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Water pollution little changed, team finds
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A water quality investigation team that checked the water quality in the Huangpu River’s upper reaches and the Dianshan Lake region returned to Shanghai in late June with mixed results.
The mission, titled “Jingze Plan” (jingze literally means clean lake) this year, was part of a project to research and analyze the drinking water quality in 20 cities around China in three months.
The one-day field trip in Shanghai visited eight sampling locations on June 26. The team was made up of environmental experts, students and media professionals.
A year ago, Shanghai Daily joined a team checking the source of drinking water in the upper reaches of the Huangpu River just two months after the shocking incident of thousands of dead pigs floating in the river.
The water quality this time had improved over last year, but the problems remain.
As Shanghai is at lower reach of the Yangtze River, industrial and agricultural pollution from upstream provinces gathers here and becomes a major threat to ensuring safe water in the city.
While water is abundant as rivers, creeks and lakes are found everywhere in the region and annual rainfall is significant, the amount of clean water is scarce.
As a passive recipient of the water pollution, Shanghai has to rely on good water-treatment technology to solve the problem.
“The drinking water quality in Shanghai relies totally on the economic development and ecological environment in the upstream regions,” says Zhang Junfeng, who led the mission this year and also started the amateur environmental protection organization Le Shui Xing (happy water trip) that has observed the rivers in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei Province since 2007.
“So it’s crucial to cooperate with upstream provinces to balance the ecological environment in order to ensure the safety of drinking water in Shanghai,” he says.
With the use of quick water-quality examination kits, the team tested on site for PH value, dissolved oxygen (DO), permanganate index, ammonia nitrogen and phosphorus (P). The water samples were taken from the surface of the water body. Because it was raining, the pollution was slightly diluted.
China uses a water quality ranking system of 1 to 5. Level 1 is excellent quality requiring only simple treatment; Level 2 means slightly polluted but drinkable with treatment; Level 3 is for swimming pools and fish farming; Level 4 is undrinkable and can be used for industrial purposes and artificial scenery without human contact; while Level 5 water is for agriculture and landscape.
From the result, the PH value was 7 in all samples, the DO was 7 in all locations except one 6 at Qiandun Bridge in north of Dianshan Lake in Qingpu District, and nitrogen trioxide was 10 in all locations.
These three indicators were acceptable and better than Level 3 water quality. But the level of permanganate index (8 on average), phosphorus (>0.1 in six locations) and ammonia nitrogen (>0.02) was worse than 3, meaning the water has high levels of eutrophication and excessive organic matter that’s typically the result of farming.
In some samples, the heavy metal level was slightly higher as different regions have diverse functions and produce different pollution levels.
The results showed that water quality is best at the port of Dianshan Lake among the eight locations, while the northernmost part of the lake (in Jiangsu Province) is the worst. It has extremely high nitrogen levels (5 when Level 3 requires 0.02) and phosphorus (0.3 when Level 3 requires 0.1).
The Dianshan Lake water area covers Shanghai as well as Jiangsu Province, and the water quality differs. The findings showed that the water quality in Shanghai is better than those in Jiangsu, mainly because the Jiangsu area is an industrial zone with leather factories and electronics companies.
“It’s worrying to see these companies and entertainment facilities by Dianshan Lake, and (you wonder) if the water flowing into Shanghai is in the safe state,” Zhang says.
One basic approach to alleviating the problem is for Shanghai to initiate eco-compensation for water source areas, asking officials to stop economic expansion and shut down factories, he says.
“People in the conservation areas should be paid for stopping their works and ensure the safety of water,” he says. “It can be carried out in the region surrounding Dianshan Lake, and the perimeter can be expanded as the economy develops.”
During the trip, Zhang also explained that even though the water quality is not at its best, children — especially infants — should not be drinking purified water or distilled water with very low TDS value (total dissolved solids) because they lack minerals and can cause malabsorption.
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