The front of a cadmium pollution belt on the Xiangjiang River in
the central-southern province of Hunan, passed the provincial
capital Changsha early Sunday morning.
The provincial environmental protection bureau said the content
of cadmium in the city's drink water source has already been
lowered to twice the national standard as against the former four
times the standard on Saturday.
As of Sunday, all the water provided for civil use has reached
the national standards.
The pollution was caused by the improper operations of a silt
clearing project in Xiawan Harbor, Zhuzhou, said Jiang Yimin,
director of the environmental bureau.
Zhuzhou Water Conservancy Investment Co. Ltd. started the
project on December 23, 2005 without permission from environmental
departments, according to the bureau.
The company dammed the mouths of waste draining pipes at the
Zhuzhou Smelting Plant on January 4, diverting polluted water,
containing cadmium waste, into two lakes. The pollution then flowed
into the Xiangjiang River.
The pollution has affected the two neighboring cities of
Changsha and Xiangtan.
By press time, emergency anti-pollution measures had been
activated with the help of experts from the State Environmental
Protection Administration (SEPA).
(Xinhua News Agency January 9, 2006)
