opportunity cost意思_Opportunity,cost

　　China is scouring the globe for oil, minerals and natural gas to import to keep its economic machine humming. But water will remain the one commodity that China cannot acquire through trade; it is too cheap, too heavy and too highly demanded to be imported practically.
　　Yet over the past three decades, China’s galloping economic growth has wasted water resources and pushed the country towards a water crisis. China has about 2,200 cubic meters of water per capita, or one-fourth of the world’s average.
　　Beijing is waking up to this crisis: It has devoted US$635 billion to upgrade outdated and inadequate water infrastructure and promote conservation between 2011 and 2020 – almost four times what it spent over the past 10 years. That funding is creating big opportunities for water-related companies. Yet experts remain divided over the proper course for solving water shortages. China Economic Review spoke with some of those affected by water shortages and those working to solve them.
　　Mr. David he, a native of Yunnan province:
　　Environmental degradation is the flipside of economic development. My home province has been stricken with droughts for the past three years. Back in February 2010, when Yunnan province experienced its most severe drought, each household was allocated only one bucket of water and the entire family had to survive on that for three days. The local government mobilized Communist Party members and experts to hunt for underground resources but they were often unsuccessful. I remember my dad and I trekked for two hours to find water but had no luck. People are growing more reliant on the government to carry out emergency policies and remain dangerously ignorant of the reality.
　　Mr. wang shichang, head of the desalination research centre at tianjin university:
　　We will face very severe water shortages in China in the next 20 or 30 years because of our large population and small per capita water resources. Beijing is trying to solve the problems by launching centrally administrated projects. Take Tianjin as an example: The massive chemical factories and other enterprises that are developing around the port in the Binhai New Area demand a lot more water than is available locally. So Tianjin has issued policies such as income tax exemptions for companies producing and using desalinated water and a 10-15% allowance for purchasing desalination equipment. These policies have become almost compulsory, since the government cannot provide companies with any conventional water. We’re also trying different ways to use desalinated water to meet household demand, but we haven’t made much progress yet because the price of desalinated water is about RMB5-7 (US$0.79-1.11) per cubic meter in Tianjin, while tap water is about RMB3.9(US$0.62) per cubic meter.