A group of local officials have been punished for failing to
maintain the cleanliness of Baiyangdian Lake in north China's Hebei Province, after a large amount of
rotting fish were discovered in the lake in February.
They included four environmental protection officials, one
county deputy magistrate and two township officials.
According to the Hebei Provincial Environmental Protection
Bureau, economic loss from the pollution has reached 23.8 million
yuan (US$2.93 million).
The State Environmental Protection Administration revealed on
Thursday that the fish were suffocated to death because of
insufficient oxygen in the water as a result of heavy
pollution.
The administration made the announcement after it conducted a
joint investigation with the Ministry of Agriculture and the Hebei
provincial government.
The investigation found that a lack of waste treatment in nearby
towns and a glut of paper mills on the upper reaches of the lake
were to blame for the pollution.
According to statistics, Baoding, the largest city on the upper
reaches, produces domestic and industrial wastewater of 250,000
tons per day.
However, the city has only two sewage treatment plants with a
combined daily capacity of 160,000 tons, which means 90,000 tons of
wastewater are directly discharged into the lake without treatment
every day.
In addition, none of the 12 counties on the upper reaches of the
lake have sewage treatment plants.
The investigation revealed that the paper-making industry has
been running out of control in Mancheng County on the lake's upper
reaches in recent years.
The county now has 156 paper mills that produce 80,000 tons of
wastewater every day; however, it has only one sewage treatment
plant handling 30,000 tons a day. The rest of the wastewater
receives basic treatment by the plants before it's discharged.
The investigation also found that some of the plants began
covertly discharging wastewater when they realized the monitoring
system of local environment authorities was inadequate.
Low water levels caused by drought also contributed to the
deterioration of the water. The lake needs a water level of 8.4
meters to maintain its normal ecological function; however, due to
long-term drought, the lake has long been under this level.
When the rotten fish were discovered in February, the water
level was only 7.07 meters.
The Baoding municipal government has so far closed or limited
the wastewater discharge of 218 plants and taken action against 11
of them for illegal discharge.
In a bid to clean it up, 50 million cubic meters of water will
soon be transferred from two reservoirs into the lake.
The local government has put aside more than 2 million yuan
(US$247,000) to compensate fishermen for their loss.
The once-thriving Baiyangdian Lake, known as the "Pearl of North
China," has an area of 366 square kilometers and is the largest
freshwater lake on the north China Plain.
(China Daily April 8, 2006)