China and Norway have launched a three-year water management
project in the Huangshui River basin, a main tributary to the upper
Yellow River, with a total investment of nearly 26 million
yuan.
Norway will invest 18.7 million yuan in the project. Xining, in
northwest China's Qinghai Province, where the Huangshui River is
mainly located, will allocate 6 million yuan to the project. The
State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) will spend 1
million yuan on the project, according to figures released at the
launch in Beijing yesterday.
"The project aims to improve water pollution control and
management in the Xining administrative area of the Huangshui River
basin," said Thorjorn Larssen, project coordinator from the
Norwegian Institute for Water Research.
The project is expected to focus on areas including
environmental information management, methods and tools to improve
water supply and wastewater treatment, water pollution emergency
response and a pollution control action plan, according to
Larssen.
Wang Dong from the Chinese Academy for Environmental Planning
said water in the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, the
country's second longest river, had been severely polluted.
Pollutants are mainly permanganate, ammonia, nitrogen and
petrochemicals.
Figures from the Xining Environmental Protection Bureau (EPB)
showed that 70 million tons of wastewater was pumped into the
Huangshui River from the Xining administrative area in 2004 - about
85 percent from domestic consumption. Pollution to the Huangshui
River from Xining has continued to increase in recent years due to
local industrial development.
However, Wang said that in 2005, Xining treated less than 30
percent of its wastewater, with most pollutants flowing into the
river without treatment. At that time, the country's average level
of wastewater treatment was about 52 percent.
A number of factors left the Huangshui River heavily polluted,
including heavy industry and poor wastewater treatment facilities
and technology, according to Chen Faqing, director of the Xining
EPB.
All About
Yellow River,
River pollution
(China Daily, October 23, 2007)
