Beijing will collect and melt snow this winter in a bid to quench the water shortage that has plagued the Chinese capital for years, state media reported Friday.

Two vehicles with high-powered heaters capable of processing around 100 cubic metres (3,500 cubic feet) of snow and ice an hour will be sent to locations around Tiananmen Square, the Global Times said.

Clean snow will also be dumped into dammed sections in three rivers that drift through the city to be used for road cleaning, irrigation and to supplement the rivers' water levels, it said.

Additional snow-melting areas have been assigned citywide, it added.

For years northern China has been battling a water shortage that experts say is caused by global warming, drought and rising demand from tens of millions of people who live in Beijing and the booming areas around it.

Water consumption in Beijing, with a population of nearly 20 million and growing, rose to 3.55 billion cubic metres last year, compared with its water supply of 2.18 billion cubic metres, the Global Times said.

The city was hit by its worst snowstorm since 1951 on January 3 last year, which lasted 20 hours with an average snowfall of nearly 11 millimetres (less than half an inch).

earlier related report

Italian activists call for stop to water privatisation
Rome (AFP) Nov 12, 2010 –

Italian activists called for an immediate moratorium on the privatisation of water supply services in Italy on Friday, ahead of UN-backed talks on climate change in Cancun later this month.

Over 1.4 million Italians have signed a petition demanding a referendum to force the Italian government to put a stop to the privatisation of water, re-nationalise the industry and impose a cap on profits, activists said.

"It's clear how strongly people feel about this issue, which affects not only Italy but the entire planet," Simona Savini, representative for the Italian Water Forum behind the movement, said at a press conference in Rome.

"We've asked mayors across Italy and representatives from all political parties for their support. This is about respecting democracy and not going ahead with further privatisation until people have had a chance to vote," she said.

Activists are hoping a referendum will be held before the end of the year.

"From Bolivia to France, from Brazil to Belgium, in every country there are mobilisations and conflicts between those fighting for public water management and those who want to turn it over to multinationals," the forum's statement said.

The United Nations is hosting talks in Cancun from November 29 to December 10, where officials are set to discuss a binding agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in December 2012.

Last December's climate change conference in Copenhagen fell short of delivering the binding treaty that nearly all nations say is needed to spare the planet from the ravages of global warming.

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