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Huaihe River vulnerable to pollution
By Qin Chuan (China Daily)
Updated: 2004-08-23 09:28
Pollution in the Huaihe River could rebound without constant supervision, say
local environment officials.
The Huaihe, the country's third longest river, supplies water to some 165
million people in Henan, Hubei, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces in Central and East
China.
Ten years ago, seeing that the river was heavily polluted, the Chinese
Government launched a campaign to clean it up.
While some progress has been made, local environment officials say the river
is still very vulnerable.
The latest example was seen in late July. Unexpected rain hit the upper
reaches of the river in Central China and forced various reservoirs to discharge
simultaneously.
As a result, accumulated foul water created a dirty water zone that
contaminated the river and rapidly moved downstream.
In Xuyi County, East China's Jiangsu Province, which was one of the worst
affected regions, the incident killed 90 per cent of the county's aquatic life
and caused damages worth 310 million yuan (US$37 million), statistics from local
aquatic product bureau show.
"If the water quality in the Huaihe River turns good, our life will become
better and better. But if the river continues to be polluted, we will be
deprived of our livelihood," said Liu Peiying, a fisherman in Xuyi.
The July spills left Liu with a debt of 700,000 yuan (US$84,000) after the
dirty water killed more than 30,000 tons of crabs he bred.
The problem may be worse than just pollution along the river. The economic
welfare of residents in four provinces is also at stake.
Local government leaders are often accused of focusing on economic
development without regard for environmental protection, said Xu Jiasheng,
deputy director of the Anhui Provincial Environmental Protection Bureau.
However, economic development is a must.
Xu said the Huaihe River basin flows through poverty-stricken regions along
four provinces. In those areas, economic development is the biggest concern.
"The best solution is to balance the relationship between the two," he said.
Environmental protection should be one of the criteria used to judge the
performance of government officials and a green GDP (gross domestic products)
calculating system should be adopted, he said.
Green GDP is an amendment to GDP that extrapolates the environmental costs of
economic development.
Li Jingming, deputy director of the Henan Provincial Environmental Protection
Bureau, said industrial infrastructure is crucial to pollution control along the
river.
The proportion of such polluting industries as paper making, brewing and
tannery, which are abundant in the Huaihe River basin, should be cut down, he
said.
A system that ensures the building and operation of sewage treatment plants
is also important, said Liu Xiaolei, an official with the Jiangsu Provincial
Environmental Protection Bureau.
Statistics show sewage discharged from the local population contributes 60
per cent of the major pollutants entering the Huaihe River.
But to build and operate a sewage treatment plant has traditionally cost the
government huge amounts of money.
Therefore, Liu said, new funding mechanisms such as BOT
(build-operate-transfer) should be adopted. In this formula, a company which
invests in and builds a sewage treatment plant will operate the project for
certain period of time before it transfers it to the government.
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