Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province has shut down 110
polluting enterprises to curb pollution in the Songhua River.
"The provincial government inspected 4,061 enterprises that emit
pollution, shut down 110 and suspended 173 in a three-month
campaign that ended in early July," said Li Ping, head of the
Heilongjiang provincial bureau of environmental protection.
In 2005 the Songhua River was seriously polluted after 100 tons of
benzene-related pollutants flowed into the upper reaches of the
river due to a chemical plant explosion in Jilin city.
The contamination forced Harbin, the capital of Heilongjiang
Province, to temporarily suspend water supplies to 3.8 million
people.
The pollution also raised concerns in Russia because the Songhua
River empties into the Heilongjiang River, which flows between
China and Russia.
Jilin City in Jilin Province has installed a sewage treatment
plant at a cost of 620 million yuan, allowing 90 percent of
domestic and industrial sewage to be processed locally.
Also, Mingshui County in Heilongjiang Province has also shut
down two foreign-invested enterprises that previously accounted for
one third of the county's direct foreign investment.
Automatic devices have been put into use for real-time
monitoring of the water quality of the Songhua River and Heilong
River.
Wang Xun, an entrepreneur from the coastal city of Wenzhou who
set up a cornstarch plant in Mingshui this year, invested 15
million yuan to add an environmental protection facility onto his
plant.
"The local government has been telling me that environmental
protection is the responsibility of enterprises and the
prerequisite of sustainable development," Wang said.
The Chinese government drew up a plan last year to curb
pollution in the tainted Songhua River. Their goal is to make 90
percent of the water drinkable by 2010. The plan includes 222
pollution control projects, a combined investment of 13.36 billion
yuan (US$1.77 billion).
Almost 40 percent of the pollution control projects have been
completed or are well underway, according to an official with the
State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA).
Three northeastern provinces shut down 42 factories for failing
to control pollution in the Songhua River valley during the first
six months of this year. The closures reduced pollutant discharges
by about 6,327 tons in terms of the chemical oxygen demand, the
official said.
Li Ping said that water in the Songhua River has shown signs of
improvement.
The official said that water quality had temporarily reached
Class Three, or drinkable, last month. This was "better than the
corresponding period last year" in Sanjiangkou, where the Songhua
River joins Heilong River before it flows downstream into Harbin,
capital of Heilongjiang and the Russian Far East city of
Khabarovsk.
The improvement in water quality was also attributed to a marked
decrease in rainfall this summer.
The official also said that local fishermen had told him the
fish from Sanjiangkou tasted better than in the previous years.
All About
Songhua River
(Xinhua News Agency September 21, 2007)
