Tourist city invests heavily in river pollution control

GUILIN -- Tourist hotspot Guilin city has allocated 460 million yuan ($74.1 million) since June in order to maintain the pristine waters of the Lijiang River, one of the city's biggest tourist draws, sources with the local government said.

The 400-km-long Lijiang River snakes through the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region and is an icon for Guilin, with an image of the river and the unique stone structures surrounding it appearing on China's 20-yuan note.

But in recent years, pollution began creeping into river's waters as tourism and urban sewage discharge take their toll.

The project to tackle the water pollution in the Lijiang River, which will last from June to the end of the year, is to focus on waste water collection and treatment of seven urban sectors of the river.

With investment, sewage disposal pipes, river levees and septic tanks will be built and a 8.2-km section of the silting waterway will be cleared. Farms and workshops along the river which have caused pollution will be ordered to be rectified or closed, according to the local government.

After the completion of the project, the water quality and the ecological environment of the Lijiang River will be significantly improved, it said.