Pesticide washed down from trees by rain was blamed for the
death of around 1,000 fish at Beijing's Old Summer Palace over the
weekend, an official with the park said on Tuesday.
Workers at the Old Summer Palace, also known as Yuanmingyuan
Park, sprayed pesticide on willows along the riverbank on Thursday
as part of their maintenance routine. However, an unexpected
downpour early on Sunday washed the pesticide into the river, said
Zong Tianliang, spokesman for the attraction in northwest
Beijing.
The poisoned water flowed into a 100-meter-long shallow brook,
where more than 1,000 young fry were seen floating on the
surface.
Zong denied local media reports that around 10,000 fish
died.
Most of the fish were six-mm carp and the largest fry weight
about 400 grams, said Zong.
He said the incident was the result of an accident, adding the
strength of the pesticide was rather high and the shallow water in
the brook failed to dilute the poison content.
Workers had used the pesticide in the park for many years and
this was the first accident concerning its use, said Chen Chunxu,
head of the plant management team of the park.
Chen said lessons had been learnt and they would adjust the
strength of the pesticide and increase supervision and
maintenance.
Weather conditions would also be taken into consideration in the
future, officials with the park's administration said.
The river area where the dead fish were found had been cleaned
up by Sunday afternoon.
Yuanmingyuan, the royal garden built in the early 18th century
and once known as "Versailles of the East", was first overrun by
British and French infantry in 1860. What survived that attack was
largely ravaged in 1900 by an invasion force of soldiers from eight
foreign countries.
The park, built on the ruins of the former garden as a reminder
of foreign aggression, was in the spotlight two years ago for
putting membranes at the bottom of its lake to keep water from
seeping out during drought periods. Yet the membranes were
criticized of having killed lakebed wildlife and stopped the flow
of groundwater and the top environment agency ordered park
management to remove them.
In addition to the dead fish incident, a large area of pond
lilies in the Houhai Lake area of downtown Beijing began to wither
over the past four days, according to a report released by the
Beijing News on Tuesday.
Some residents living around the old Imperial Lake area, which
has turned into a hot tourists destination that boasts peaceful
lakeside landscape and many trendy restaurants, pubs and boutiques,
are concerned about the water quality of the lake.
Experts from the Beijing Hydraulic Research Institute, which
planted the lilies, said no problem has been detected after water
quality examination of the lake area, attributing the death of the
lilies to the climate.
Workers in charge of maintaining the plants in the area also
said the water seems normal. They had cut off the withered leaves
and branches, expecting them to blossom again.
The accident has highlighted the city's ongoing environmental
concerns ahead of next year's Olympic Games.
Beijing authorities are striving to improve the city's water and
air quality to realize the promise of staging a "Green Olympics",
but the challenge is tough.
The city faces grave water supply problems as four of its 21
reservoirs have dried up, according to a report released by the
municipal environment protection bureau last year.
Meanwhile, nearly half of Beijing's sightseeing lakes and ponds
are so polluted that their water cannot even be used to irrigate
the park landscape that surrounds them.
The report said water quality in seven of Beijing's lakes, such
as the Winter Palace Lake and Taoranting Lake, can be used only for
irrigation. Only four lakes could be used to supply drinking water,
while water from the other lakes is only fit for industrial
use.
Beijing authorities are striving to improve the city's water and
air quality to realize the promise of staging a "Green Olympics",
but the challenge is tough.
The municipal government plans to invest 12.46 billion yuan
(US$1.59 billion) by 2010 to curb worsening water pollution and
guarantee clean water supplies.
All rivers and lakes within Beijing's sixth ring road are
expected to be cleaned up before the Olympics, two years ahead of
the target date, said Liu Peibin, deputy general engineer with the
Beijing Water Authority.
The city has rebuilt or closed 2,000 waste water courses in the
last four years. A large sewage treatment network is helping the
city to purify waste water at a daily capacity of 2.48 million
cubic meters. From August next year, more than 90 percent of the
sewage in the city will be treated as five more plants are set to
be put into operation.
The city with about 16 million population conducted a four-day
experiment on August 17-20 to test whether pulling 1.3 million cars
off its roads each day would prove effective in reducing air
pollution during the Games.
Experts say pulling 1.3 million motor vehicles off the roads in
Beijing each day can reduce exhaust emissions by 40 percent.
(Xinhua News Agency August 29, 2007)
