Local officials in east China's
Jiangsu Province, the location of a recent
water pollution scare, put on record their promises to clean up
Taihu Lake by closing small, environmentally damaging manufacturing
plants.
A provincial meeting on Saturday announced they had launched a
comprehensive investigation of businesses on Taihu Lake, ranging
from chemical, pharmaceutical, metallurgical, printing and dyeing,
and paper making industries to electroplating services.
A total of 2,150 small chemical firms will be eliminated by the
end of 2008, according to the report. Participants at the meeting
also said they were determined to introduce a host of other
measures to eradicate water pollution from Taihu Lake over a period
of 15 years.
Jiangsu will encourage industries featuring high technology,
high efficiency, low energy consumption, and less pollution and
raise the proportion of service companies and high-tech ventures.
The province will also adopt a strict environmental access system
and deny access to businesses that use obsolete technologies and
equipment, or cause serious pollution. Areas that have breached
pollution control limits will be refused approval to launch new
projects involving the discharge of pollutants.
In addition to banning all new projects involving nitrogen and
phosphorous discharges, the province will also implement stricter
water pollution control standards in the Taihu Lake drainage area
in order to force firms dotted around the lake to improve pollution
treatment facilities and reduce discharges.
The province will improve sewage treatment capacities in cities
surrounding the lake area and promote centralized treatment of
sewage and trash in rural areas. One of the most densely populated
regions in China, the Taihu Lake drainage area receives 56 billion
tons of sewage discharge each year.
Jiangsu, which raised pollutant discharge levies beginning July
1, is also considering setting aside funds to support key water
pollution treatment projects in Taihu Lake. Cities and counties in
the lake drainage area are required to increase funding for
treatment of water pollution in Taihu Lake.
About 30 million people rely on Taihu Lake, China's third
largest freshwater lake, for drinking water, including nine cities
in the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang as well as Shanghai
Municipality.
A severe algae outbreak at the end of May rendered tap water
undrinkable over the course of a week for half of the 2.3 million
residents in Wuxi, a city in eastern Jiangsu Province.
By mid-June, a second algae bloom appeared in the
central-western and northern parts of the lake, covering 800 square
kilometers and causing widespread concern in cities around the
lake.
High levels of nitrogen and phosphorus are believed to be major
causes of algae blooms, which develop in water that is rich in
nutrients.
Apart from Taihu Lake, blue-green algae outbreaks have been
reported in Chaohu Lake and southwestern Dianchi Lake since May,
and have threatened the local tap water supply.
(Xinhua News Agency July 9, 2007)
