Plastic sheeting laid on the lakebeds of Yuanmingyuan
(the Old Summer Palace) began to be removed on Monday, according to
yesterday's Beijing News.
Tang, from the gardens' administration, said the work was being
conducted in line with the requirements of the State Environmental
Protection Administration (SEPA), which said on July
7 that most of the sheeting should be removed.
Work in the Fuhai and Changchunyuan gardens was already in full
swing on Monday afternoon despite the rainy weather, whilst in
Yichunyuan rail fences were being set up in preparation for
imminent work there.
According to the workers, the lakes are being weeded and sludge
removed before the sheeting is taken back up, followed by refilling
with earth and water.
Tang said they will grow lotus on the renewed lake bed.
Yuanmingyuan, the emperor's private pleasure garden, was founded
in the early 18th century and was once known as "Versailles of the
East" before being destroyed by British and French infantry in
1860.
Its administration was criticized after Zhang Zhengchun, from Lanzhou
University's Life Sciences School in Gansu
Province, discovered plastic sheeting being put down on drained
lakebeds at a cost of US$3.6 million on March 22.
Park officials said it would save water by stopping leakage, but
Zhang and other academics said many plant and animal species in and
around the lake would die and the water stagnate, and that it could
also affect Beijing's already low groundwater levels.
After Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said the
project had not received approval from environmental authorities
before commencing the previous September, the SEPA called for it to
stop on March 31.
It was restarted and completed in the first week of April despite
this, and a public hearing, the first of its kind, was held on
April 13 with park authorities, scientists and environmentalists
taking part.
In July, the SEPA upheld the conclusions of an assessment by
Tsinghua University and ordered that most of the sheeting should be
removed and natural materials such as clay used to help prevent
seepage instead.
(Xinhua News Agency August 17, 2005)
