“There are some rules but the enforcement is doubtful,” said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs in Beijing. Ma said he wasn’t surprised subsidence was relatively high in the Chaoyang district given its rapid growth of recent decades. He expected it to keep moving east as the city sprawled in that direction.

公众环境研究中心主任马俊说：“有一些监管规则，但执行成效令人怀疑。”马俊说他对朝阳区地表下沉速度更快并不惊讶。因为朝阳区近几十年来发展非常快。他预计随着整个城市向东扩展，地表下沉将会继续向东延伸。

China inaugurated a mega-engineering project aimed at mitigating Beijing’s water crisis. The state completed construction of the South-North Water Diversion.

中国实施了一项大型的工程项目来缓解北京的用水紧张，现已完成了南水北调工程的建设。

Even before the canal began delivering water, Beijing was easing up on some groundwater pumping. In January of 2015 the Chaoyang district announced plans to phase out 367 water wells, reducing the use of 10m cubic meters of underground water.

在南水北调工程开始通水之前，北京已经开始控制某些地区的地下水抽取。2015年1月，朝阳区宣布计划停用367口水井，每年减少开采地下水千余万立方米。

Experts say it is still too early to know if the canal’s water deliveries will help recharge the aquifer and slow Beijing’s rate of subsidence. In the meantime concerns about impacts to buildings and rail systems continue. To prevent derailments a 2015 study recommended that China ban new water wells near completed high-speed rail lines.

专家表示，想要知道南水北调能否帮助充盈含水层并减慢北京下沉的速度还为时尚早。在此期间，人们仍将担心下沉对建筑物和铁路系统的影响。为防止列车脱轨，2015年的一项研究建议中国禁止在已完工的高铁轨道旁打井。

Other cities around the world are experiencing subsidence caused by excessive water pumping or other factors. Mexico City is sinking by up to 28cm a year and Jakarta is subsiding at a similar rate. Bangkok is dropping annually by as much as 12cm, similar to Beijing, according to the Remote Sensingresearchers.

根据《遥感科学》的研究，世界上其他诸多城市也受到过度抽取地下水或其他因素导致的地表下沉的困扰。墨西哥城每年下沉多达28厘米，雅加达下沉速度类似。曼谷每年下沉多达12厘米，与北京类似。英文来源：英国卫报（中国日报网）