Water project hits quality problems
Source: Xinhua |
July 7, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
AUTHORITIES are still concerned about poor water quality on the eastern section of the South-to-North Water Diversion project eight years after construction began.
Vice Minister of Environmental Protection Zhang Lijun said thousands of polluting paper mills and alcoholic beverage factories had been shut down to improve the water quality of the world's largest water diversion project.
A State Council-approved directive issued before the eastern route's construction began required local authorities to ensure water quality of at least Grade 3, the minimum standard for water that is drinkable after treatment.
Zhang Jiyao, director of the SNWD office under the State Council, told reporters yesterday that: "There is still a long way to go before local authorities transform the eastern route into a clean-water corridor and ensure the quality won't decline again."
The construction of key pollution-control facilities is scheduled for the end of this year, Zhang said.
These include man-made wetlands which will purify urban waste water and pipelines linking urban sewage treatment plants, he said.
Measures will prioritize curbing pollution caused by irregular aquaculture, rural sewage and small shipping wharfs scattered along the Grand Canal near the eastern route.
Zhang urged local authorities to monitor pollution upstream of the Danjiangkou Reservoir - the water source of the SNWD's central route - to prevent pollution from entering the reservoir or contaminating its under-construction trunk canal.
The project will take water from the Yangtze River in the south to satisfy demand in drought-prone cities in the north, such as Beijing and Tianjin.
The eastern, central and western routes will each stretch more than 1,000 kilometers.
Construction began on the eastern route in 2002 and a year later on the central route. The eastern route is still on the drawing board but is due for completion by 2013.
The eastern route's first phase involves improving canals to connect river systems to channel water mainly through Jiangsu and Shandong - the two provinces on the route with the worst water pollution - to Tianjin.
Vice Minister of Environmental Protection Zhang Lijun said thousands of polluting paper mills and alcoholic beverage factories had been shut down to improve the water quality of the world's largest water diversion project.
A State Council-approved directive issued before the eastern route's construction began required local authorities to ensure water quality of at least Grade 3, the minimum standard for water that is drinkable after treatment.
Zhang Jiyao, director of the SNWD office under the State Council, told reporters yesterday that: "There is still a long way to go before local authorities transform the eastern route into a clean-water corridor and ensure the quality won't decline again."
The construction of key pollution-control facilities is scheduled for the end of this year, Zhang said.
These include man-made wetlands which will purify urban waste water and pipelines linking urban sewage treatment plants, he said.
Measures will prioritize curbing pollution caused by irregular aquaculture, rural sewage and small shipping wharfs scattered along the Grand Canal near the eastern route.
Zhang urged local authorities to monitor pollution upstream of the Danjiangkou Reservoir - the water source of the SNWD's central route - to prevent pollution from entering the reservoir or contaminating its under-construction trunk canal.
The project will take water from the Yangtze River in the south to satisfy demand in drought-prone cities in the north, such as Beijing and Tianjin.
The eastern, central and western routes will each stretch more than 1,000 kilometers.
Construction began on the eastern route in 2002 and a year later on the central route. The eastern route is still on the drawing board but is due for completion by 2013.
The eastern route's first phase involves improving canals to connect river systems to channel water mainly through Jiangsu and Shandong - the two provinces on the route with the worst water pollution - to Tianjin.
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