China’s lakes seeing decline in pollution
Print Edition
POLLUTION levels in many Chinese lakes have declined somewhat from the high levels of the past decade, helped by billion-dollar investments in urban sewers and waste water treatment, scientists said yesterday.
Concentrations of phosphorus fell by a third from 2006 to 2014 in 862 freshwater lakes around China, although they remain above clean water levels, according to the report about the chemical element in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Phosphorus is vital to life, but high concentrations can trigger blooms of toxic algae that choke fish and other life. Man-made sources of phosphorus include waste water, livestock farming, aquaculture and chemicals.
“The current decline in the most populated areas is due to improved sanitation facilities” such as pipelines, waste water treatment plants and improved rural toilets, said Yan Lin, an author at the Norwegian Institute for Water Research.
The findings could guide other developing nations seeking ways to clean up vital freshwater resources, he told reporters.
The United Nations says that 2.4 billion people, about a third of the world’s population, lack access to basic sanitation services. Almost 1,000 children a day die because of diseases linked to polluted water or sanitation.
The study, the first to have common measurements of phosphorus across China’s lakes, showed the median level fell to 51 micrograms per liter in 2014 from 80 in 2006.
A level of 25 is considered good quality water in European legislation.
“A long time is to be expected before Chinese lakes could reach good ecological status,” according to report by a team of scientists in China, Canada and Norway.
Phosphorus builds up in lake sediments and lingers long after sources of pollution have dried up. Despite declines in most parts of China, levels had risen in the sparsely populated northeast, the report said, possibly due to climate change.
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