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Billions to Be Spent on Lake Clean-up
The government expects to pour a record RMB$200 billion(US$24 billion) into the purification of water in Taihu Lake to get it back to its original clean water level within the decade.
So far, the ambitious project is lagging behind the official plan as the lake's water, China's third largest freshwater resource, has pollution levels that have worsened this year, experts warned.
An massive outbreak of blue-green algae was reported during July and September, experts with the Taihu Lake Basin Authority quoted the latest monitoring statistics as saying.
Water quality in the lake was worse this September-October period than it was during the same period last year.
The proportion of polluted water was up 12 per cent over the same period last year in rivers across provincial boundaries neighbouring the lake.
Although pollution in some of the rivers around the lake dropped by 3 per cent, polluted water in Taihu itself increased by 38 per cent.
Statistics from 24 monitoring centers in the lake indicate that 92 per cent of the lake's water, covering 2,388 square kilometers, has been polluted.
The average nitrogen and phosphorous content, the main pollutants in the lake, have exceeded State-set standards by 120 and 73 per cent respectively.
These results are much worse than the government expected this year.
What has worried them most is that while the government has devoted itself to purifying the water, the major pollutants in the area have been continuing.
"It will be pointless if pollution-control efforts lag far behind the continuing pollution," they warned.
Officials and experts with the Taihu Lake Basin Authority made it clear that, "water quality in the lake is getting worse despite measures applied since late 1998 to clean it up."
However, since then the water quality in some parts has improved due to the comprehensive purification efforts launched by the government, during which, industrial waste water discharged into the lake allegedly reached State-set standards.
Hundreds of industrial polluters have been closed down, over 660 hectares of enclosed fish ponds in and around the lake have been reduced and 33 water treatment facilities have been set up along the lake side.
However, low pollution levels in the lake have been difficult to maintain as waste from the four major pollutants affecting the lake has not been reduced. The main pollutants are industrial waste water, farming fertilizers, local residents' daily waste and oil leaked from over 50,000 ships.
Today, most of the lake's water cannot be used as drinking water as its quality has dropped 2 grades compared to its levels in the 1970s.
Annually, massive amounts of industrial waste water are poured into the lake without treatment.
Organic waste in the lake comes from farm fertilizers used around the Taihu Lake Basin. The amount of fertilizers used in the lake basin exceeds 3 million tons each year.
Source: China Daily
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