Water is scarce in all of China I have seen so far. You just don't see water being wasted. The worry is that water will be procured at any environmental cost. Cheap energy will also solve the water shortage that most of the world faces or will soon face.
Water is so dear in Yinchuan that I saw 2 guys parked on a bridge over a lake, filling a bucket with water by hand from the lake with which to rinse off their car. It's the first time I've seen anyone wash their car here.
Water is dear--and yet, every day in my hotel, they mop the carpet (sic).
