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"Nearly 20 million people in China live in areas at high risk of arsenic contamination in their water supplies, according to a study published on Thursday. The Chinese government has labelled arsenic contamination, which it first diagnosed in China in the 1970s, as one of the country's "most important endemic diseases," due to the chronic side effects which include cancers, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. China has been undertaking time-consuming testing of wells but the process could take decades to complete, prompting the researchers of the new study to produce a computer model able to predict which areas would be most likely at risk."

"170 dead pigs recovered from a river in northwest China is the latest in a string of food and water safety scandals"

"A £25billion rival to the Panama Canal could be built across Nicaragua - funded entirely by the Chinese. The hugely ambitious engineering project would give China control of a vital waterway to challenge the one completed by the US in Panama nearly 100 years ago. Legislation paving the way for a new canal was given the go-ahead by Nicaraguan politicians on Monday night and is expected to be approved by the National Assembly tomorrow."

"A fifth of China's farmland is polluted, according to an offical report based on the results of an extensive survey."

"Nearly 60% of China's underground water is polluted, state media has reported, underscoring the severity of the country's environmental woes."

"South-north diversion project aimed at preventing water shortages has had no shortage of problems and criticism"

"Lester Brown says grain harvests are already shrinking as US, India and China come close to 'peak water'"

"A year from now, the 1,000km middle section of the South-North water diversion is expected to begin operation, channelling water from the south to the arid northern region, in one of the world's biggest feats of engineering. These pictures show the raising of the Danjiangkou dam in preparation for water diversion, which has resulted in the massive relocation of villagers in Xichuan county, Henan province"

Good images of project

"In their search for renewable electric power, China's engineers have been building mega-dams at a rate unmatched in human history. Many far larger than the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River - which is 221 meters high and capable of generating more than 2,000 megawatts of power - are being constructed on China's greatest rivers. Best known is the Three Gorges Dam, completed in 2008, which stretches a mile-and-a-half across the Yangtze and can generate ten times the hydropower of the Hoover Dam. Yet the Three Gorges is only a fraction of China's current dam programme. "

"From the iconic Hoover Dam of US to Mao's Three Gorges Dam in China and India's Sardar Sarovar, here is a selection of 12 mega dams of the world - but are they a boon or bane?"