Piping seawater to Xinjiang

[Pelranius]

It sounds like a good idea, especially if they build a nuclear power plant to pump all that seawater up to 1,200m. The only concern that I can think of is that the seawater could mess with the water table in Xinjiang. It would probably be better just to build the pipeline only to the highest point on the route, and let a canal take it the rest of the way to the Turfan Depression so maximum evaporation can take place.

By Yang Ruoyu

A water resources expert said it is possible to transport seawater from the Bohai Sea in Liaoning Province to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.

Zeng Hengyi of the China High-Tech Industrialization Association said a pipeline could be installed in Liaoning Province and run all the way to Xinjiang via the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

He said the drought in Northwest China could be resolved if the project was launched. They spoke at a forum in Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang.

"The project is not a dream. It could be put into action," Zeng said.

However, some experts said Zeng is wrong.

Yang Kailin, an expert at China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, told the Global Times that seepage-proofing and corrosion prevention are just two challenges.

He added that authorities should first utilize existing water resources in Xinjiang.

Fan Xiao, the chief engineer at Sichuan Geology and Mineral Resources Bureau, who is familiar with the south to north water diversion project, said transporting seawater from the Bohai Sea to Xinjiang was unrealistic.

He said the complex topography of Xinjiang is a major problem, and transferring large volume of seawater so far would harm the environment.

The project can stop desertification, Zeng said, adding only 4.2 percent of the 1.6 million square meters in Xinjiang is suitable for living.

Wang Xiushun, a manager of the Hongyuan sea water desalination company, said 12,000 hectares of farmland could be developed if the project was launched, according to Urumqi Online, a news website in Urumqi.

The suggestion of transporting seawater was first advanced by Huo Youguang, a professor at Jiaotong University in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, in 1995.

In 2008, a seminar about transporting seawater to Xilinguole, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, was held in Beijing.

Wang, whose company is in charge of the Xilinguole project, said the project is still at the research level with a budget of 65 million yuan ($9.7 billion).

Wang predicted that the project in Xinjiang would begin construction six years later. He added that his company plans to cooperate with the Xinjiang government that time.

Experts at the forum expected the cost of transporting water to Xinjiang will be about 7 yuan ($1.2) per cubic meter.

The cost is lower than that of the south-to-north water diversion project, which cost more than 20 yuan ($3) per cubic meter, the report said. The pipes for transporting the water could be used for 50 years.

http://china.globaltimes.cn/society/2010-11/590385.html

Apologies if it belongs in N&P.

[Sea Skimmer]

It’s a good idea until it leaks and totally ruins any local water systems it hits. One also faces a non trivial problem that normal desensitinated water is still too salty for agriculture and tends to ruin the soil in the long run. Reverse osmosis purification can solve that, but the energy costs are considerable and it’s actually easier to filter freshwater sewage at that point. Plus its a mere joke of a mega project compared to NAWAPA

[mr friendly guy]

Wang, whose company is in charge of the Xilinguole project, said the project is still at the research level with a budget of 65 million yuan ($9.7 billion).

65 million yuan is equal to 9.7 billion? In what currency? Unless the Chinese seriously appreciated the RMB I think the article means 9.7 million most likely US currency?

In any event, I had always wondered about whether this could be done to desert regions by means of desalination ever since I saw a documentary on how they managed to turn Las Vegas from a desert into a quite a habitable city.

The other thing is, you could desalinate the water. Now I am not expert, but reading Skimmer's post, it might not be the best use of energy, however can we consider this (and desalination) as future proofing things to counteract climate change. Those plants would require power to desalinate, but fortunately China is building shit loads of nuclear reactors.

[Lusankya]

One also faces a non trivial problem that normal desensitinated water is still too salty for agriculture and tends to ruin the soil in the long run.

The plan isn't to use the water directly for agriculture. Reading the Chinese articles, the plan looks something like this:



Pump the water up to the top of those mountains, and then let it run west in surface canals. Once it reaches Inner Mongolia and the Xinjiang Plateau, they can then let it run in salt-water rivers and salt lakes. It being a desert, the water will then naturally evaporate, thus increasing the rainfall in the desert regions.

[Pelranius]

That is the idea. Seaskimmer is right about saltwater contamination being probably the worst problem (a canal could over come some of that, but then it'd be vulnerable to dust storms).

[Rabid]

Well, there is a precedent that seems to indicate that irrigating a desert is a baaaad idea :

See Kazakhstan and the Aral Sea. I'm not talking about the fact that the Aral Sea is dying, but about the fact that the irrigation of the Kazakh soils made the salt to come out to the surface / deposit from evaporation (with freshwater, not saltwater, coming from the rivers feeding the Aral Sea).
The result : soils that were already bad are now almost toxic to a very large part of the plants of the region. Almost nothing can be grown now, even with irrigation.
In short, that kind of thing have undeniably great advantage on the short term, or even on the middle term (20 -40 years) ; but on the longer term, it's shooting yourself in the foot.
Please note that the same thing is is also happening now in Spain, in the south of the country, for the same reasons.

It would maybe be more productive to find species (plant or animal) that can be adapted to the climate of the place and then cultivated on an industrial scale with a minimal impact on the region's soils. It would almost certainly produce less, but it also is far more sustainable - I don't think China is so willing to trade its environment for short term profit, so much more when they are experiencing first-hand how much climate-change and high pollution levels sucks donkey balls (desertification, etc.).

[Simon_Jester]

It would maybe be more productive to find species (plant or animal) that can be adapted to the climate of the place and then cultivated on an industrial scale with a minimal impact on the region's soils. It would almost certainly produce less, but it also is far more sustainable - I don't think China is so willing to trade its environment for short term profit...

This is the part I worry about.

Theoretically the Chinese might take the long view; in practice, I get the feeling that their ruling class has traditions rooted in the "triumph of the industrial planner" technocratic mindset of 20th-century Marxist-Leninist-and/or-Maoist Communism. As long as more highways and skyscrapers get built that is defined as progress, with pollution and long-term degradation of marginal-value land being just the price you have to pay.

[Pelranius]

I think the primary goal is to use to seawater to achieve climate change. By dumping water into the Turfan Depression (already a complete desert), that should create a body of seawater, which through the magic of evaporation in a desert environment would make the weather of Xinjiang much more wet by increasing precipitation in areas such as the mountains north of Urumqi.

[mr friendly guy]

So it transferring seawater is bad, why not just bear the cost of desalinating it. Desalination plants would be more useful in the future as climate change takes hold, so may as well try developing your own technology / become a world producer of such plants by starting right now.

[Pelranius]

The Chinese are doing that too. They seem to be very interested in using nuclear power to desalinate water for coastal areas in northern China and areas like Beijing. Piping untreated seawater to Xinjiang seems to be done with the presumption that why pay for a nuclear power plant if you can get evaporation and sunlight to do the job for free?