That Giant Sucking Sound—China’s Dangerous Game of Groundwater Extraction

The massive extraction of groundwater in the North China Plain has led to a rapid decline in the groundwater table. In agriculture, one of the consequences of groundwater depletion has been exhaustion and thus desertion of wells.

—Hong Yang and Alexander Zehnder

To slake its ever-growing thirst, China is aggressively “mining” many of its deepwater aquifers. This groundwater extraction is a dangerous game for at least four reasons.

First, the reliance on groundwater mining is unsustainable. Unlike shallower aquifers, which can be replenished by annual rainfall, the deepest aquifers are nonrenewable resources. Thus, any reliance on these aquifers for ordinary needs is taking place on borrowed time.

Second, as these groundwater aquifers are tapped, groundwater tables decline. That’s why the water tables beneath much of northern China are shrinking by about five feet per year. This is forcing farmers to drill ever deeper and deeper wells, leading many lakes and streams to dry up.

Third, and most subtly, China’s deepwater mining is inducing seawater contamination of its freshwater supplies. As fresh groundwater is sucked out of coastal aquifers, sea water seeps in and poisons wells and water supplies. This problem is particularly acute in the coastal areas of Dalian and Yantai. Here, more than 5,000 wells have been destroyed, production on 300,000 acres of irrigated farmland has been cut in half, and almost a million people and a quarter of a million livestock do not have enough water.

Finally, there is that sick, sinking feeling of subsidence now being felt by some of China’s wealthiest cities. As Elizabeth C. Economy has noted, Shanghai and Tianjin have sunk by more than six feet during the past 15 years. In Beijing, which alone sucks out more than 200 million tons of subterranean water a year, subsidence has destroyed factories, buildings, and underground pipelines and is threatening the city’s main international airport.