In a new report, consultancy McKinsey & Co. says fixing China's looming water crisis can be profitable. But the government's focus on increasing water supply with megaprojects, like the multibillion-dollar network of canals being built to divert water to the north, offers a poor return on investment.
咨询公司麦肯锡公司(McKinsey & Co.)在一份新的报告中说，解决中国日益显现出来的水资源危机问题可能会获利。不过，政府专注于用大型项目来增加水资源供应的做法──比如规模数十亿美元的“南水北调”工程──带来的投资回报却很低。

'A number of recent policy measures have focused on increasing China's water supply. Managing demand, however, will be far more critical in China's efforts to address its water gap,' says the report.
报告中说，最近出台的一系列政策措施都是集中在增加中国的水资源供应上；不过，对水资源需求的管理对中国解决水资源不足问题却要重要的多。

Instead of spending as much as an estimated 500 billion yuan, about $73 billion, on the South-to-North Water Transfer Project, which will divert water from the Yangtze, Yellow, Huaihe and Haihe Rivers along a series of canals to the parched north, McKinsey says China should invest in things like patching up leaky municipal water pipes, managing irrigation better and recycling more industrial-use water.
麦肯锡说，中国不该花约人民币5,000亿元（合730亿美元）进行“南水北调”工程，而应该投资于城市渗漏水管的维修、对灌溉的更有效管理和循环利用更多工业用水等方面。“南水北调”工程将把长江、黄河、淮河和海河的水沿着一系列河道引入水资源匮乏的北方。

Right now, water pollution and scarcity is costing China 2.3% of its gross domestic product, the report says. Traditional thinking holds that it will cost even more to provide enough water for future growth.
报告中说，目前水污染和水资源短缺带来的费用占了中国国内生产总值(GDP)的2.3%。传统的观念认为，为未来增长提供足够的水资源将花费更多资金。

McKinsey argues against that. In another of its famous cost-curve analyses, similar to an earlier model on reducing greenhouse gases, it figures water conservation and recycling projects could actually bring in 131 billion yuan, or $19 billion, in annual profits.
麦肯锡对此提出了异议。在另外一份知名的成本曲线分析中（与较早时候的减少温室气体排放的模型类似），麦肯锡得出，水资源的保护和循环利用项目每年实际可以带来人民币1,310亿元（合190亿美元）的利润。

China needs all the good news it can get. Its population of 1.3 billion and growing is one-fifth of the world's population. But China has very poor water resources --only 7% of the world's freshwater. Urbanization and industrialization are only increasing China's demand for more water, straining already depleted sources. The ongoing drought in southern China, which has been called the worst in a century, has underscored the urgency of the problem.
中国面临着各方面的挑战。中国有13亿人口，占世界总人口的五分之一，而且仍在增长之中。不过，中国的水资源严重不足，只占全球淡水总量的7%。城市化和工业化只会增加中国的水资源需求，令已经匮乏的水资源更加紧张。最近中国南方遭遇了据说百年来最严重的一次干旱，凸显了问题的紧迫性。

But the rates of return on some of the solutions 'represent attractive investment opportunities for the private sector,' said Martin Joerss, a partner at the company who led the study.
不过麦肯锡合伙人、该研究项目的负责人尤茂庭(Martin Joerss)说，一些解决方案的投资回报率对私营领域来说代表了诱人的投资机会。