The northern city of Xilinhot is booming as the coal industry expands. But it will take a lot of water to feed both the city and mining.
Originally posted on the CSRwire website.
By Carl Ganter, Circle of Blue
Wu Yun, 23, tucks in her mittens and pulls on furry boots to help her father feed the livestock, as a frigid blast of razor-sharp ice crystals - some of them blackened from the dust of nearby open-pit coal mines - rolls across the horizon, stopping only to swirl and tear at exposed flesh. She hunkers down, unlatches the gate and lets the sheep out to graze on the fragile, brown stubble.
