China has decided to launch a campaign to fight pollution in the
Songhua River in Heilongjiang Province, local government sources
said on Thursday.
Urgent measures will be taken to treat the causes of water
pollution in the river, said Liu Xueliang, vice governor of the
province.
The campaign will focus on monitoring new construction projects
including local chemical plants, paper mills, metal smelters, and
highways, Liu said.
Projects failing to meet pollution-control standards will be
suspended or closed and the owners punished.
Central and local governments have invested 7.75 billion yuan
(about US$1 billion) into 116 pollution control projects in the
region since 2006, including building waste water treatment plants
and setting up a remote sensing system to monitor water
pollution.
The 1,900-km-long Songhua River originates in Jilin and its
wasters are used to irrigate 545,600 sq km of farmland in northeast
China. It is a tributary of the Heilong River, known as the Amur
River after it flows into Russia.
There have been frequent reports of pollution in the river and
its tributaries in recent months.
Ten tons of toxic chemicals were dumped into Songhua's tributary
Mangniu River in Jilin by two truck drivers from Changbaishan
Jingxi Chemical Company last August.
In November 2005, about 100 tons of polluted waste containing
benzene spilled into the Songhua River after a chemical plant
explosion in Jilin. The incident forced cities along the river,
including Heilongjiang's provincial capital Harbin, to temporarily
cut water supplies to 3.8 million people.
(Xinhua News Agency April 13, 2007)
