A Tale of Two Water Supplies in China: Finding Practical Solutions to Urban and Rural Water Supply Problems

ConspectusAccess to safe drinking water is among the 17 United Nations sustainable development goals. As the largest developing country, China has confronted large challenges to providing safe and sufficient drinking water to its population of 1.4 billion under the conditions of limited water sources and ubiquitous water contamination.This Account outlines these challenges as well as the practical solutions implemented by Chinese water professionals. We first provide a general introduction of the water supply in China. Next, we describe the main challenges of water source shortages and source water contamination. The practical solutions developed by Chinese water professionals are the core part of this Account, to which we have devoted ourselves to and contributed in some issues and cases.The water supply in China is a binary system that reflects the gap between urban and rural communities. Both urban and rural water supplies have been subject to water source shortages and contamination. Water shortages a...