The Chinese government has announced an ambitious plan to clean up the country’s polluted lakes. The government plans to limit pollution in China’s lakes by 2010 and return them to their original state by 2030. The plan will cost an estimated US$14.5 million in the first five years alone.
To accomplish this cleanup, China’s State Council ordered strict regulation of the release of wastewater, the closing of heavily polluting factories near lakes, the improvement of sewage treatment facilities, and strict limits on fish farms. The council also banned the use of pesticides with highly toxic residue near large lakes as well as detergents containing phosphorus.
China’s three main lakes, Tai, Chaohu and Dianchi, have all had algae blooms in recent years. Stimulated by high levels of phosphorus and other chemicals, algae has blanketed large areas of the lakes, killing fish and making the water undrinkable. An algae bloom that covered a large area of Lake Tai last spring produced a choking odor up to a mile from the lake’s shores and prevented two million people from drinking or cooking with the water.
Wastewater from fish farms has become another serious problem, and the State Council ordered all fish farms to be removed from the three main lakes by the end of this year, and fish farms elsewhere are to be limited to designated areas. The water cleanup effort will also include the lake behind the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River.
Shoutout to the government of China for taking decisive action, and for jumping in with both feet.
Sources, resources, discourses:
1. The New York Times – article and photo
2. BBC News - article
