Water pollution during China's industrial transition

• Water pollution resulted from increased pollutant discharge and excessive abstraction.
• Poor management practices and regulation enforcement also contributed to the problem.
• Economic, technological, and policy drivers promote the improvement of water quality.
• Further industrial transition in China is going to reduce pollution of surface water.
• Policy and institutional reforms can accelerate the reversal of surface water quality.

The ever increasing water demands arising from population and economic growth during China's industrial transition exerts significant stress on the country's limited freshwater resources. Meanwhile, widespread water pollution that occurred during the course of industrialization exacerbates the water shortages. This work presents an overview on the water shortages and water pollution in China, and analyzes the root causes of water pollution—increased pollutant discharges from industrial, municipal and agricultural sources, excessive water abstraction from the environment, and poor water resources management and enforcement of pollution control regulations. The three key drivers of long-term water quality improvement, namely, economic transformation, technological innovation, and institutional and policy reforms, are then discussed in details. The trend of China's surface water quality over the last two decades supports that China is approaching the critical point in its industrial transition where reduction of pollution and improvement of environmental quality are going to occur. Policy measures and institutional reforms are also recommended to accelerate the reversal of surface water quality in China.