China's Power in Wastewater
China has been utilizing small-scale biogas technology in rural areas since as early as the nineteenth century, with applications first appearing in the southern coastal regions and spreading throughout the Yangtze River Basin. In
China's Power in Wastewater
China has been utilizing small-scale biogas technology in rural areas since as early as the nineteenth century, with applications first appearing in the southern coastal regions and spreading throughout the Yangtze River Basin. In the late 1950s, municipal officials in the city of Wuchang, Hebei Province applied biogas digesters at a wider scale to address sanitation and health issues and use landfill waste to provide a source of alternative energy. In the 1970s and 1980s, the Chinese government promoted biogas technology more broadly in rural areas to modernize agriculture practices as well as to improve the health of farming families. Rural families have long suffered adverse health effects from inhaling the fumes and particulates released from burning wood indoors for cooking and heating, so utilizing clean-burning biogas considerably improved their quality of life. Furthermore, biogas technology provided rural households with electricity, as the homes were often remotely located without direct access to the main electricity grid.  Strikingly, in China today biogas applications are now expanding to the urban municipal and commercial wastewater treatment sector, which offers solutions to China's severe pollution from wastewater and pressing energy needs in cities.
FRAGILE FOUNDATION OF WEALTH
Overall China's impressive real GDP growth of 11.9 percent in 2007 illustrates the vast potential of the economy. Moreover, if total Purchasing Power Parity GDP was the sole indictor used to determine national prosperity, China would rank as the second wealthiest nation in the world with a GDP totalling to $7.099 trillion. However, as impressive this figure may be, $7 trillion spread amongst 1.3 billion citizens amounts to $5,400 GDP per capita—whereas the United States maintains a GDP per capita of $45,800. Although a seemingly modest 8 percent of the population lives below the poverty line, a total of 21.5 million rural dwellers live on the absolute poverty line of $90 per year. Additionally, another 35.5 million in the rural region live on $125 per year, which is the low-income line. 
Poverty in China is also exacerbated by severe environmental problems, particularly access to clean water. Water shortages and increasingly degraded water combined with the lack of affordable healthcare in rural China have made the burden of disease heavier in the countryside, which perpetuates a cycle of poverty (See CEHP Research Brief "Water-Borne Illnesses in China"). Of China's 1.3 billion citizens, 260 million—or 20 percent of the population—faced water scarcity in 2007. Furthermore, only 678 million citizens—or 52 percent of the population—are connected to wastewater treatment facilities.  The untreated municipal wastewater is the leading source of pollution in China's rivers and has led some 400 cities to suffer from inadequate access to clean water.  In 2007, China's Ministry of Health began releasing statistics linking increases in polluted water and air with growing rates of cancer in urban and rural areas.
Ultimately China's water pollution problems pose serious threats to human health and economic growth. While there are no quick fixes to China's water pollution crises, wastewater to biogas represents one promising technology that addresses China's main source of water pollution—municipal wastewater—and opens up a potentially successful source of renewable energy.
CHINA'S THIRST FOR ENERGY
In 2008, the Chinese government estimated an energy shortfall of at least 10 GW, which is only approximately 1.4 percent of the total installed energy capacity.  However, the actual energy deficit likely exceeded the estimation in 2008 partially due to depleted coal resources at existing mines and several natural disasters. Provinces including Shanxi, Guangdong, Shandong, and Sichuan are predicted to face power shortages two times the expected national shortfall.
As the second largest energy consumer globally, China rivals the United States with expectations to become the world's largest energy consumer as early as 2010. China has undoubtedly become a major global player in the energy market accounting for 15 percent of the global primary energy demand and is predicted to increase its share to 20 percent by 2030. Due to the sheer size of the country's energy demands, incremental changes in China's energy demand will result in considerable global impacts. If the average annual growth rate of China's primary energy demand grows by 1 percent in 2030, this would raise the world primary energy demand by 6 percent. 
Furthermore, electricity consumption in China amounted to 2,197 TWh in 2005. By 2006, China's electricity consumption increased by approximately 30 percent over that in 2005, reaching 2,859 TWh.  In order to meet the rapidly growing electricity demand, the International Energy Agency (IEA) predicts that China must increase its electricity generating capacity by over 1,300 GW by 2030, which is greater than the total installed capacity in the United States at present.
FLOODS OF WASTEWATER
Efficient water management is a challenging goal to achieve in China, as