China is facing severe crises relating to water. Along with industrialization and urbanization, China has been unable to keep up with the construction of urban drainage, sewage, and wastewater treatment. This has resulted in pollution of water bodies including coastal seas by toxic industrial waste causing water shortage. Ground subsidence and seawater are becoming problems because of the over-use of groundwater in some coastal cities like Shanghai and Tianjin.
Northern China is suffering chronic shortages inducing desertification and severe pollution in all major rivers. This is threatening human health and is causing red tides along the coast, and flooding on major rivers due to destruction of wetlands and lakes.

Drinking water shortage and Public health issue
Direct disposal of industrial waste containing toxins has made water in the rivers and coastal seas unusable for any purposes. Furthermore, poisons has seeped into groundwater, contaminating drinking supplies and leading to a rash of cancers
Rivers around industrial area have water as black as ink and are clotted with debris causing drinking water to be scarce in places near the industries and factories.
High levels of bacteria, fluoride and cancer-causing substance are being detected in water. There has been significant increase in diagnosis of cancer which can be blamed to increasing pollutant in the drinking water sources. Water-borne diseases like dysentery, cholera and typhoid are also highly prevalent.
Water shortage is also caused by drying of water bodies. For instance, water tables are dropping in Guangdong province, forcing residents to use water direct from polluted rivers. In northern Guangdong, farmers who had good wells now must carry water past dried up fish ponds.

Irrigation, Agriculture and Fishing
About 70 percent of the water used for irrigation in China but due to pollution of water bodies water supply has decreased causing greater demand for water. Due to lack of proper irrigation, agriculture in China is facing difficulties. Freshwater fisheries are being severely degraded by pollution and over fishing.

Deterioration of Aquatic life
When toxic water is discharged into the water bodies, this may disrupt the ecological balance in the water, since toxic chemical might prove lethal to water organisms including fishes. This may cause some species to either go into extinction or migration to a more suitable environment. This may lead to severe damage to the ecosystem.