The Disappearing Rivers of China

From the Daily Mail:

An official report from China’s Ministry of Water Resources released its first ever national census of water earlier this week found that the number of rivers in China with catchment areas of at least 100 square kilometres has dropped by half compared with 60 years ago.

The official study, conducted by around 800,000 surveyors said there were 22,909 rivers in China which had catchment areas of at least 100 sq km – as of the end of 2011. This is less than half the government’s previously estimated figure of over 50,000.

The large fall in the number of these rivers has prompted fears that China’s rapid economic development has also caused considerable water and soil loss.

China isn't as cheap for manufacturing as people think.  A lot of the costs of manufacturing are externalized (i.e., the pollution and work injuries), and simply not captured in the price charged by the manufacturers.