A growing thirst for water safety (4)

Outdated standards

Although the laws on the pollution of groundwater are being used to greater effect, many experts and officials are concerned about the outdated quality standards for groundwater.

The 2002 standard outlines a checklist of 109 items to evaluate the quality of surface water used as a source of drinking water, adding 40 items to the version released in 1999.

However, the current quality standard for groundwater, issued in 1993, has just 39 items on its checklist.

More than 400 out of China's 660-plus cities obtain their drinking water from groundwater sources, according to statistics released by the Water Resources Ministry, and Chen Ming believes the number of items of the checklist for groundwater drinking sources should be the same as that for surface water.

Ling Jiang, deputy head of the department of pollution prevention and control from the Environmental Protection Ministry, agreed with Chen's suggestion.

"The current number of items is only effective if the area or source hasn't been polluted, but the number of pollutants in the composition of groundwater is already too great and 39 items can't determine the quality accurately," said Ling.

He said the ministry's science, technology and standards department is working on a new version of the quality standard for groundwater, but the issue is still at the expert-discussion stage and far from being implemented.

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