headline":"UK relies on ‘virtual’ water from drought-prone areas of China, says report","datePublished":"2015-05-20T16:41:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-11T14:03:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/"},"wordCount":466,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/gp04cx9_meitu_1.jpg","keywords":["Extreme weather","Water scarcity"],"articleSection":["Pollution"],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/","name":"UK relies on 'virtual' water from drought-prone areas of China, says report | Dialogue Earth","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/gp04cx9_meitu_1.jpg","datePublished":"2015-05-20T16:41:00+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-11T14:03:28+00:00","description":"Around 80% of UK imports come from areas suffering water crises, such as China, the US, and Spain says a new study from WWF","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/gp04cx9_meitu_1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2020\/05\/gp04cx9_meitu_1.jpg","width":600,"height":418},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/pollution\/7924-uk-relies-on-virtual-water-from-drought-prone-areas-of-china-says-report\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"UK relies on ‘virtual’ water from drought-prone areas of China, says report"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/","name":"Dialogue Earth","description":"Global climate and environment news","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#organization","name":"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/Dialogue-Earth-Symbol-Logo_Black-Text.png","width":256,"height":256,"caption":"\u5bf9\u8bdd\u5730\u7403"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/twitter.com\/DialogueEarth_","","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/DialogueEarth.English","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/dialogue.earth\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/dialogueearth\/"],"publishingPrinciples":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/about\/"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/697038c567af68386b9b2acf2eb79870","name":"Beth Walker","description":"Beth Walker is chinadialogue\u2019s culture editor. She is also editor of thethirdpole.net. She has researched and written about Asia\u2019s international rivers for many years, and has lived and worked in Yunnan province. She studied Chinese at Oxford University and Development Management at the London School of Economics. You can follow her on Twitter at @beth_wa","url":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/bethwalker\/","sameAs":["https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/author\/bethwalker\/"]}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/581"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32924"},{"taxonomy":"hashtags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtags?post=32924"},{"taxonomy":"country","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/country?post=32924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}