High rise buildings sem to have priorities and better pumps. we had a few hours of water cuts when "the drought" hit. But water is running wothout interruptions in the last months. Since the pressure is low those additional pumps are very bad or the pipelines especially in the old houses.

So I guess certain areas have priorities as well.
Colin, I lnow it sucks to run a business without the most important resources. Hope that students (areas) will be back on the Kunming Water Priority list.

Sorry to hear that many people still suffer from water rationing especially if outside of the CityCenter. Hope you guys will have water again soon.

From my experience it looks like modern buildings even in the suburbs seem to suffer less from the water rationing.

I think tall buildings have roof top tanks to provide water pressure, and also service as a small reserve for inconsistent water pressure at street level.

So, if you happen to live in a high rise building you might not know of or experience water pressure problems. Except, of course, when the electricity is off, then you get no water at all.

Adding pumps to boost water pressure is a bit of a kluge solution. Adding a holding tank, with a water closet-like level control and a pump to keep the tank full would be a better solution. I think that you only need about 10 meters of elevation to get good steady pressure.

There should be companies that do this. I can see setups on roof tops. Got to be better than a dumb, no choice pump.

@The Dudeson's
Well 2009 and 2011 were well below average rainfall years. So it's not just all due to waste/mismanagement. But I agree waste/not enough reservoirs/rapid city growth are influential factors in urban water shortages. I lived through a few "droughts" in Seattle, Washington. Too much growth for too few small reservoirs. Rain is not an issue in Seattle.

I agree with The Dudeson's that Kunming may have water management issues as it can't be a problem with no rainfall. Although January-February this year were very sunny with weeks of beautiful sunshine and no rain, that's normal for Kunming given the climatic zone it lies in. Kunming also always receives plenty of rain during the summer monsoon, which is now. Regions of India, Bangladesh, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia and northern Australia (amongst others) all have similar wet-dry climate cycles with almost daily sunshine during the dry season (with lower temperatures as well) and almost daily rain during the rainy season and Kunming, being just north of some of these regions is no exception. While there may be differences year-to-year, the chance of any of these regions subject to a monsoonal season with absolutely no rain is virtually zero.

If you experts, many have Foreign Expert books so you must be, convince the local government that so much water is being wasted, they have an easy solution. They will just issue an edict that water consumption must be cut 10% or 20%. Then they make the building's management responsible.

From here it is easy. Turn the water off one day a week and you 'save' 10%. Turn off the water off 2 days a week and you 'save' 20%.

Clearly, this has no effect on what you perceive as water waste but it does reduce water consumption.

Oh, large businesses, SOEs, and hotels will need to be exempted. Government offices and their living compounds should not be affected.

Lastly, the use of sewer water for watering plants should be encouraged.

QED. Water conservation with Chinese characteristics.

As to the drought, well I was here for the rainy season in 2008. It rained a hell of a lot more that year than it has in the last three years. To me, it does not seem there is enough rain this year. Not as much as 2008 so far is my guess.

@Geezer, thanks for calling me an expert, it's flattering and I appreciate it, even though I am not. But I like to see into both sides of the issue and nature is getting so much trouble lately, I felt it's unfair for mother earth to be blamed for it, again. :)

If you are interested, read some essays and papers by a very nice man from the UK named Richard Hardiman, dunno if Geezer consideres him as an expert but India and China does.

I had the pleasure to interview him and he said something nice and interesting..."It's not the water you see that is the problem!"
And when a filmcrew guy told him that he teaches his kid to save water, he said that's great for individual awareness but won't help much, to save water.

The drinking water cycle is a closed,... well, except in Kunming,...cycle.

Thats the problem you face with your water cuts up in the north. (management not the drought).
Why?...
Becasue we have exotic plant (that are not from yunnan) and they need plenty of water, so that we can call KMG, the spring city/flower city etc.

The water management has a great idea, which is to use waste water (shit and piss) to water the plants (a bit of a health and hygiene hazard plus that the flowers don't smell nice anymore)....what those water experts forget is that they still take the water out of the use-water cycle....GREAT IDEA, but to keep the pressure you have to refill the pipes. It's stupidety is so elegant.

Thats only 'ONE' reason, the resevoirs empty faster than they fill. People are f@!&ing with the closed water cycles.

Stop doing that and you will have one base water cycles closed and working.
Then you start working with the other problems filling the resevoirs, hm..., how do we do that?
..."All roads lead to Rome", you build an "aqueduct" from a quite infinite water source.

The Romans were able to build them up to 60miles around 60AD, so I guess modern day China would be able to add a few yards here and there ...oooooh but I forgot they prefer building inefficient show-off project such as the 3Gorges Dam and a few never ones up the Mekong and ruining the sensitive water cycles for not just China but every country South of the Dam.

But knowing the water issue is in the hands of the people well known for great problem solving, logical approaches, and never waiting for a problem to appear first, but rather looking into solving the future issues, ...
I am certain we don't have to worry about the City of KMG's water problems, let's say we have a drought...heheh!

True I am not an expert, but I worked on a Belgium Saline Pipeline and read material about water problems and sollutions and with a bit of logical thinking, I think we can say that the drought (or inconsistent rain periods) are not the main issue, but unprofessional water management and budget efficient behavior that is absolutly counter-productive.
I am not saying I have better ideas but I think the ones in action right now aren't either.

Massive increase in urban demand is the big issue.
Urbanization of the people, and modern lifestyles.

I agree with AlexKMG and Dazzer. Several factors got us to today's water shortage. Population growth is a significant factor.

The seasonal rains are inconsistent which is why we build reservoirs. Planners need to prepare years in advance to meet projected needs to guess at how much prepare for. So given the need to expend current revenues to meet future guessed needs, the tendency is to low ball the guess and spend less.

Wasted water is just a factor in the guess. It is also a guess as is population and industrial growth. In fact, the existence of today's multiple reservoirs, perhaps insufficient, perhaps not, indicates to me the planning effort was almost successful.

I think the rapid population growth over the last decade was not guessed correctly. In other words, the demand for water was under guessed. Further, at least one reservoir, near the Golden Temple, is defective contributing to the available water shortfall.

Adding to what would, normally, be acceptable errors in guessing, we have had a multiple year period of less than normal rain fall. The net result is insufficient water supply. This is not a cultural, political, governmental, or management problem. It is due to several guesses all being wrong at about the same time. No matter how much math or how many facts and statistics are applied, the Chinese would say "scientific" methods, you still have no more than a SWAG.

@The Dudeson's

I would suggest the Chinese achievements in managing huge water projects make the Roman aqueducts seem a bit puny. Check out Sunshu Ao and the later diversion of the Zhang river. The Chinese were diverting huge amounts of water hundreds of years before Rome's aqueducts.