IWRA Executive Office

OS5m Facing international and regional water governance challenges

abstract 782

If There Were a Water Crisis, How Would We Know?

Author(s): The Perils of Official Statistics
Author(s): James E. Nickum
Chair, Publications Committee, IWRA

Keyword(s): data, water crisis, China

Article:

Poster:

Session: OS5m Facing international and regional water governance challenges

AbstractChinese government

statistics on water are often cited by the media and scholars to indicate the existence of a "water crisis" there. Yet in

nearly every case, these statistics are "bureaucratically constructed" and often cited out of the context they were

intended to serve. This would seem to give an exaggerated impression of crisis in many cases, but at the same time,

it is not clear that the data pick up actual critical events. I will provide examples from statistics on irrigated area,

water-short cities, and cessation of river flows (especially the Yellow River), and more if time allows. Although I

focus on China, these kinds of problems with official data are likely to be of more universal significance.

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If There Were a Water Crisis, How Would We Know?