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Latest pigs in river case highlights water crisis
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THE country was plunged into a new drinking water crisis last week when it was confirmed that at least 131 dead pigs had been dumped into a major river.
The 758-kilometer-long Ganjiang River in east China’s Jiangxi Province provides drinking water to the provincial capital of Nanchang.
Despite attempts by the city’s water authorities to reassure residents that their drinking water was safe — after announcing on Wednesday it had removed the pigs from a section of the river, a major tributary of the Yangtze — the incident sparked an outcry.
In March of last year, thousands of pig carcasses were retrieved from the Huangpu River in Shanghai, which provides 22 percent of the city’s tap water. Also last year, a leakage of aniline in Shanxi Province affected drinking water in neighboring Hebei Province.
About 280 million people across the country drink unsafe water, the Ministry of Environmental Protection revealed in a report this month.
The report also said 110 million people live less than 1km from at least one industrial site that might have a pollution problem.
Moreover, 140 million people live within 50m of a major road, it said.
Underground water also remains a serious problem. According to a 2011 report by the Ministry of Land and Resources, the quality of water at 55 percent of the 4,727 sites monitored in 200 cities was either “bad” or “extremely bad.”
The same year, the State Council passed a five-year plan aimed at ensuring the rural population has access to safe drinking water. By the end of next year, the government hopes to have solved water problems for 298 million rural residents.
Local governments have also realized that rapid economic growth can be costly in more ways than one.
Zhejiang Province, which has a booming private sector, has realized growth has come at a cost to the environment. The coastal province’s rivers used to be well supplied with water. Now, per capita water resources are below the national average.
Last year it set up a “River Duty Officer” system, under which officials are held accountable for pollution in different rivers.
“Three municipal leaders in Jinhua City have been removed from their posts and seven others were punished for negligence in tackling water pollution,” Xia Baolong, secretary of the provincial committee of the Communist Party of China, said.
“It’s reassuring that both central and local governments are making an effort,” Ni Junhua, head of Green Zhejiang, an environmental NGO, said.
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