REUTERS: Baths and saunas run dry as northern China rations water

June 20, 2001

BEIJING (Reuters) - Faced with the worst drought in decades, authorities in northern China have cut off water supplies to bath houses, saunas and car washes, and slashed domestic water rations, officials said on Wednesday.

Tianjin, just east of Beijing, is desperate as its water supplies are set to run out within days and a canal that started channeling water into the city from the Yellow River last October has proven mostly ineffective, said one official.

"To tell the truth, we don't know what to do after what's left in our poor reservoirs is used up," the official at the city's Water Conservation Office told Reuters.

Tianjin had banned car washers from using running water and stopped issuing licenses to new bath houses, officials said.

Dalian, a coastal city in the northeastern province of Liaoning, cut off water supplies to its 300-odd saunas and bath houses after it was hit by drought for the third consecutive year, local water officials said.

"They have been left completely on their own since we cut their running-water supplies," said an official at the city's Water Administration Office.

A few large saunas were using expensive de-salinised seawater, while others were shipping spring water from hundreds of kilometres (miles) away, he said.

"But most are out of business by now," he added.

Punitive Prices

The municipal government has forced many of the city's industries to cut water consumption or turn to non-drinkable recycled water and imposed strict limits on domestic water use.

Any family using more than six tonnes of water per month must pay 10 times the usual price of 1.8 yuan (22 cents) per tonne, the official said.

Should there be no rainfall before August, a one-billion-yuan ($120 million) back-up project would start channeling water to the city from a nearby river, he said.

The Liaoshen Evening News, a newspaper based in the Liaoning provincial capital of Shenyang, said a survey showed 70 per cent of its readers supported an immediate ban on saunas and bath houses.

In Weihai, on the coast of the eastern province of Shandong, fresh water ran for only four hours each in the morning and evening, state broadcaster China Central Television reported on Tuesday.

The city government had cut the per capita water allowance to one tonne per month and raised the price of an extra tonne to 40 yuan ($4.8), more than 20 times the usual price, it said.

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