The southern cities of Guangzhou and Foshan were ordered by the
provincial government of Guangdong yesterday to initiate emergency
plans to ensure safe drinking water supplies as a toxic slick of
cadmium approaches on the Beijiang River.
The pollution was caused by contaminated wastewater discharged
by a state-owned smelting plant upstream in Shaoguan City into the
Beijiang, a major source of drinking water for cities in the
northern part of Guangdong.
Environmental protection experts quoted by Xinhua News Agency
today said the density of cadmium in the river has continued to
fall after local governments began diluting it with water from
reservoirs along its upper reaches.
On Tuesday, Zhang Lijun, deputy director of the State
Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA), arrived with a
group of 14 experts at Yingde, a city of 1.06 million people about
90 km south of Shaoguan, which the pollutants reached that
night.
Cadmium occurs primarily in zinc, copper and lead ores, and is
used in low-friction, fatigue-resistant alloys, solders, dental
amalgams, nickel-cadmium storage batteries, nuclear reactor shields
and rustproof electroplating.
(Xinhua News Agency December 22, 2005)