The major river valleys in east China's Anhui
Province still witness serious water pollution, with almost
half of the water at the poorest quality level, according to a
yearly environmental bulletin.
Reports from 107 monitoring points along the Anhui section of
the Huaihe River and Chaohu Lake show that 44.9 percent of water
was rated V on China's water quality scale, which goes from I to V,
with V being the worst, said the 2004 environmental bulletin the
provincial environmental protection bureau issued over the
weekend.
Zhang Zhiyuan, chief engineer of the bureau, said the water
quality of the main stream of the Huaihe within Anhui was rated
IVon a yearly basis. The water quality in 10 of the 11 monitoring
points was rated V from January to April, but it became better than
IV from May to December.
Among the 24 major tributaries of the river, 16 were rated V or
worse, up 14.5 percent from 2003, and 4 were rated IV, with the
main pollutants being ammonia nitrogen, said Zhang.
The water quality of Chaohu Lake, one of the largest refresh
water lakes in the country, was better than the previous year, with
eutrophication in the lake's west half turning from the serious
level to the middle level.
However, among the 9 major rivers of the lake, 4 were rated V
and 3 rated IV, with the major pollutants being ammonia nitrogen
and oil.
The bulletin also showed that in 2004 the total drainage of
industrial and domestic waste water in the province reached 1.48
billion tons, up 5.1 percent from the previous year, with domestic
waste water making up 60 percent.
Running through the four provinces of Henan, Shandong, Anhui and
Jiangsu in central and east China, the Huaihe River has become one
of the dirtiest rivers in the country and the government has
invested heavily to deal with the water pollution over the past few
years, but the result is not encouraging.
This year, according to the bulletin, the provinces plan to
intensify their efforts to reduce the discharge of pollutants,
accelerate the construction of water treatment facilities, and help
enterprises to be more environmental friendly in production.
Chaohu Lake in central Anhui, China's fifth largest fresh water
lake, has also seen worsening water pollution in these years of
fast economic development, and is also a major target of the
government environmental protection efforts.?
(Xinhua News Agency June 5, 2005)