Legislative support for lakes urged

By Zhou Lihua (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-11-03 08:13

WUHAN: Senior legislator Chen Zhili yesterday called for greater legislative powers to stop pollution in lakes and to prevent lakes from disappearing.

Chen, vice-chairwoman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, made the comment in an address to the 13th World Lake Conference that opened yesterday in Wuhan, known as "the City of 100 Lakes".

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Chen called for the establishment of lake protection laws and strict supervision of industrial, agricultural and household waste.

Facilities such as highly-contaminating paper mills and chemical plants should get special attention, she said.

Lakes, a key part of the ecological balance, remain fragile in the face of rapid industrialization and increasing human activity.

The serious contamination and reduction of lakes in turn threatens people's living environment, she said.

China has more than 24,800 natural lakes. However, an average of 20 lakes disappear every year, and about 88 percent of the lakes suffer from poor water quality, she said.

Hubei province, once known as "a province with 1,000 lakes," has less than 2,500 sq km of lakes left, about 34 percent of the figure in the 1950s.

Chen said efforts must be made to further restructure economic development and to eradicate outdated production methods that consume enormous natural resources and produce massive waste, a main challenge to the fresh water ecological system, she said.

Zhou Shengxian, China's Environmental Protection Minister, said environmental problems prompted China to pursue the ecological rehabilitation of rivers and lakes.

A number of key lakes across China have suffered outbreaks of blue algae over the past decade, forcing local authorities to launch emergency treatment campaigns.

The government of Jiangsu province realized in 2007, after an outbreak of algae in Taihu Lake, that stopping waste discharges in the lake was more effective than just cleaning the water.

Two major outbreaks of algae in Erhai Lake in Yunnan province between 1996 and 2003 triggered problems in the drinking water supply. Six pollution control projects on waste treatment, soil erosion, water system restoration and public education had improved water quality in the lake.

Japan's experience since the 1970s in protecting Biwa Lake from degradation, which involved waste discharge limits, higher standards in discharge and environmental assessment standards, and strict requirements for the treatment of household sewage, also inspired China in its pollution control campaign.

"Lake contamination exists everywhere in the world. Water stays in a lake much longer than in a river, so it can take 100 years to tackle a polluted lake. Cleaning up a lake needs many preferential policies from the government and costs a lot," Masahisa Nakamura, scientific committee chairman of the International Lake Environment Committee, said at the conference.

At least 1,500 delegates from about 45 countries are attending the conference, which runs until Thursday.

Xinhua contributed to the story