City in Guangdong on alert over water pollution (Xinhua) Updated: 2005-12-21 13:33 The Yingde City of southern
Guangdong Province is on high alert as the toxic stretch caused by a smeltery in
the Beijiang River has arrived the city, threatening the safety of water supply
for more than 100,000 residents in the city.
The polluted stretch had arrived at the Shakou Town by 22:30 Tuesday and was
expected to arrive the city's urban district in two or three days, which might
cause a halt to the water supply for the 100,000 residents there, according to
the city's environment protection office.
By 23 p.m. Tuesday, the water supply in the urban district of Yingde, a city
of 1.06 million people, continues as so far the water "is still safe", said an
official with the government of Yingde, who declined to give his name.
Residents living in the north to a hydropower plant called Baishiyao,
however, were warned not to drink the tap water, according to a notice the
government issued through TV Tuesday evening.
So far, people's lives remains normal along the 470-km-long Beijiang River,
which runs north to south into the Zhujiang (Pearl) River, according to the
provincial environment protection department.
Yingde has begun to build a 1.4-km-long water pipe linking withthe supply
line of a reservoir in suburb to send clean water directly to the urban
district.
"The water pipe will be built up in 36 hours before the toxic stretch arrives
the urban district," said an government official of Yingde.
In addition, a large quantity of water carriers, including 15 fire engines,
have been used to send drinking water to the urban district.
Local environment authorities has established a dozen of monitoring stations
along the Beijiang River, keeping a close eye on the water quality.
"We are required to take water sample for examination every twohours and so
far, the water quality is OK," said He Yuanhang, a worker from the water quality
monitoring station of Yingde, who isworking at the Baishiyao Hydropower Plant.
A waterworks, which is several kilometers north to the power plant has halted
supply since last Sunday, said He.
The environment protection departments have found in the smeltery in Shaoguan
City, which is about 90 km north of Yingde, an excessive discharge of waste,
making the volume of cadmium in the river section in Shaoguan surge nearly 10
times above the safety standard and "seriously endangering" the water safety in
the river's lower reaches.
The state-owned smeltery has halted operation and closed the waste water
outlet blamed for excessive discharge, according to the environment protection
office of Shaoguan City.
The density of cadmium kept dropping after the local government began to
dilute the polluted water by increasing the discharge of the water reservoirs at
Beijiang's upper reaches, according to the latest report from the provincial
environment protection office.
The provincial government has decided to discharge more than 70million cubic
meters of water from a reservoir and the diluted water will reach safety
standard, according to the experts who arrived in Yingde from Guangzhou on
Sunday.
A special task force, comprised of officials from the provincial supervision
department and environment protection department, has been set up to investigate
into the water pollution.
Shaoguan also launched an examination on pollution control of all the
factories, according to the provincial government.
The Beijiang River is the major source of drinking water for the residents in
Yingde, with an annual supply of 6 billion cubic meters for northern Guangdong.
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