中國水資源項目的機遇與挑戰(zhàn)

In a new report, consultancy McKinsey & Co. says fixing China's looming water crisis can be profitable. But the government's focus on increasing water supply with megaprojects, like the multibillion-dollar network of canals being built to divert water to the north, offers a poor return on investment.
咨詢公司麥肯錫公司(McKinsey & Co.)在一份新的報告中說，解決中國日益顯現(xiàn)出來的水資源危機問題可能會獲利。不過，政府專注于用大型項目來增加水資源供應(yīng)的做法──比如規(guī)模數(shù)十億美元的“南水北調(diào)”工程──帶來的投資回報卻很低。

'A number of recent policy measures have focused on increasing China's water supply. Managing demand, however, will be far more critical in China's efforts to address its water gap,' says the report.
報告中說，最近出臺的一系列政策措施都是集中在增加中國的水資源供應(yīng)上；不過，對水資源需求的管理對中國解決水資源不足問題卻要重要的多。

Instead of spending as much as an estimated 500 billion yuan, about $73 billion, on the South-to-North Water Transfer Project, which will divert water from the Yangtze, Yellow, Huaihe and Haihe Rivers along a series of canals to the parched north, McKinsey says China should invest in things like patching up leaky municipal water pipes, managing irrigation better and recycling more industrial-use water.
麥肯錫說，中國不該花約人民幣5,000億元（合730億美元）進(jìn)行“南水北調(diào)”工程，而應(yīng)該投資于城市滲漏水管的維修、對灌溉的更有效管理和循環(huán)利用更多工業(yè)用水等方面。“南水北調(diào)”工程將把長江、黃河、淮河和海河的水沿著一系列河道引入水資源匱乏的北方。

Right now, water pollution and scarcity is costing China 2.3% of its gross domestic product, the report says. Traditional thinking holds that it will cost even more to provide enough water for future growth.
報告中說，目前水污染和水資源短缺帶來的費用占了中國國內(nèi)生產(chǎn)總值(GDP)的2.3%。傳統(tǒng)的觀念認(rèn)為，為未來增長提供足夠的水資源將花費更多資金。

McKinsey argues against that. In another of its famous cost-curve analyses, similar to an earlier model on reducing greenhouse gases, it figures water conservation and recycling projects could actually bring in 131 billion yuan, or $19 billion, in annual profits.
麥肯錫對此提出了異議。在另外一份知名的成本曲線分析中（與較早時候的減少溫室氣體排放的模型類似），麥肯錫得出，水資源的保護(hù)和循環(huán)利用項目每年實際可以帶來人民幣1,310億元（合190億美元）的利潤。

China needs all the good news it can get. Its population of 1.3 billion and growing is one-fifth of the world's population. But China has very poor water resources --only 7% of the world's freshwater. Urbanization and industrialization are only increasing China's demand for more water, straining already depleted sources. The ongoing drought in southern China, which has been called the worst in a century, has underscored the urgency of the problem.
中國面臨著各方面的挑戰(zhàn)。中國有13億人口，占世界總?cè)丝诘奈宸种?，而且仍在增長之中。不過，中國的水資源嚴(yán)重不足，只占全球淡水總量的7%。城市化和工業(yè)化只會增加中國的水資源需求，令已經(jīng)匱乏的水資源更加緊張。最近中國南方遭遇了據(jù)說百年來最嚴(yán)重的一次干旱，凸顯了問題的緊迫性。

But the rates of return on some of the solutions 'represent attractive investment opportunities for the private sector,' said Martin Joerss, a partner at the company who led the study.
不過麥肯錫合伙人、該研究項目的負(fù)責(zé)人尤茂庭(Martin Joerss)說，一些解決方案的投資回報率對私營領(lǐng)域來說代表了誘人的投資機會。