As Beijing makes its final preparations for the Olympics, residents in other parts of China are left counting the cost of what the Games mean for them.

On the eve of the Games, Beijing is positively blooming: the city is decorated with tens of millions of flowers, there are lush green lawns and new recreational facilities including golf courses. It all takes a lot of water, and it's water that Beijing simply doesn't have.

Much of the water being used to beautify Beijing is pumped from nearby Hebei province, where farmers and factory owners are paying a heavy price for a green Games. And though the Games will go for just two weeks, the country's water problems look set to continue indefinitely.

Jim Middleton speaks about China's water crisis with Isabel Hilton, a London based journalist who writes for The Guardian newspaper and is the editor of the website China Dialogue.

Jim Middleton: Isabel Hilton, welcome to the program.

Isabel Hilton, Editor, www.chinadialogue.net: Thank you, Jim. Nice to be with you.

Jim Middleton: Why does Beijing require so much extra water just for the Games?

Isabel Hilton: Well, Beijing requires more water than it's got even for, you know, normal life. Beijing is essentially built on a desert and in the last few years, for many reasons, the water supply in Beijing has become an acute problem. So they've been pumping ground water and the water table under Beijing has dropped 80 metres in the last 20 years. So they're using up the bank account in terms of water.

And Beijing being, you know, it's got a very dry climate. It has less than 20 inches a year of rain. Most of it falls between June and August. And for the rest of the time when you look around Beijing you don't see green grass, you don't see lawns, you don't see golf courses because the climate doesn't really support it.

The problem is that, for the Olympics they wanted everything to look absolutely perfect, so they've tried to flush out canals, they've tried to restore water to rivers, they've got the world's largest fountain which perhaps wasn't entirely necessary. They've built golf courses.

They've built all these very water heavy resources and there simply isn't enough water for as I say, for normal, everyday, urban life let alone for this showpiece Beijing that's being presented to the outside world for the Olympics. So they've had to take water from pretty much everywhere.

Jim Middleton: So what sort of pressure has this put on water supplies in districts surrounding Beijing?

Isabel Hilton: This is a pretty sensitive topic but in Hebei for instance, the whole agriculture cycle this year has been disrupted because farmers can't get water.

Beijing is imposing Beijing's needs on the surrounding provinces and it goes quite a long way.

They've built major canals, there is a big long term hydrology project called the South North Water Transfer because in China there is quite a lot of water in the south and there is a really, really serious long term water problem in the north. The Chinese Government's answer to this has been in terms of big engineering works. So they plan to divert water all the way from the south of China, from the Yangtze River, up to the north to address this the issue.

"They've built all these very water heavy resources and there simply isn't enough water for normal, everyday, urban life."

But the fact is that the water problem isn't just one of supply. Forty per cent of China's water is grade four and that is unfit for any purpose - that's agriculture, drinking, washing. You just shouldn't go near it. And that's a result of pollution and that in turn is a result of poor regulation, bad governance and all these things. So there is a kind of perfect storm in terms of water in China and it's a multiple cause, multiple effect problem.

Jim Middleton: So it's a problem not just of supply but actually of water quality. On the question of water quality, what are the Chinese authorities doing if anything to rectify that situation?

Isabel Hilton: Well they have been working on it. For instance, in Beijing itself because of the Olympics, the waste water treatment has gone from 40 per cent to 90 per cent in the last few years and that's definitely an improvement.

But you have a problem in China that you can pass a law in Beijing and down in Guizhou they just ignore you. So a couple of years ago the environmental protection agency did a little survey of waste water treatment in China and it found that half of the waste water treatment plants that were installed weren't being run because the local officials, the local governments just found them too expensive so they would rather discharge the water into the river, or into whatever it's being discharged into, untreated.

And you get the same with factories. You know you've got factories built, something like 20,000 factories along the Yangtze and the Yellow Rivers, none of which have controls on discharge. And if they do have controls on discharge, they just discharge at night when they think nobody's looking.

Jim Middleton: Now these diversions of water to Beijing for the Olympics particularly from Hebei province, do you think that they will continue once the Olympics have gone, that in an effort to make Beijing more attractive and sustainable that they'll simply keep on thieving the water from the provinces?

Isabel Hilton: Well I think there is that risk. I think in terms of the cosmetic things that have been done to Beijing in the last year really, you know, the laying of green grass, the planting of flowers everywhere, I wouldn't really bet too heavily that much of that will continue next year. I think it's simply too water heavy.

And you have real economic interests at stake in Hebei. You have those farmers, you have factories which are being shut down because they don't have water. And you're going to get a big, big fight with the provinces about the allocation of water resources. This is a problem anyway, everybody fights over a diminishing resource.

"Forty per cent of China's water is grade four and that is unfit for any purpose - that's agriculture, drinking, washing."

But if you look in the longer term at China's water supply there is an even more serious problem up ahead which is climate change. The prediction on climate change is that there will be more water in the south, less water still in the north.

And of course the glaciers of the Himalayas which supply 40 per cent of the world's population with river water are melting and may well be gone by 2035, so that the rivers from which the diverted water is being drawn are themselves going to come under stress.

Even now the Yellow River, which is the northern, big river of China, doesn't reach the sea for nearly two thirds of the year. The Yangtze still has plenty of water but that depends on the glaciers of the Himalayas. So that if you think it's bad now, really profound long term issues are just down the road.

Jim Middleton: How seriously are the implications of what you're saying recognised at official levels within China?

Isabel Hilton: Well I think that they are recognised. They certainly know what the climate change impacts are going to be and they have in recent years put a lot more effort into studying the glaciers and worrying about that.

It's pretty difficult. I mean, as I say there is a whole combination of factors coming into play here. One of them is that there have been centuries of ecological damage to the head waters of these rivers so desertification and tree felling at the head waters has effectively ruined the rivers.

"The prediction on climate change is that there will be more water in China's south, less water still in the north."

The Chinese response tends to be fairly short term. I know we think of China as a place where, because of the nature of the politics you can do long term planning, but actually politicians in China are concerned about their short term reputation and short term negotiation as much as anybody else. It's very difficult to plan for the long term and it's very difficult to enforce what you plan.

But they're certainly aware of it. Who wouldn't be?

Jim Middleton: Finally, it does appear that the Chinese are driven or have been driven to create this perfect Olympics with clear skies, plenty of water, why can't they see that this is an illusion that the rest of the world can see through as well?

Isabel Hilton: Well, I think that probably, I don't want to use the old cliche about face but I do think that China, after 20, 30 years of rapid growth, did want to make a big statement. It did want to feel that it mattered in the world, that this last century of being pushed around was over. And I think that that's been very important for the Chinese Government and it's partly a message they wanted to deliver to the people.

The people are very heavily invested in it. There is a great deal of hunger for national pride in China. So I guess that was the political calculation and we'll just have to hope that the hangover isn't too bad at the end of the year.

Jim Middleton: Isabel Hilton, thank you very, very much.

Isabel Hilton: It's a pleasure, Jim. Thanks for having me.