Threat to quality of Yangtze water
By Wang Qingchu |
November 10, 2011, Thursday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
THE domestic water supply for people living along the Yangtze River is in danger as record amounts of waste are dumped into China's major water artery every year, according to environment officials.
Industrial waste alone discharged into the Yangtze soared to 22.1 billion tons in 2009, more than the total amount of industrial and domestic waste released into the river four years previously, according to Economic Information Daily.
In 2007, domestic and industrial waste discharged into the river exceeded 30 billion tons, more than three times the level in the 1970s.
As waste dumped in the river increases each year, the water supply is under threat of pollution, according to He Chunyin, an official with Jiangsu Province Environmental Protection Department, quoted by the newspaper.
Industrial areas along the upper reaches of the Yangtze have multiplied as a result of rapid, large-scale economic development, discharging waste into the middle and lower reaches and raising serious concerns about pollution, He added.
More than 400,000 chemical plants, five steel production sites and seven major refineries are scattered along Asia's longest river, also known as the "golden gateway" from China's east to its west, according to statistics from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
Tap water in Mianyang City, in southwestern Sichuan Province, was contaminated by waste from a manganese plant in July, affecting more than a million people. Waste was washed into the Fujiang River, the city's main source of water and a tributary of the Yangtze, by heavy rains.
Experts are calling for a compensation mechanism, in which government subsidies will be offered to people disadvantaged economically by the banning of highly polluting industries, according to Wang Hao, director of the Water Resources Department of the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, the report said.
Pollutants in the Yangtze include nitrogen compounds that reduce drinking water quality and contribute to dramatic eutrophication - the bloom of organisms that deplete the water's oxygen.
Industrial waste alone discharged into the Yangtze soared to 22.1 billion tons in 2009, more than the total amount of industrial and domestic waste released into the river four years previously, according to Economic Information Daily.
In 2007, domestic and industrial waste discharged into the river exceeded 30 billion tons, more than three times the level in the 1970s.
As waste dumped in the river increases each year, the water supply is under threat of pollution, according to He Chunyin, an official with Jiangsu Province Environmental Protection Department, quoted by the newspaper.
Industrial areas along the upper reaches of the Yangtze have multiplied as a result of rapid, large-scale economic development, discharging waste into the middle and lower reaches and raising serious concerns about pollution, He added.
More than 400,000 chemical plants, five steel production sites and seven major refineries are scattered along Asia's longest river, also known as the "golden gateway" from China's east to its west, according to statistics from the Ministry of Environmental Protection.
Tap water in Mianyang City, in southwestern Sichuan Province, was contaminated by waste from a manganese plant in July, affecting more than a million people. Waste was washed into the Fujiang River, the city's main source of water and a tributary of the Yangtze, by heavy rains.
Experts are calling for a compensation mechanism, in which government subsidies will be offered to people disadvantaged economically by the banning of highly polluting industries, according to Wang Hao, director of the Water Resources Department of the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, the report said.
Pollutants in the Yangtze include nitrogen compounds that reduce drinking water quality and contribute to dramatic eutrophication - the bloom of organisms that deplete the water's oxygen.
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