Environmental Degradation and Destruction:
Water Pollution in China
Japanese Economy EA
Introduction
As one of the largest growing economies in the world, China, as a developing country, is now experiencing similar problems that other developed nations faced in their past developing phase. Environmental pollution, deforestation, unemployment and bribery issues are common in China, and China’s ability to progress at a rapid pace has been affected by these problems. Out of all these problems, the issue of water pollution in China shall be addressed in this report due to the fact that Japan also faced a similar issue in its own past a couple decades ago in its industrialization phase.
The first part of this report introduces the history of China’s economy, where it will focus on how China has been able to progress so rapidly in the last five decades. The second part concentrates on water pollution itself and the consequences that have risen from this issue. After that, an introduction of Japan’s water pollution problem and its solution is given. Additionally, a comparison is made between the two countries, and an implementation plan would be given.
History of Chinese Economy
Recently, China’s economy experienced rapid growth and its GDP (gross domestic product) was the second largest all over the world in 2012. The figure below summarizes the GDP growth rate of China from 1961 to 2011.
World bank (updated May 15 2013)
There are four main points of history from the figure worth pointing out in the Chinese economy.
Firstly, in 1958, China experienced a failure in its economy. Before 1958, there was a positive and stable growth rate for its GDP where it was able to support the former Soviet Union, but after that, its GDP fell into the negatives. From 1958 to 1961, China experienced a very rapid pace of economic growth, and this period was known as the “Great Leap Forward”. The second main drop in GDP