A national strategy to protect the Yangtze River -- the longest river of the country -- from being seriously polluted is being drafted by the Ministry of Water Resources.

One of the major tasks included in the strategy is the further upgrade of sewage treatment in major cities along the reaches of the 6,300-kilometer river.

This will ensure that no waste water is discharged into the river until it is properly treated and a deadline of 2010 has been set, sources with the Yangtze River Water Protection Bureau were quoted by Xinhua Friday.

Bureau statistics reveal that sewage discharged into the river has increased from 18.9 billion tons in 1998 to 23.4 billion tons in 2000.

Experts claim the amount will keep rising if proper measures are not taken immediately.

Pollution strips spanning 600 kilometers have already formed along the banks of the mainstream of the river, directly endangering the safety of drinking water for riverside residents.

The quality of water is good enough for use by humans and industry at only half of the monitoring points. Human discharge and industrial waste have caused the excessive accumulation of nutrients in lakes close to the river, killing fish.

The Ministry of Water Resources has completed research lasting more than a year and will launch a campaign to establish an effective mechanism to guarantee the clearance and vitality of the river.

Five cities will be the focus of the campaign: Shanghai, Chongqing, Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu Province, Wuhan in Hubei Province, and Panzhihua in Sichuan Province.

By 2010, at least 70 percent of sewage discharged by the five cities into the Yangtze River should have been properly treated. Other cities along the reaches of the Yangtze should have more than 60 percent of their waste water treated before it is discharged into the river.

Industrial waste water that has not been properly treated will be forbidden from being discharged into the environment by 2010, said sources with the Yangtze River Water Protection Bureau.

Newly built townships in the basin area of the Three Gorges Reservoir will all be equipped with waste treatment plants.

By 2010, the daily treatment capacity of waste in these townships should reach 8,070 tons.

The campaign will also tackle serious soil erosion in major lakes along the river. A total of 2,130 square kilometers will undergo such treatment, bureau sources said.

(China's Daily October 5, 2002)