An investment of 12.46 billion yuan (US$1.59 billion) is to be
made by the Chinese capital of Beijing between 2006 and 2010 to
control worsening water pollution, according to a plan issued on
Wednesday. The proposal is designed to ensure a cleaner water
supply for the city of 16 million ahead of the 2008 Olympic Games.
The proposal, issued by Beijing's environment watchdog and the
city's planning agency, details proposals for 35 new waste water
treatment plants before 2008. By then 90 percent of waste water in
urban Beijing and 50 percent in the suburbs will be treated before
it flows into rivers and lakes, according to the plan. The city
will shut off more than 1,000 sewer pipes along 30 of its rivers by
2008.
The same year Beijing will be able to treat all sewage and
garbage from 41 villages in an area of 362 square kilometers near
the Miyun, Huairou, and Guanting reservoirs. These are the city's
major drinking water sources.
The plan also details the city tackling soil erosion over 3,560
square kilometers near, or upstream, from the Miyun and Guanting
reservoirs by 2010.
The environmental protection bureau says untreated waste water,
industrial effluent and agricultural pollution are responsible for
the deteriorating water quality of rivers, reservoirs and
lakes.
The bureau said earlier this week that pollution of Beijing's
water supply was getting worse and water from the Guanting
reservoir, the city's fourth largest drinking water source, wasn't
fit for human consumption or even irrigation.
At level five on the pollution index water is only suitable for
irrigation. Water from the Guanting reservoir is below this and
therefore not fit for agricultural use.
With 21 reservoirs Beijing faced serious water supply problems
as the Zhaitang, Taoyukou, Niantan and Daning reservoirs had all
dried up, said the bureau in its first monthly report on water
quality.
Miyun, Huairou and Yanqinggucheng reservoirs, the capital's
other major drinking water sources, are still providing clean and
potable water, said the report which is posted on the bureau's
website.
Water quality levels between one and three are considered
potable.
The report also said nearly half of Beijing's scenic lakes and
ponds were polluted and their water was unfit to irrigate the park
landscape around them.
It added that water quality in seven Beijing lakes like the
Winter Palace and Taoranting Lakes was below level five. Only four
lakes could be used to supply drinking water while water from the
others was only fit for industrial use.
(Xinhua News Agency November 30, 2006)
