Industry and manufacturing provided 70% of the discharge into the river, with households accounting for 23% and just over 6% coming from other sources.[14]. Many wetlands had decreased in size. The bloom on Lake Chao did not threaten water supplies. In China, PM2.5 Sources of water pollution can cause damage miles away. [5], For the 2008 Summer Olympics, China diverted water from Hebei and Shanxi provinces, areas already beset by drought and dramatic water shortages, to Beijing. Book: The River Runs Black by Elizabeth C. Economy (Cornell, 2004) is one of the best recently-written books on China’s environmental problems. The closing of the factories resulted in a 15% reduction of local GDP. Don’t waste time! But the worst sign of all is the fact that almost every city on the lake has quietly begun finding other sources of drinking water. It turned out the factory produced 47,000 tons of waste a day and could only process 20,000 tons with the rest being dumped into the river. Laws on the books are widely ignored. A short, baby-faced man, Wu, 42, assumes his cellphone is tapped and prefers meeting strangers in obscure spots outside town. For example, factories stop using filters in their smokestacks and pour untreated industrial The report, based on data taken last year[which year? Some reports in the Chinese media said water pollution was so severe in some regions that it caused cancer in villagers and even led to cows and sheep which drank it to become sterile. ", "Millions forfeit water to Olympic Games. Describing a red tide near the town of Aotoum that left the seas blanketed with dead fish and fishermen badly in debt, a fisherman told the Los Angeles Times, "The sea turned dark, like tea. In the summer of 2007, large algae blooms covered parts of Lake Tai and Lake Chao, China’s third and fifth largest freshwater lakes, making the water undrinkable and producing a terrible stench.Two million of residents of Wuxi, who normally rely on water from the Lake Tai for drinking water, couldn't bathe or wash dishes and hoarded bottled water that rose in price from $1 a bottle to $6 a bottle. However, previously he and other local officials said that Beijing would divert up to 400 million cubic meters of water from Hebei for the Games with water-diversion facilities and pipes being built to pump water from four reservoirs in Hebei. The entrepreneur, Jin Zengmin, posted the dare to his microblog beneath pictures showing the waterway overflowing with discarded aluminum cans, polystyrene boxes and paper lanterns. Wu had been particularly outraged by the designation of Yixing, the home of many chemical factories, as a “Model City for Environmental Protection.” Wu's conviction was based on a confession that Wu said was coerced with torture and five straight days of sleep deprivation. In the village of Huangmengying---where a once-clear stream is now greenish black from factory wastes---cancer accounted for 11 of the 17 deaths in 2003. Arsenic poisoning occurs after long-term exposure to contaminated groundwater through drinking. Afterwards a high-level meeting on the lake’s future was convened, with Beijing closing down hundreds of chemical factories and promising to spend $14.4 billion to clean up the lake. Continuous emissions from manufacturing is the largest contributor to lowered drinking quality across the People's Republic,[14] but introduction of poorly treated sewage, industrial spills, and extensive use of agricultural fertilizers and pesticides have proven to be major contributors as well. And yet, the lake is still a mess. threaten human life (see China Threat). grayish-brown haze is air pollution, not storm clouds. Industrial toxins were blamed for turning the Yangtze an alarming shade of red in 2012. Resources found that 80% of the groundwater in China’s major river basins was Huge Algae Bloom Strikes the Coastal Chinese City of Qingdao, China's coastal waters are suffering "acute" pollution, with the size of the worst affected areas soaring by more than 50 percent last year, an official body said. To achieve stable development, people need to balance economic development and environmental sustainability. Environmentalists estimate that for China to truly address it water problems it needs to spend $300 billion alone on antipollution equipment. Happily, this outside encouragement is getting results. This causes water pollution, and this is one of the reasons why Chinese suffer from cancer and other diseases. More than $8 billion was spent on cleaning up the Huai River basin in Henan and Anhui Province in the 1980s and 1990s. China's Kaiman wrote: “Ground zero for the recent flurry of online outrage is Weifang, a city of 8 million in coastal Shandong province. Inconsistencies in the recording and reporting of pollution data begs the question: is the data real? Algae bloom in Lake Tai Vegetables produced in the fields are discolored and sometimes black. Canals are often covered layers of floating trash, with the deposits particularly thick on the banks. emigrated while another 47% were considering emigration. [30], The World Bank in a 2007 report stated that between 1990 and 2005 there have been major financial investments in water infrastructure. It is a sustainable source of energy. When they heed it, students stop China's three great rivers---the Yangtze, Pearl and Yellow River---are so filthy that it is dangerous to swim or eat fish caught in them. waste into rivers or underground through sunk pipes, and then pay a fine or a bribe if caught The water is mostly brownish green. Questions or comments, e-mail [email protected], China Water Pollution Map, en.ipe.org.cn, einnews.com/china/newsfeed-china-environment. In fact, many of the factories shut down during the 2007 scandal have since reopened under different names, environmentalists say.” [Ibid], “Tai Lake is the embodiment of China's losing fight against pollution. [31], According to a 2007 article, the SEPA stated that the water quality in the central drinking water sources for major cities was "mainly good". William Wan wrote in Washington Post, “The story of Tai Lake is a story of high-level promises and lower-level reneging, of economic interests superceding environmental ones. [7] Around Baoding city alone, a mostly rural area, 31,000 residents lost land and their homes due to a water transfer project; many more have been displaced throughout Hebei. The pollution has taken its toll on aquatic life. Britain caused a great deal of its own pollution during this same time frame with the Industrial Revolution. Water shortage or water scarcity [...], Causes of water pollution vary but the effects are always the same; the pollution is harmful to the ecosystem and humans as well as being devastating.