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Pollution makes a quarter of Yangtze water undrinkable
02/Oct/2006: A new report by the Yangtze River Water Resources Commission has shown that pollution has made more than a quarter of the Yangtze water undrinkable.
The Yangtze River in China is the longest river in Asia and the third longest river in the world after the Nile and the Amazon. It flows 6,211 kilometers from its origin in Qinghai Province in Western China, eastwards in to the East China Sea. Many industries and hi-tech development zones are situated along the banks of this river.
According to this new report, quality tests along this famous river showed that 27.5% of the water tested was badly polluted and cannot be treated to make it potable. This figure was much higher than the one recorded in 1998, when only less than 20% of the water tested was seriously polluted. The remaining water of the river can only be consumed after proper treatment.
Many large cities like Chongqing, Wuhan, Nanjing etc., are situated along this river and millions of people living in these cities and along the river and its distributaries are affected by the pollutants in the river. According to the report, more than 30 billion tons of polluted water was dumped into the Yangtze last year, a 50% increase when compared to 1998.
The report said that much of the badly polluted stretches of the river are near the cities that are located along the river. The Chinese government has enacted many new laws to prevent polluted or contaminated waste water from being dumped in to the rivers, but corruption in the political and administrative systems have prevented the effective enforcement of these laws.
K Siva
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