Northwest China's Shaanxi Province has established a program to treat pollution in Weihe River, the largest tributary of the Yellow River, China's second largest river.

According to the program, the provincial government will take steps to improve the water quality of the river in next three to five years. The first step will focus on branch river treatment from now to the end of 2006, and the second step will focus on urban polluted water along the whole river by the end of 2008.

Provincial statistics show that more than 800 million tons of sewage and wastewater is discharged into rivers in the Weihe basin annually, about 18 percent of the total in the Yellow River basin.     

The provincial water inspection center said in the first quarter of this year that the water of four branches of Weihe River is seriously polluted.

As the river is the only drainage channel of western Shaanxi. This mean more than 80 percent sewage and industrial wastewater in the province is discharged into the river, causing serious pollution.

The 800-kilometer long Weihe River originates in Weiyuan County of northwest China's Gansu province, crosses the western part of Shaanxi and empties into the Yellow River.

In the 1970s, the Weihe River was famous for its fish in the lower reaches. Many residents along the river valley made a living from fishing. But now there is only one fish species left, the geyu. And even that, with a heavy flavor of kerosene, is not edible.

(Xinhua News Agency October 8, 2004)