China's system of bureaucracy may be fueling its problems with access to clean, safe water, according to researchers writing in the journal Science. What the researchers call "stovepipe bureaucracy," in which agencies communicate with their own teams but not each other, limits China's ability to ensure sustainable access to water. The report described a web of agencies with contradictory missions and actions that promote one policy while going against another. Many problems arise when agencies fail to coordinate, according to a researcher. For example, more agriculture means more fertilizer, which pollutes water, and more energy requires more water use, which limits supply. In addition, conservation policies can be ineffective: since a 2004 policy promulgated to stop building water-intensive golf courses, 400 have been built. The effect of the government's water management problems are clear: over 40 percent of China's rivers are severely polluted; 80 percent of its lakes suffer from an oversupply of nutrients; and about 300 million rural residents lack safe drinking water access. The report authors recommended increasing focus on water efficiency in addition to more work to understand competing claims on water. For the full story, see http://uk.reuters.com/article/2012/08/09/us-china-water-idUKBRE87815B20120809.