China told to reduce food production or face 'dire' water levels

"The government must adopt a new policy to reduce water consumption," Zheng Chunmiao, director of the Water Research Centre at Peking University told the Guardian. "The main thing is to reduce demand. We have relied too much on engineering projects, but the government realises this is not a long-term solution."

The report says that "over the past 10 years, Zheng estimates the annual water deficit in northern China at 4bn cubic metres. This is increasingly made up from underground sources, which account for 70% of water supplies."