The most severe drought in more than a century ravaging Southwest provinces should serve as a reminder to other parts of the country that they need to get prepared to avert the dangers from the water crisis, with more than 400 cities in need of water.

Beijing is a case in point. With per capita water resources of only 180 cubic meters, scarcity of water has been a permanent scourge. And what the city has done in saving on water is far from enough.

A total of 220,000 tons of fresh water are wasted in flushing toilets every day. The amount of water leaking in a year from the old water supply pipelines is estimated to be about 70 Kunming Lakes at the Summer Palace. The 9,000 car-washing shops consume as much as 30 million cubic meters of water a year.