A new study has found that China leads the world in investing in watershed protection, but drinking water for one in seven Chinese is still below national pollution standards.

CleanBiz Asia carries an article about the State of Watershed Payments 2012 report by US-based NGO Forest Trends. The report aims to track the size, scope, and direction of investments in watershed services globally as well as the ecological infrastructure from which they flow.

There has been a long history of local-scale NGO-driven payment mechanisms in Asia to protect watersheds, many of which are part of the World Agroforestry Centre’s RUPES (Rewards for, Use of and shared investment in Pro-poor Environmental Services) program. RUPES together with WWF-Care’s Equitable Payments for Watershed Services initiative are now winding down their efforts with the hope that the groundwork which has been laid will continue under community leadership.

Apart from government spending, almost one third of watershed investment in China comes from beneficiary-pays programs.

Global investment in water resources has risen enormously in recent years. The 205 projects analyzed in the study invested USD 8.17 billion in 2011. China accounted for 91 percent of the 2011 investment, and with good reason. Water insecurity is said to pose the single biggest risk to the country’s continued economic growth. It is this rapid growth which has damaged water systems, causing both water scarcity and pollution.

Read the full story: China leads global watershed investment but more needed