A State Council conference on pollution control, attended by
Vice Premier Zeng
Peiyan, was held over the weekend in Bengbu, Anhui
Province. Four provinces -- Jiangsu,
Anhui, Shandong
and Henan
-- signed a pledge to the State Environmental Protection
Administration (SEPA) to cut pollution along the Huaihe River,
according to the People's Daily.
The provinces pledged to regulate the discharge of pollutants
from next year; build more sewage treatment, collection and
distribution facilities; and curb agricultural pollution.
Also beginning next year, the four provincial governments will
be required to submit reports on their pollution control activities
to SEPA. The administration will determine whether the provinces
are fulfilling their anti-pollution pledges and report to the State
Council.
Zeng told the conference that controls of heavily polluting
industries and enterprises in regions along the river should be
strengthened, according to the People's Daily. Both
central and local governments should increase investment in the
construction of sewage treatment facilities and sewage collection
and distribution systems, and more investment should be sought from
the private sector.
The Huaihe river, the country's third longest, supplies water
for around 165 million people in Henan, Hubei, Anhui and Jiangsu
provinces in central and eastern China.
The central government launched a 60 billion yuan (US$7.2
billion) campaign 10 years ago to clean up the river, but the
Huaihe Water, Environment and Resources Protection Administration
reports that it remains a toxic wasteland. The situation has
actually grown worse this year, according to local water quality
monitoring departments.
An administration investigation revealed that 31.5 percent of
industrial operations along the river -- which include paper mills,
chemical plants, food and beverage companies and textile producers
-- discharge pollutants far exceeding legal limits.
"The water is so polluted that it's not even suitable for
industrial or agricultural use, let alone supporting fish
populations," said Wang Hui, a researcher of the Water
Environmental Protection Center in Fuyang, Anhui Province. Fuyang
is located on the Shaying River, a tributary of the Huaihe.
An investigation by the Ecological Science Research Center on
the Huaihe River Valley found nearly 50,000 people have cancer in
at least 20 villages along the Shaying. At Huangmengying Village
alone, 114 people have died of cancer in the past 14 years.
In late July, unexpectedly heavy rainstorms hit the upper
reaches of the Huaihe and swelled a number of reservoirs, forcing
them to discharge water simultaneously. The accumulated polluted
water created a "dirty zone" that further contaminated the river
and rapidly moved downstream.
In Xuyi County, Jiangsu Province -- one of the worst affected
regions -- the incident killed 90 percent of the aquatic products,
causing losses of 310 million yuan (US$37 million), according to
the local aquatic products bureau.
China rates water quality from grade one to five, with five
considered too toxic even to touch. Tests conducted in July and
August this year rated the water in the lower reaches of the Huaihe
five, making it unfit even for irrigation.
Qu Geping, chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC)
Environmental and Resources Conservation Committee, said last month
that pollution control along the Huaihe is poor because four
separate provinces manage the area. He suggested that the State
Council take over management of the entire river region.
(China Daily October 26, 2004)
